Chances Gaming Centre and the P.G. Hotel - The Unedited Story
By 250 News
Thursday, October 21, 2010 04:00 AM
This is the final installment in the series about the Chances Gaming Centre and the sale of the P.G. Hotel.
To read previous installments: part one, click here. To read part 2, click here, to read part three, click here. to read part four, click here and for part five, click here and for part six, click here.
On March 29th-2010 the City Of Prince George officially purchased the Prince George Hotel covering 4 lots and the four lots attached to the hotel for a sum of $2,500,000.00 dollars. We would later learn that the cost for the demolition and remediation of this property would cost about $1,100,000.00 dollars.
The 2009 assessment on the Hotel was $1,101,000.00 and the four adjoining lots ($297,000.00) for a total assessed value of $1,398,000.00.
The City of Prince George will have invested in the property, with demolition, about $3,600,000.00 dollars in order to demolish the building and bring the lot up to possible building standards.
The lots in the remaining part of the block ( save the Rum Jungle this was not purchased by Commonwealth Campus Corp) were assessed in 2009 as follows:
409 George St – Vacant .... 1 lot $ 105,000.00
421 George St - Sassafras Catering 1 lot $ 179,200.00
427 George St – Book Store 1 lot $ 133,700.00
445 George St - Mail boxes Etc - 1 lot $ 150,800.00
1189-4th – Greek Restaurant – 2 lots $ 375,000.00
Total assessed value $ 943,700.00
According to figures produced, Commonwealth Campuses Corporation owes NDI Trust $1.2 Million dollars.
On April 2nd-2010 it was announced that the Prince George Down Town Business Association had elected a new Board of Directors.
That group elected Don Kehler, Gordon Langer, Dan McLaren, David McWalter, and Heather Oland to the Board.
In early June 2010 the DBIA announced it would like to see discussion take place about a tax break for perhaps 20-30 or even 40 years for new development in the down town area covered by the DBIA .
A few days later the new president of the DBIA, Hugh Nicholson, suggested that the Performing Arts Center should be built and he even laid out a time table for the structure.
On June 29th-2010 McWalter, Oland, Kehler, McLaren and Langer became Directors of Commonwealth Campuses Corp.
On May 25th-2010 Opinion250 filed a Freedom of Information request with Northern Development Initiatives Trust for copies of all documents;
On June 17th-2010, Northern Development Trust issued a letter to Dan McLaren, President of Commonwealth Campuses advising him, the funding tap had been turned off;
‘Further Acquisitions will not be authorized or advanced without a clear purchaser commitment consistent with a “public good” project.
On October 17th, 2010, Opinion250 E-mailed NDI Trust with the following request;
Could you please provide me with the correspondence between NDI, and Provincial Ministers, Deputy Ministers and the President of the University? You make mention of informing them of a collapsed deal in your letter to Mayor Dan Rogers and City Council of October 22nd-2009. If you were going to inform them of a collapsed deal, there must have been pre-discussion of a deal in place. We are requesting those pre-discussion records which should have been included in the documents already provided to us.
We have not been provided with this correspondence or a letter as to why it is not provided.
Would it be more appropriate to have the Freedom of Information Officer of BC request the information?
We have also yet to receive the two page letter which you reference in your letter to Opinion 250 on September 20th.
As you know, the window for requesting a review of our request is about to close. We will request an extension to that period because of the delay in receiving the noted correspondence.
Ben Meisner
We received the following;
Mr. Meisner:
Thank you for your note. In response to your enquiry, please be advised that we are currently reviewing our records to determine if there is any additional information pertaining to your request. We will contact you as soon as we have made this determination.
Warm Regards,
Janine North
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Executive Officer
Opinion250 has filed an appeal with the Freedom of Information officer asking that the information that has been supplied be reviewed to determine if all the documents initially requested have been provided, and if all of the information blocked out should have been.
We await the further information and the results of the appeal.
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