A downtown councillor is criticizing a deal made by council with a developer to preserve a bid for the Portrait Gallery of Canada.

Diane Holmes is the councillor for the ward containing a parking lot at Metcalfe and Lisgar Streets where Claridge Homes was given the green light Wednesday to build two residential highrises twice as high as what was previously allowed.

In return, the developer will put in a bid to locate the portrait gallery in Ottawa, which is competing with eight other cities for the museum.

Holmes told CBC News she was not among the councillors who voted to approve the 20-storey and 24-storey towers on Wednesday.

"I don't like being held captive by a developer," she said, adding that she believes Ottawa will lose the portrait gallery anyway and will be stuck with the towers with no museum to show for them.

Ottawa can't compete: councillor

The city can't compete with all the money municipal and provincial governments in Alberta are putting toward bids for the gallery in Calgary or Edmonton, she said.

The Alberta government pledged $40 million in its budget Tuesday toward portrait gallery bids.

Council agreed Wednesday that Claridge will be allowed to build the towers even if it loses the bid for the museum after the company said it would not put in a bid without that guarantee.

However, the company, which had been seeking two 27-storey towers, will have to include a space for a public facility such as a library or cultural centre.

Claridge Homes vice-president Neil Malhotra said is happy with the deal and the company will go ahead with its bid.

"There's enough there for us to know we have alternatives in the future if we aren't successful in the portrait gallery competition," he said.

Holmes said she would have preferred something lower, and thinks there would have been a better way to plan the site.

"I the national gallery wasn't successful, we'd come back again, we'd go through … a proper public participation process that allowed the kind of time needed," she said. "This has been a very, very fast process."

In November, the federal government announced that it wanted Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver to bid for the gallery, which was originally slated for Ottawa.

In addition, Public Works Minister Michael Fortier said the government wanted to ensure maximum tax-dollar benefits by including the private sector.

The cities have until May 16 to submit their proposals.