WIDC Site Being Cleaned Up
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 4:00 AM
Excavator pulls fill from site where PG Hotel used to stand – photo-250NEWS
Prince George, B.C. – There is some activity on the site of the former Prince George Hotel.
An excavator has been removing some of the fill that had been put in place when the old hotel was demolished and removed. Acting Head of Planning for the City of Prince George, Ian Wells, says there was a small piece of that property that had some “contamination” and that soil is being removed. He also says the excavation is in preparation for construction of the Wood Innovation and Design Centre which will likely start in early March.
The Province will be picking up the tab for this “remediation” work on the site.
Deputy Minister of Jobs Tourism and Skills Training, David Byng says the project remains on time, as the RFP moves forward with a requirement for private developer participation removed. That clause called for the proponents to work with the private sector to develop a 48 thousand square foot building on the lands adjacent to the WIDC site. The lands in question are the four parking lots that lie to the west of the old Prince George Hotel site. “We had received some feed back from some of the proponents , in the RFP process, that one of the elements in the RFP was causing complications that likely would impact our timelines.” He says they put the RFP process on hold while they did an evaluation as to if we wanted to leave the RFP as is, or did we want to consider modifying it and we were conferring with our fairness advisor to ensure things were being done as they should be obviously from a transparency perspective.”
So with the input and feedback from the fairness advisor, the project team and the proponents, the decision was made to remove the private participation element from the process and proceed. That means the project should remain on target for a decision on the successful proponent in January and a construction start in March.
How did the idea of a second building become tied to the WIDC project in the first place? “The rationale was really to allow the private sector to have an opportunity to take a look and see if there was some synergy that could be gained by adding that additional element to the project.” He says at the end of the day “it became more of a complication than a benefit to the Wood Innovation project so it was removed.”
Comments
How long has this project been going on? How many months ago did the City purchase the PG Hotel?
I think the new Port Mann Bridge was started and completed within this same time frame.
Looks like they are digging up the fill they put there to fill in the basement. Wasn’t that fill clean? I believe the fill came from the site of the new RCMP.
Shhhhh, don`t complain too much remember it took 20 years to build the cancer clinic,and that`s something the north desperately needed.
“The Province will be picking up the tab for this âremediationâ work on the site.” .. so…it is still taxpayers money anyway you word it. Why not be straight forward and just say it is the citizens of BC who are paying for this….doesn’t sound as good I suppose.
At least it is not the city paying for it who cannot afford to at this time
Seems like this proposal was haywire from the start. First it was to be a 10 Storey wood building, then it was (I believe) reduced to 6 stories. Is it a private public partnership??? Is the total cost $25 Million, or is that the Provinces portion of the cost?? Other than supplying the land, how much is this building going to cost taxpayers of PG??
How does UNBC tie into this building. Are they being coerced into going into the building to make it look like there is actually a reason for building it???
Last but not least it is easy to see they are in a big hurry to get this started before the election, so they can use it as an example of how they look after the North.
Have a nice day.
“it is still taxpayers money anyway you word it. Why not be straight forward and just say it is the citizens of BC who are paying for this”
This is true, but at least this time it is the taxpayers of the south helping to pay for something that benefits the north – usually the other way around.
“I think the new Port Mann Bridge was started and completed within this same time frame.”
This place has not been started yet …. it is going through the procurement process right now. Before that it was in the “visioning process”.
If you want to to compare apples to apples, then you have to start at the “visioninig” process for the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge ….. 20 years might be a good start.
http://www.partnershipsbc.ca/files-4/project-gateway.php
That is PartnershipsBC’s page on th Port Mann Bridge.
The final proposal submission was spring of 2008
Design and construction was projected from Fall 2008 to December 2013.
The WIDC final proposal submission is this week with projected building start sprin of 2013 and I would think a 2 year completion date to turn key status.
Now we are comparing apples to apples.
Another reminder is that the “visioning” process often ends up without a real project at the end. Something like “Broadacre City”.
BTW, there was never a requirement to tie a private sector building into the project. The RFP clearly points out that it was an option for which points were going to be given in evaluation of the proposals.
I suspect that the way that it was done was pie in the sky thinking for PG at this time in its economic life and in that location especially. The three proponents were having a hard time with it and suggested it be removed because they really cannot see each other’s “cards” as they were playing the proposal game and they would be concerned that too much time could be spent on trying to achieve the impossible.
What is surprising is that anyone would actually put out an RFP written like that for this community. It shows me that any market sounding done by PartnershipsBC was not realistically conducted, or maybe simply not conducted at all.
Lets see how this plays out. City had a chance to buy the property and didn’t. Commonwealth buys the property then city buys at a higher price giving Commonwealth a profit.
The building was structurally sound when bought but was not maintained and basement left to fill with water. On purpose maybe? Now the city says it is derelict, surprise surprise, and has to be torn down. Taxpayer pays to tear it down and remedial work. Now the property may get sold again or even if its a so called P3 the taxpayer gets its in the end.
Like I said, waiting to see how this plays out.
Definition of a P3, putting it to the taxpayer for the benefit of government friends.
Gus – of course the Port Mann project took years of development. I know that, I was just being sarcastic.
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