While Councillor Doug Ford touts a mall for the Port Lands, no shovels have broken ground on a giant entertainment-shopping complex in his own ward, apparently because it’s having trouble attracting retailers.The Woodbine Live! project at Woodbine Racetrack was trumpeted by Mayor Rob Ford on the campaign trail last year as proof he can get the private sector behind a megaproject.
“I know how to deal with CEOs of huge corporations — that’s how I landed the largest development in Toronto’s history,” Ford, then councillor for Ward 2 Etobicoke North, told a newspaper last fall. “Woodbine Live! — I did that.”
Baltimore-based The Cordish Companies, partnering on the project with the race track’s operator, told the Star in June 2010 that construction would start that fall, with the help of generous tax breaks from the city.