Get ready for the next tax increase. When will these clowns at city hall quit buying property and trying to support a dead horse.

When they put another Plaza 400-like building on there that will accomplish about as much as the Plaza 400 has done to improve George Street after it was built.

No wait, when they have put another Courthouse-like building on there which will do as much as the Courthouse building has done to improve George Street.

Can`t fault them for not trying.

3.5 miliion dollars to sell the property for $250,000, if it's worth that much.

If the other information on the saga is correct, I think it should include the demolition and clean up of the site. Instead of it being downloaded to the taxpayers.

In order to get something as this big underway, I am sure that there always will be a few business men/women that will handle dirty laundry. I expect no less. Its just that there is so much dirty laundry, a little lack of forthrightness may become a fault..... But then again, the information offered to gather up the story is still just one mans opinion.

How nice for the City to have a back up plan. They make the error in purchasing a building they know will cost to demolish. Then come to the realization that they don't have the money to take it down. Oh, but wait, they can get help. What do the tax payers do when they need help, become homeless because of the costs of living. Good for you Dan, you just keep making yourself look like someone who got their diploma out of a cracker jack box.

DID THE CITY NOT FACTOR IN THE COST TO REMOVE BEFORE THEY BOUGHT THE P.G. HOTEL, OF COURSE NOT THE TAX PAYER WILL FOOT THE BILL. I THINK ITS TIME WE LOOK AT A NEW MAYOR.

And in the process of demolition, they will probably eliminate the existing public parking, thereby cutting off the minimal revenue currently being generated, plus inconveniancing those of us who use the parking lots.
They must know something we don't.
metalman.

Only one more year with Dan as mayor? Where does Dan go after the next election? Director of a Commonwealth entity?

If the Province ends up taking over this property for the Wood Innovation Centre, do they buy it from the City or is it "donated"?

Dan will run again in the next election after he changes his name to Ben Dover. That way the taxpayers will be reminded what position to assume when he speaks.

$2.5 Million for the PG Hotel + parking lot plus $1M to demolish the building means the City thinks the land is worth $3.5 Million.

The BC Assessment Authority has estimated the value of the land the hotel is on to be worth $293,000 and the parking lot to be worth $276,400.

BC Assessment values are often a low or high but the city is paying more than 4 times the assessed value. This doesn't pass the smell test.

Who would want to be the Mayor and have to clean up this mess ???? They shut up Brian S. If it was not for this site the tax payer would not know what is going on in this City THANKS.

here is a novel idea:
Plan for this activity including a budget, then accumulate the funds into a specific account, when all the funds are there, proceed.

Dear Mayor Dan,
STOP PISSING AWAY MY MONEY. IT IS NOT YOUR MONEY, IT IS THE TAXPAYER'S MONEY.
DO NOT BORROW FOR THIS FIASCO. IF YOU NO HAVE MONEY, YOU NO DO WORK.

Egads, how thick is that skull covering that very skinny brain. Notice the honorary term "his honor is not ever used in regards to "HIM". Maybe the baby talk will get through that pandering hack. It must be nice to be in a position of authority that can dole tax money to friends.

I have a novel idea. Let us start from the result wanted.

1. desired result is that the City wants the Wood Inovation Centre to be built downtown. That has been in a number of public documents since the intial announcement from the province.

2. In addition to wanting it downtown, they wanted it in a location that was considered by many to be the toughest place to rehabilitate as a viable part of downtown - George Street.

3. It is relatively normal for a City to contribute the propery for such a senior government building if it is a "partnership" in redevelopment.

4. It is relatively common for someone to act on behalf of a government to assemble individual properties "on the quiet" so that as many as possbile can be procurred for as low a price as possible since real estate asking prices can skyrocket if the "unlimited" funds of government is perceived to be behind the purchase. In fact, the same was done by Bryant when he assembled the Plaza 400 lands for the City and the Province for a joint project.

5. The Ramada and the Commonwealth group were generally credible "businesses" to assemble the land for their own purposes. While there is no known recorded relationship that has been found so far, it was a relatively safe purchase, in my opinion.

6. When a reasonable price was available to the City, they bought it to get the property under their control in order to work with the province on one or more of several possible projects they foresaw that would put new structures into the downtown within the next 5 or so years. There are more than just the Wood Tech Centre in play at this time. Even if that will not go downtown, others are there to fill that gap.

Is the land overpriced?

Let us say the property costs $3.5 million. That is a reasonable price if one were to build a minimum improvement of say 5 to 6 times that on it. That would make it $20 million.

That is a 5 to 6 storey residential building with retail on the ground floor on just the 4 lots that the actual PG Hotel occupies. The land cost is 15% of the project cost. That is better than a typical 3 or 4 storey residential project in the Winnipeg-Vancouver corridor can do.

Look for example at the Barton building on Victoria and 5th - property assessed at $428,000 with building at $2,171,000 for a relation of 16% property to total assessment.

So, in case you feel the City has gone off the deep end, I think what you are witnessing is how the economics of such projects work.

Of course, if the WOod Tech Centre were to actually be built on that block or part of it, the building will likely cost considerably more than $20million.

Gus makes a good point. If the scenario suggested is a reality then perhaps there is nothing wrong????
metalman.

For those who may not have read an interview by Bob Harkins of Gordon Bryant who was a force behind getting a number of developments going in this city - Kresge, Hudson's Bay, Woodward's, Spruceland, Pince Centre, Plaza 400.

It makes for good reading for those who want to know a bit more of how things were done. Development does not just happen by itself.

http://www2.pgohg.org:8080/Bryant/Bryant.htm

Here is what they did to buy out the houses that were in the middle of the "swamp" of what is now the Parkwood Shopping Centre.

"What we said, is "okay, how would you like a nice new home up on 15th Ave. or Spruceland, or wherever it was building, a new subdivision anyway. The average price at that time being $17 to $18 thousand for a home and lot, a good price. So, this is what we offer you, plus another $5000 for displacement."

So in the average around $20,000 or $22,000 a piece for each of those junkyards down there. And none of them were worth more than, what $500.00 a piece, if that."

So those people were given $25,000 for what Bryant felt was worth $500.

That is the way it was and continues to be if you see a different value in it based on the project you have in mind.