Oh brother.

Nobody would have wanted to live downtown anyway

NO!. Say it ain't so!

An election ploy? Like a certain bridge that comes to mind!

Does Yves Ghiai have a track record of building anything successfully or did he come up just to get away from the rat race and do a little cool fishing at the same time?

If I was a contractor I wouldn't take a chance.

Yves Ghiai - nice name for a line of fashions.

Did anyone ever think this was going to happen?Honestly what a joke, its a total reflection of our last mayor in my opinion

Wrong approach. Nobody wants to own a condo downtown. But people will consider renting downtown. A real smart man will build an apartment. Own it forever and rent it out. The rent will be a bit higher than in other areas, but your moving into a new unit.

The reason why the vacancy rate is low, is because a lot of apartments became condo's. Thus, people needing a place to rent for six months are having a tough time.

Oh wow...you mean there was somebody who thought this WOULD actually get built?
Really?

I have several drawings of apartment buildings and retail space that I am prepared to have built if people will buy the units before I build them.

They will be a bit cheaper since I have not had to fly in from San Francisco numerous times.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term 0% down and no payments till 2167.

I think that the building suppliers, contractors and sub contractors are gouging themselves right out of work. The cost of everything including necessities of life such as food, rent and utilities is getting out of control. Companies are getting greedier and greedier. It will only go so far and I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end. Something has to break sooner or later. People are starting to grow their own food and only spend on what is only needed now. The middle class is shrinking and no one seems to care that these are the TAX PAYERS who keep everything going. It is a mess! GREED AND GLUTTONY only breeds FAILURE for ALL in the end.

"Spent $100,000 on travel and development." Ya right. Maybe someone from the UN spends that, but I doubt the numbers put forward by this gent adds up.

Thank god he didn't design the RCMP building....

way to funny.....I'd put my cash on Yves Ghiai being Kinsley's cousin...a hoax to get somebody relected. I hope no one held their breath on this one....they'd be awfully blue by now.

Developement of drawings and travel could have been that high people. Design drawings from structual, electrical, architectural and mechanicle could of very well have been very expensive as he says. I do not find that figure out of line at all. :}

One standout point is the fact that this "developer" was surprised that construction costs would increase over a 3 year period.

The other standout is that this "developer" would not break ground until all the units were presold. Can you say condo scam a la Vancouver.

Now why would the city agree to removing any available downtown parking to build a high end residential complex. We are already short of public parking.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Ghiai
Only in french and no English articles

It says that Kinsley gave Ghiai the key to the City. Can anyone verify that it was not the key to the loo?

Nice find Loki.

"la clef de la ville"

Really?? We gave him the key to the city? I should get working on some drawings then... a big key would be awesome to have hanging over my fireplace.

As mentioned before, we all knew it was not going to get built. Just like us, waiting for the four unit condo to be built next to the bingo hall. I wonder if the city is going to force Major's to build it.

There has been a site on the internet for some years which has highlighted the "work" of the Ghiai family of architects, the main one dealing with his father who was doing a lot of building designs which were built and other which were not for the Shah of Iran.

http://www.ghiai.com

prince george http://www.ghiai.com/10urban/concept01.JPG

some very exotic desigsn there, most being for design competitions that were won by others.

BTW, the reason they never built here is because they follow the principles of Solar Law. We have sunlight here, but pretty short daylight hours over the winter.

Does "Caring Soul" live in Prince George?
His/Her comments certainly are inflammatory. Prices are "high" here because costs are high. It is ludicrous to assert that all the contractors et. al. are gouging, silly, foolish comments.
An uninformed government worker no doubt.
metalman.

Metalman, "uninformed government worker" that was a cheap shot at Caring Soul.... true, but a cheap shot.

Right on.

Yes I do live in Prince George and NO I am not a government worker. I am in the contruction business and know of what I speak of. I was refering to the contractors that double their bids from last years bids. DOUBLED! If that is not gouging than I dont know what is. The only foolish comments are the insults you throw around for ones opinions on here. Which YOU know are not allowed.

