Owner Of Airport Land Speaks Out

Tuesday, August 12, 2008 03:58 AM

Prince George, B.C. - The man who owns the majority of the land that has been released from the agriculture land reserve, Henry Rempel, says his company has not yet determined when it will move ahead with the construction of a logistics park. “I spent a lot of money on that land not knowing what would happen, I took chances not knowing whether it would get out of the agriculture land reserve”.

Earlier today, the Agriculture Land Comission announced the application to have 688 hectares of property removed from the agriculutural land reserve had been approved. That clears the way for the development of a logistics park adjacent to the Prince George Airport. Rempel believes the economy in P.G.is on the move "I have invested in Prince George heavily over the past twenty odd years because I think that Prince George is moving from a forest based economy to one that will involve the movement of goods and services out of the Prince George airport and from the new terminal at Prince Rupert to around the world."

Prince George made great progress during the early 70’s with the forest industry and the pulp mills. “I believe that WAC Bennett took this part of the province out of the ice age. We have waited a long time for another movement of the economy and I think it will now happen. Forestry will not recover in the manner it was previously and we need to get on with the development of a value added industry not just producing raw materials and shipping them to overseas markets" said Rempel .

He is ready for the next step "Now that we have been able to get the land removed from the agriculture land reserve, we will be working to try and get industry to move onto the land. The land is far less expensive than it is in Vancouver or other Canadian cities and we need to get that word out."

Rempel says his company will look for help in developing the new Boundary Rd which has been labeled as a dangerous goods route around the city.

"The road runs through our property and we will need help in developing that highway."

Rempel's property is part of a larger 1200 hectare Airport Lands development project that will build on the runway extension at PG Airport, and the airport's recent designation that will allow for the transfer of goods from one flight to another for distribution to different markets.

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Posted on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 03:58 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: DPJ on August 12 2008 6:46 AM

Nice to see outside investors interested in Prince George. Kudos to the Rempel family.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on August 12 2008 7:15 AM

Seems a little harsh to have the future of this site, the city and it's potential, tied to the ability of a couple businessmen.

That highway link through the property should be the responsibility of the municipality/provincial and federal governments. The benefits of that link for development and transportation accrue to the taxpayers, so time to ante up.

This road is where the government should be investing. Clearly investing in roads and infrastruture in BC has way more return and as longer lasting than owning a choo-choo train. Spend some of that BCR cash on stuff that will generate a tax return, and leave the business investments, that make tax returns, to the individuals. Lots of union pension investment funds are looking to invest in new businesses, but no roads or water lines means no investment money coming our way.

Posted by: bigmom on August 12 2008 7:49 AM

A whole lot of money has to get spent (bigger runways, industrial park, boundary road etc) all before the first planes start coming in.

I assume somebody's got some way of ensuring that once it's all built, the planes will in fact, come.

Posted by: Ocean on August 12 2008 7:56 AM

Yeah, kudos Rempels! You do such a fine outstanding job with your PG slums. Particularly your beautiful and expansive apartment buildings on the scenic First and Crackintire. Not to mention your shack on West Austin, the one with appliances from the '70s, poor heating, and ever rising rent. Yay!

Posted by: Bridge on August 12 2008 10:00 AM

Yama said; Seems a little harsh to have the future of this site, the city and it's potential, tied to the ability of a couple businessmen.

Its called free enterprise. When a governmet supports these projects its called socialism. Its time our governments started to govern and leave the development to investors and let them pay the entire shot.

When government puts their fingers in the pie it will skewe the market. We no longer have free enterprise as we are using tax dollars to shore up the economy. Sound familiar?

Cheers

Posted by: Junco on August 12 2008 12:02 PM

Rumour had/has it that ole Jimmy Pattison had bought up huge tracts of land out in that area. Is Pattison a silent partner in Rempels "Company" or does jimmy have his finger in some other piece of the pie?
Funny how Jimmy always knows when to sneak in and buy up everything long before the public is aware that anything is in the works.

Posted by: Junco on August 12 2008 12:08 PM

"I believe tha WAC Bennet took this part of the province out of the ice age"

There is so much inherently wrong with this statement that I wouldn't know where to begin...Socreds scratching Socreds backs...and on it goes.

Posted by: Josey Wales on August 12 2008 7:31 PM

I disagree, Bennet's vision is why we have
had cheap power for so many, many, years.

This is energy; and as as we are learing energy is life, work, it's just a matter of how you aquire it.

Site C will happen, and we'll need it to cover the olympic hangover

Posted by: Palopu on August 12 2008 7:50 PM

This whole Airport Runway Expansion, along with the attendent Industrial Park, Wide Body Cargo Jets., Agri Processing Plants, Distribution Warehouses etc is mostly Bull S--t.

At best you will have a new industrial park with the highway 16 to 97 connection running through it,. and you will then have this industrial park enticing the companys presently located in the BCR or Carter Lite, and other areas to relocate at the Airport. One parks loss will be another parks gain. One example would be Purolater Courier presently located on Macalloney Road to relocate at the Airport.

So you may have a lot of relocating in the short term but no overall growth. Much like Canadian Tire moving to Westgate or the Brick moving to a new location at 16 and ferry. Two moves, two new buildings but the same Companys. This has been going on in Prince George for the past 10 or 15 years business moving, shutting down, new business moving in, however at the end of the day the population etc remains the same.

These grandiose plans in regards to the Airport runway extension etc are as much politically motivated as they are business motivated. Remember we have a Provincial election coming up and we must be seen to be doing something in this area.

Every penny spent on this extension $33 Million, plus another 10 or 15 Million for the expansion of the terminal building and the expansion of the parking facilities are all tax dollars, or money made by charging a $15.00 FEE every time you get on a passenger plane.

Horizen Air arrived in Prince George on Monday Aug 11th with 15 passengers, it departed with 6 passengers. This is the height of the tourist season. We do not have a hope in hell of making our 70% passenger load and we can kiss our $400,000.00 good bye . This should give you some sense of the total disregard this City Council and Mayor have for our tax dollars. The Provincial, and Federal Governments are no better.

Remember the old saying **Beware of Greeks bearing gifts** The same think applies to Politicians.

Posted by: He speaks on August 12 2008 9:10 PM

Palopu, I suppose it would be better if we did nothing, and go down on our knees every night and pray that things will get better.

Life is about taking chances, and taking advantage of opportunity.... or unless your one of those life sucking socialists.

Posted by: DPJ on August 13 2008 9:51 AM

Talking about Horizon Air number of passengers on monday is a little misleading. Monday is normally a slow day for passenger loads. You should show the facts for the whole week and average it out. On the other hand, hopefully more people do travel Horizon Air (if the loads are low) or we will loose this destination like loosing Calgary.

Posted by: Palopu on August 13 2008 8:44 PM

DPJ Based on a random sampling of passengers on flights to and from Seattle from May 1st until Aug 11th. 12 flights involved produced an average of 19 passengers on inbound and 19 passengers on outbound flights. This is far short of what is required to make this a viable operation. I suggest that the $400,000.00 gaurantee made by this City to Horizen Air is in peril.

We shouldnt be surprised considering who dreamed up this idea.