GRAND FORKS - The City Council has unanimously approved a five-year tax break for a Winnipeg company planning to build a multimillion-dollar hotel and entertainment complex.

The tax break is worth about $3.5 million over five years. Canad Inns plans to build a 192-room hotel, a water park and a movie theater next to the city's events center.

"This was a critical piece, no question," said Taras Sokolyk, the managing director of the complex to be built in Grand Forks. "I see this as a point where neither of us can return," he said.

The tax break got support from a construction union and the area hotel association. Former council member Terry Bjerke and a representative of Carmike Cinemas opposed it.

The council did not vote on other language in Canad's proposal, including more money for marketing. Negotiators will continue to work on that over the next two weeks.

"If it was just a hotel, you'd see me fighting it," said Tom Burrus, manager of the Best Western Town House and one of the original opponents of the hotel. The complex as a whole has his support, he said, because it should attract more visitors to Grand Forks.

"They're getting an advantage but they bring more to the table," said Ernie Gregoire, owner of the Travelodge and a former protester. "They bring the theater, water park. They're risking a lot of money."

Members of the hotel association asked the council to freeze the property taxes of other hotels for five years. City assessor Mel Carsen said the council has no power to arbitrarily reduce taxes on an individual or a group of businesses - only on new businesses.

Carsen said, however, that property values are determined through a formula that includes hotel occupancy and daily rates, so hotels that do poorly could see a property tax cut.

Gary Westmark, a district manager for Carmike Cinemas, said his company wants a tax break to offset the Canad theater's advantage. A tax break for Canad is "highly discriminatory," he said.

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Information from: Grand Forks Herald, http:// WWW.NORTHSCAPE.COM