The City of Windsor has reached an agreement to sell its space in the Canderel property to the building owner, in a move the Mayor says will save taxpayers nearly $11-million.

Canderel is the building that houses the Chrysler headquarters at One Riverside Drive, formerly known as the Norwich block.

"Taxpayers are in a much better position financially by seling the building," says Mayor Drew Dilkens. "Now, we're completely out of it."

The deal with Europro would see the city sell the parking garage for $6 million cash. Under the deal, the city is no longer obligated to pay rent for space in the building and doesn't have to foot any costs associated with maintenance of the facility. The city values those savings at $4.7 million.

Dilkens says this would remove all city obligations for managing the space and future costs associated with being a tenant in the building.

"At the end of the day, how do we disentangle the city from all of this, and relieve taxpayers of any current and future obligation moving forward," the mayor said in a meeting with reporters Monday. "That's the question, and this is what it solves."

The Canderel tower project cost the city nearly $50-million to build, which was wildly over and above projected costs of $25.7-million. It opened in 2002 -- in part as an effort to keep the Chrysler Canadian headquarters in Windsor.

It was purchased by Toronto-based Europro in 2016 for more than $32-million dollars -- but the city still owned a number of assets in the building, including the parking garage. The city was also obligated to rent two floors of the building, at an annual cost of $1.1 million dollars. The city sublets the space at a loss.

Coun. Bill Marra was on council when the project was approved back in 1999. He says it was a different time, and was done in part to lure Chrysler Canada to stay in Windsor.

Marra says this deal -- though on the surface looks like a loss -- is the best option for the city's ratepayers.

"I think this is a great result, and I want to acknowledge the senior administration and the mayor for bringing this forward, and I think everyone's going to be pretty pleased with the final outcome," says Marra.