No Details Yet on Exact Site or Dollars for Wood Innovation Centre

Thursday, May 27, 2010 12:28 PM

Prince George, B.C.- There is still no decision on the site for the Wood Innovation Centre in Downtown Prince George, nor is there a ball park figure of how much money the Province will put towards the project.

During his presentation at a workshop this week, UNBC President George Iwama spoke of $25 million dollars. Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Pat Bell says he doesn’t want to fixate on that amount “I think it can be potentially much, much more than simply Provincial government dollars. We are talking to the University as you know, the private sector, other levels of government in saying you know, how can b we build something that is really iconic? Worst kept secret of course is clearly the downtown core location but where in the downtown core is uncertain. There are a variety of options available to us. We want to build something that is a clear demonstration of what you can do with wood that attracts the International community to come to Prince George and say if you really want to build something special out of wood, here’s a good example.”

Bell says there is no commitment to the old Prince George Hotel site recently purchased by the City “I can guarantee we are not committed to the old Prince George hotel site, we are still looking at a variety of options.” He says UNBC already owns some property in the downtown core and there are other properties that are available “So we’re still working through that process and each transaction that is made on behalf of the Province will be done in an open and transparent manner so people will have confidence it was done to create the best value for the taxpayers.” He says that doesn’t mean the old Prince George hotel site is off the list of possibles “I do think that is a good option but it is one of the options and there are other options we are considering.”

Bell says there has been some discussion about holding a design contest for the facility a competition that would invite architects from all over the province to come up with an idea for an iconic building that will perhaps use new wood materials “One of the things we’re looking at right now is called C.L.T. or cross laminated timber, it’s a building system that has been initiated in Europe and its large panels of wood created by edge cluing and face gluing two by 4, two by six material.” He says there was a 9 story apartment building constructed in England recently and once the foundation was poured, the use of the C.L.T. system saw that building construction to the lock up stage at 28 days “This stuff goes up like lego, but at the moment we don’t produce C.L.T. in B.C.”

Bell says the Wood Innovation and design centre has been in too many Throne speeches, “In my view I want to get on with it and the sooner we can get this thing moving the better, I do like the idea of design competition though.” Such a competition would take about 6 months.

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Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010 12:28 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lunarguy on May 27 2010 1:47 PM

Truth of the matter is it should be built up at the University to work in with the rest of the resources up there. Building it downtown is just being used as a crutch to help out the developers downtown. Students will be jumping on buses to attend some classes down there, and then back up to the hill for library resources and all the other necessities for academic life.

Posted by: pgmatt on May 27 2010 3:41 PM

I agree. As much as I would like to see UNBC expand into the downtown I don't think it really makes much sense. Great if they do though the downtown needs something asap.

Posted by: Eagleone on May 27 2010 7:39 PM

Clearly this should be located at the university site so as to take advantage of all the strengths of having all resources within one location for reasons of shared labs, shared library resources, shared custodial resources... the list is long. Splitting up the resources diminishes the integrity of the university as well as the new wood innovation center IMO.

I would like to see the lands around the university developed into a sort of university center with increased rental units for students, neighborhood services, and even commercial services development that can utilize the proximity to the architecturally stunning university, the amazing viewscape from the hills side, the interconnection of high quality out door recreation trails, and the need to build a safe student oriented community centered on the university itself. If this was a success the young people of PG would not be looking over the horizon, but rather looking at home for where they want to live and stay. PG offers nothing to the younger adolescence generations and that is the future of our city. Ignoring this potential is part of the problem and it happens because our city is fixated on downtown subsidization at any cost... the younger generations want no part of waiting around for that to happen.

The growth and encouragement of growth at the university can only have long term spin off benefits for the downtown... there would be lag time, but stifling the university growth to subsidize realestate developments downtown will kill the golden goose rather than turn around the downtown IMO.

Posted by: Eagleone on May 27 2010 7:43 PM

Any other city would feel like they died and went to heaven if they were given the opportunity to have a university like ours, in a location like ours, with all the potential to develop a top quality cluster on a global scale with all the available land any planner could dream for. Yet for PG this is irrelevant and the focus must be on subsidizing a dead downtown with about as little going for it as any location in the country.... Frustrating when one looks at the potential that is continually squandered.

Posted by: Stompin Tom on May 28 2010 6:45 AM

Id laugh my ass off if McLaren pulled the bait and switch on Mr Rogers.

Sell him the PG Hotel, make a cool 500 grand, then sell other property downtown for the Innovation Center.

Win Win for Mr McLaren.

Posted by: gus on May 28 2010 11:05 AM

Try looking at it this way.

The province knows that it wants to build a project. As we are finding out, it does not know quite what or even when. Certainly not where, other than a general idea.

It might be advantageous to deal with the project not in a totally linear fashion, but have several components of the planning running in parallel. Thus, if someone is willing to speculate on a piece of property and tie it up for the government, so be it.

I think most of us understand that transferring risk has a value to it. The risk that the government is transferring by not buying property too early in the process is that the land theyhave in mind may not end up being the ideal piece of property after all participants have had their say about what their needs are.

The City, on the other hand, is a major player in the future of Prince George. So, they have a number of reasons why they might want to own some key pieces of property that are developable. They feel that it is an appropriate investment in the downtown of PG. I agree with that approach. It gives them some leverage that any amount of tax incentives actually cannot provide.

People like Dan McLaren are an integral part of the system. They win some. They lose some. If he and his group won one, great. If they win more, also great. If the govenments feel that they have been taken, then they will hopefully learn and act differently the next time.

The provincial government is not new at this game. PG is peanuts to the type of developments they have worked on throughout the province over the last century plus. I would not be too concerned.