PG Wood Innovation Site Not Cast In Stone

By Ben Meisner

Prince George, B.C. - A study is underway to  determine the feasibility of  establishing a satellite campus for UNBC in the Downtown  of Prince George.  Specifically, the study is looking at  if the wood innovation centre, (promised by the provincial government in two throne speeches)  should be built in the downtown.

During a recent stop in Prince George, Premier Gordon Campbell  said he hoped the  centre would be located in the "heart" of the City, but  added  that  it is not his  decision to make.

Opinion 250 has learned there are several sites being  considered, including, the old Prince George Hotel site, the old CKPG site, the parking lot near the old Bank of Montreal Building that was turned over to UNBC by the bank, and two other sites.

Commonwealth Campuses Inc. was the main promoter of the old Prince George hotel site after it acquired the hotel along with a number of properties in the block.

Commonwealth paid $2,225,000 dollars for the hotel. That deal closed around January 8^th 2010. At the time Commonwealth Realty President Dan McLaren said the hotel would be torn down within three to four months to become a parking lot for the Ramada Hotel.

That didn’t happen and on April 6^th 2010 it was learned that Commonwealth had sold the land and buildings to the City of Prince George for $2,500,000 dollars, plus Commonwealth was able to keep the cold beer and wine license which it subsequently sold to the Ramada for $250,000.  So the  sales reaped a gross  profit  on the flip of $500,000 dollars.

Financing for the purchase of the hotel came from the Northern Development Initiatives Trust. In a strange twist, it has been learned that all of the property Commonwealth had assembled on the block was offered to UNBC for $12 million dollars. Had UNBC opted for the idea it would have resulted in Commonwealth picking up a profit of around $ 8 million.

When asked who made the pitch to the University, former NDI Trust Chairman of the  Board  Bruce Sutherland said he, "could not remember any of the events”. Janine North the Executive Director of the NDI Trust says she,”did not ever make a suggestion to UNBC" to buy the property for that sum of money. It is known that the property was offered and was refused by UNBC which deemed it too expensive at $12 Million dollars. It is not known who from the Northern Development Trust pitched the idea to UNBC, or why they would and under whose authority, it is however acknowledged by UNBC executives that the offer did take place.

There after the PG Hotel site was sold to the City, while Commonwealth retained a number of nearby properties and buildings.

At the Harcourt Symposium, presented by the DBIA, the old PG Hotel site is listed as the ideal spot for the new Wood Innovation Center and Commonwealth (who owns many of the other lots in the block) is also in favour of the project going there.

The City of Prince George would, in all likelihood, be called upon to provide the land free of charge for the wood innovation center if the province went ahead with the announced plans for the project. Mayor Dan Rogers has pointed out on numerous occasions that the city owns 155 lots in the heart of the city and that the cost to the city would be several million dollars less to have the structure built on an existing piece of property that does not require demolition and other costs that the Prince George hotel site would require.The cost of developing a lot on the old PG hotel site is estimated at around $312,000, the average private price per lot is between $79 and $82 thousand dollars.

The much larger problem, and a growing concern for those working on the plan for a wood innovation center, is the cost UNBC would have to bear if it buys into the idea of a down town site regardless of whether it is the old PG Hotel  or anywhere else. There are also problems of logistics.

While UNBC President George Iwama has said he would like to help in the re development of down town it comes with a price and that must be factored into any development.

What is the size of the new wood innovation center going to be? If for example raw logs will be required would it not be better served to have the facility located near UNBC’S existing  buildings where all of the services are readily available and access is much improved over the down town location?

What is the extra cost of locating a satellite campus in the down town core?  The problem of students and staff commuting from UNBC to the facility would be expensive and there is no guarantee that students or staff would want to live in the down town which is one of the ideas being promoted to having a wood facility downtown.

Executives at UNBC privately say that the cost of putting up the new wood innovation center will fall on the shoulders of the budgets of UNBC and the benefits are limited. As one member of the executive of UNBC put it, “there are many projects that would enhance the down town core, but will a wood innovation center do it’? Someone came up with the idea of the Wood innovation Center being located across from the Ramada without the benefit of any serious studies, those should be done now."

Studies are currently underway to examine the feasibility of the wood innovation center and the positives and negatives around it.

Insiders connected to UNBC and the City of Prince George say the old Prince George hotel site would be too expensive to develop when nearby property that the city owns could be made available at a fraction of the cost.  Commonwealth on the other hand would like to see the project built across from the Ramada hotel because they own much of the property. The DBIA, under the direction of Hugh Nicholson has also been promoting that location.

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