Spadina Subway Extension Land Use and Tax Increment Financing Study

GPA members led a consulting team that included Peter Tomlinson Consulting and Altus Group Limited to assess development potential, market response and tax increment resulting from development spurred by a major expansion of the Spadina Subway to the Vaghaun Metropolitan Centre. The intent was to provide the City of Toronto with an assessment of the additional tax revenue that would be generated from the expansion of the subway to the City boundary in order to establish a Tax Increment Financing Zone which could provide the municipal portion of the cost of expanding the subway. The initial study was completed in 2006. The study found that the subway would generate a significant increase in tax revenue over what would be generated otherwise without a subway, but that issuing bonds on the strength of this additional revenue source would not result in savings for the City, since it is able to borrow funds at a preferred interest rate. In 2011 the City requested GPA to update of the study findings.