$80,000.00 For Legal Fees For New BC Housing
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 @ 3:45 AM
The cost of assembling the air above the City Parking lot on the south side of Sixth Ave, west of Quebec St. came with a bill from a Vancouver law firm, Lawson Lundell, for the sum of $80,000.00. That is according to information released to Opinion250 under a freedom of information request into the dealings surrounding the purchase of the air above the City of Prince George parking lot for the sum of $910,000.00 dollars.
The executive summary says;
Due to the complexity of the real estate legal documents , the law firm Lawson Lundell have been directly involved in creating the required documents for the air right subdivision transfer of ownership and lease.
Under fees it says that; "each of the seller and the buyer will pay its own legal fees. The buyer will pay all disbursements in connection with the registration and transfer."
In the memorandum "Affordable Seniors Housing Prince George" dated July 21st 2010 Heather Oland of Commonwealth Health Corporation under section C says "Commonwealth has agreed to reconfigure the three existing air space parcels to create four new air space parcels." Was it the responsibility of Commonwealth to then pay for that creation?
Opinion250 did not receive any documents covering the legal costs of the creation of the new air space.
Under the capital budget the sum of $80,000.00 is listed as the BC Housing legal fees. The actual amount that Lawson Lundell received is not broken out of the figure.
The summary adds; Currently the City of Prince George is the owner of the land (the remainder parcel) upon which the existing parkade is located. Above the existing City Parkade , the City of Prince George and Commonwealth Health Corporation will collapse the existing three air space parcels and register four new air space parcels, one which (the Seniors Air space parcel ) will include the area on which the building will be built.
Upon completion of the air rights subdivision all parcels are required to complete construction within two years. The proposed uses of the other parcels include ; parcel two market rate housing (9,763 sq ft) parcel three mixed use development (6,437 Sq ft) and currently under construction parcel 4 the health center (26,511 Sq Ft ) . The City has since granted an extension to Commonwealth for that market housing, two years added to the current completion date of September 2012.
No explanation could be found as to why the legal fees of $80,000.00 to divide the air rights was paid for by the province, the federal government and the city of Prince George.
It is noted in the risk register under legal; "Collapse and recreation of air rights subdivision has NEVER been done in BC ltd approval timing is unknown."
Tomorrow, a look at the capital budget.
I’m Meisner
Comments
Thats why lawyers are so great. They can twist things into a knot so tight no one can figure out how simple it was to remove taxdollars from our pockets.
First the City got scewered with the Prince George hotel and now they are involved in selling “air space”.
Only in Prince George.
Cheers
Maybe council can sell some of the hot air coming out of city hall. PG spends 900 grand for some air space and then 80 grand to make sure the air they bought is all legally up to snuff. I am beginning to wonder whether anyone at city hall could organize a 2 man race to a 3 hole outhouse.
A different subject but it looks like IDL is setting up camp at the corner of Davis and Ospika where the water line broke. Word has it from the flag person that they now hope to have the water back on before Christmas. Apparently the duct tape on the water line did not live up to its life expectancy.
How much money are we going to have to pay to breath this air? Hopefully it will be filterd. LOL
A really good lawyer can separate pepper from fly crap with boxing gloves on. They are really that good.
I have never heard of anything so ludicrous in my life. Who the heck thought this one up? Who figured out how they could get someone gullible enough to pay for it? They should qualify for some type of prize.
“Due to the Complexity of the Real Estate Legal documents”? Why can’t legal documents be simple, so the two two party’s involved can understand them?
Any you wonder why you can’t represent yourself in court? You couldn’t possibly understand all of the complexity’s involved. Thank God we have lawyers who do understand this.
The sysytem is designed this way by those that benefit financially from it Chester. Politicians/lawyers are the rule makers and the beneficiaries.
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