I agree with the idea that we ought not to flame each other. However, if you are going to rant about the end of the world and gouging and the like you are going to get a slap or two. As for me, i was wondering just where you are looking if you think food prices are skyrocketing. I just got back from Costco....didnt see a lot of restraint there. I dont think times are quite so tough as some would suggest.
There is much to be said about the price of construction. Like all services/products it is a case of supply and demand. I once saved 50 percent on a septic lagoon by waiting 5 months and retendering it (the company was the same each time by the way).

The humble potato is refusing to acknowledge the recession, and Canadians are paying the price.

Potatoes are 55 per cent more expensive now than a year ago, Statistics Canada said yesterday in its monthly consumer price index report, and grocery prices rose more in March than at any time in the past 28 years. Canned and fresh fish, ice cream, cereal, rice, pasta, fruit, nuts, fresh vegetables, cooking oil and non-alcoholic drinks all showed double-digit increases.

The 9.5-per-cent jump in grocery prices from a year ago was in stark contrast to the very low 1.2-per-cent pace of inflation for goods and services as a whole in Canada in March. Even as sagging demand has given retailers little pricing power in most areas of sales, grocery bills are going up because even when consumers clamp down on spending, they continue buying food.

Here is the rest of article and you can google this topic and get all the info that actually backs up what Caring Soul stated.

https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20090418/RINFLATION18ART1915

Too bad, we need to buy everything fresh. Why I could remember our fruits were canned in summer and ate all year round. Potatoes, onions and carrots were bought up in the fall and stored. Apples and Oranges were kept in cool places.

Meats were bought whole and cut up and frozen. Those were simpler times. Now we demand it to be fresh all year round. No wonder it becomes so expensive. If your that concerned, change your buying habits. There is nothing wrong with going to the outlying butcher shops and ask what is the best deal out there. The only way we are going to get less dependent on the Mexican and American, is to become agriculturally independent.

Target the small farmers and provide the incentives to grow local vegetables for the local market. Get into the year round farmers market place. I really enjoyed those locally grown carrots, they came from just west of town. there use to be potatoes coming out of the hazeltons.

Caring Soul, well, if your busy and really can not take on another job. Well, its all about supply and demand. I bet you will get it for half price now, will you be complaining about that also.

Why would someone complain about getting something half price? People can on the other hand and do complain about being ripped off. It is not againts any laws. Stop attacking another poster on here for an opinion. That is why the site is called Opinion 250! Are you in the construction field? If not how can you argue that what this person said is wrong? State your ideas and opinions but keep the insults to yourself.

grumble grumble grumble

Looked at Gihai, lots of models, but not too much of it was built. Must be one of those architects, big dreams.

Caring Soul, sorry for the cheap shot, that kind of comment should be beneath me at my advanced age. I reacted you see, as I too am in the construction business, but do not know anyone who can 'double' their prices and retain customers. I find that the commercial consruction market is very competitive.
metalman.

Caring Soul said:

"Developement of drawings and travel could have been that high people. Design drawings from structual, electrical, architectural and mechanicle could of very well have been very expensive as he says."

Unless this fellow is stupid, which I doubt he is, he would never have prepared full working drawings for his proposed building at such an early stage. The fact that he didn't probably has something do do with the high prices he may have been informally quoted. I doubt he ever took anything to design panel that would have defined the building in much more detail that we have seen in the various schematic renderings which he could have done on google's "sketch up".

If he charged himself out at $200/hour plus travel expenses to Brazil and Taiwan, for instance, to see what they are building there now, the $100,000 seems like a reasonable cost to have incurred yet have little to show for it.

I agree He Spoke. With fuel prices rising, the cost of shipping food from down south will continue to soar. I would like to see more incentives and less barriers for northern communities to produce more of our own food. For example, let's advocate for ALR (Agriculture Land Reserve) to be used for just that and not be stripped away for other purposes. I see nothing wrong with canning, drying and freezing food. This is healthier and more nutritious than buying pre-fab cardboard (also known as "food") in the grocery stores. Let's support our local butchers and farmers. Our motto should be "Go Local!"