The Toronto Tempo, the first WNBA team located outside of the United States and the first in Canada, formal approval from the Toronto city council to develop a permanent 7,370-square-metre performance centre on city-owned land at 701 Fleet St. near Exhibition Place.

The franchise would privately finance, build and operate the facility under a proposed 40-year ground lease at $1 annually, with no capital funding provided by the City of Toronto.

The team is owned by Kilmer Sports Ventures, led by Toronto-based billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, who paid an expansion fee of $50 million USD for the franchise. The Tempo currently play home games at the nearby Coca-Cola Coliseum and have been using the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport on the University of Toronto campus as a temporary practice site.

Architecture firm HOK’s sports and entertainment practice designed the new venue slated to open in 2027, the performance centre in downtown Toronto will feature two WNBA regulation courts and ‘championship-calibre’ locker rooms, according to the team’s owner.

When the team is not using the centre, it would be made available for municipal recreation programs, with the city receiving at least 2,260 hours of annual access for registered and drop-in programs, facility permits and seasonal programming such as CampTO. The community programming is expected to prioritize women, girls and youth. Beginning in the fifth year of the lease, the Tempo would contribute $100,000 annually toward city programming and operating needs, totaling $2 million over the life of the agreement.

The project would replace part of a surface parking area adjacent to Coca-Cola Coliseum. The broader site plan also encompasses approximately 3,425 square metres of parkland, with improvements that would include a regulation outdoor basketball court, two half courts, public washrooms, seating and landscaping.

The arrangement closely mirrors a comparable deal at Exhibition Place involving the OVO Athletic Centre, a mens basketball training facility in Toronto that serves as the primary practice venue for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors and is owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.

Source Costar Click here for the full story.