Downtown Partnership Report Shows Little Change

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 04:00 AM

Prince George, B.C.- The Downtown Partnership has released an update on it’s accomplishments since putting forth a long list of recommendations and goals a year ago.

Not all of the accomplishments can be credited to the efforts of the Partnership, for example, it cites the Spirit Square /Veteran’s Plaza opening in 2010 as “adding green space” under the goal of a “Green City Centre.” In reality, that project was started under former Mayor Colin Kinsley’s term of office. The project was all but finished by the fall of last year, and while the money was in place, the plantings and landscaping were not complete until the spring of 2010. The approval of the District Energy System is also listed as one of the achievements under this heading, however that project was on the drawing board long before the Downtown Partnership was formed.

Then there is the new RCMP building. That is a project which has been on the radar for Prince George City Hall since 1997. In fact, many of the Councillors elected in the last municipal ballot were elected on the platform that the proposed project was too expensive, or was in the wrong location. It is hardly a project the Downtown Partnership can take credit for, yet, there it is in the “Changing the Face of Downtown “ update report as once of the achievements under the heading “Improving the Investment Climate.”

In the year since the delivery of the interim report of the Mayor’s Task Force for a Better Downtown, (which later became the Downtown Partnership) the average person would only notice a couple of the goals laid out in that report have actually been achieved:

· Institute and support a new RCMP Downtown Enforcement Unit

· Implement the Downtown Clean and Safe program (which was already in the works with the former Downtown Business Improvement Association)

· Initiate sidewalk canopy removal and renovation (George Street)

· Enhance street and sidewalk cleaning programs ( seems to be a duplication of the downtown clean and safe program)

· Improve traffic calming through conversion of one way streets to two way (possibly on the capital plan for next year)

· Proceed with 4^th Avenue streetscape improvement project between Victoria and Queensway (another capital plan possible)

In it’s interim report delivered to City Council in November of 2009, the recommendations carried numerous items which had an “immediate” suggested timeline, yet, many of those “immediate” items have yet to bear fruit:

Strategically market the downtown which includes developing a “brand” for the downtown and the creation of a downtown prospectus. An implementation team has been established, but a year later the prospectus is not yet complete and is not expected to be complete until early 2011.

Provide additional incentives for downtown development. This included the establishing of special economic development districts, priority for downtown developments, and tax exemptions. A review of the tax exemption idea concluded that is a tool that doesn’t work and other incentives should be examined.

Support wood first initiatives in the downtown. The City has been working on a wood first policy guideline, and is looking at developing a wood first “transition” zone west of Victoria into the Crescents area. This category also called for the City to advocate for the Wood Innovation and Design Centre facility ( as promised by the Province) to be located in the downtown. This is an on-going effort. The scope of the promised centre has not been made clear and negotiations continue with the Province and UNBC.

Positives over the past year:

· Support for the Community Garden at 7^th and Victoria ( repeat of activity undertaken in 2009)

· George Street canopy removal and new street lighting project ( under construction)

· New signage which celebrates the history of some sites

· Northern Health moves jobs to the downtown core

· Keg Restaurant launched major renovations

· Terasen Gas buys and is renovating building on 2^nd Avenue bringing back jobs that used to be in that area

· Scotiabank major exterior renovations

· B&B Music returns to George Street

· Ramada hotel renovations ( which started before the first report was delivered to Council in November of 2009)

· Commonwealth Health Centre renovations complete

· Townhouse construction on Victoria, north of 2^nd Avenue.

The City has purchased the Prince George Hotel and its parking lot. Private concerns have purchased a number of other holdings on George Street, but at this point, the purchases have, only added to the empty and boarded up buildings on George Street.

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Posted on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 7:14 AM

"Scotiabank major exterior renovations"

There is an interesting one. They seems to be taking a lesson from the Sandman School of Construction Scheduling ..... slow, slower, slowest ......

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 7:16 AM

OOOps .. forgot to add that during almost the same time period the Chances building was totally converted with an exterior as well as an interior changeover.

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 7:21 AM

"Ramada hotel renovations"

There is another building that has looked on the outside like they have run out of money or have bought into the Sandman School of Construction Scheduling.

Insultation has been visible for a long time. Is the proposed glass canopy coming or not? The lobby looks great and Starbacks is a nice addition. But the rest of the cahnges on the main floor seem to be taking a long time.

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 7:25 AM

"Townhouse construction on Victoria, north of 2nd Avenue."

They seem to be able to move at a normal pace. I never realized this was coming. Nice surprise. Not exactly what I would have put there. Takes lots of faith.

Hope they are successful!!

BTW, they used wood .... a wood first project just like the 1920's .... :-)

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 7:28 AM

Oh .... B&B also thought wood first ....

So, do we need a wood first policy if we have all these wood buildings going up downtown? If we keep this going, pretty soon we will look like the City we were 50 years ago ...... and then 70 years from now we will want to tear those buildings down because they old wood buildings .....

Isn't repeating history wonderful? :-)

Posted by: He spoke on November 10 2010 7:38 AM

Gus, that was funny Sandmans school of construction.. Yep you can start and finish your appreniticeship building our hotel.

Unfortunately, the work on the Scotia bank, was not avoidable. tiles started to fall off, so they eventually had to take them all down. I don't think they are too far out from what it should take. Its not easy for IDL to find the manpower to push it. Yes, there is a shortage of good skilled trades people. There are lots of skilled trades people, but the good ones are busy.

Posted by: He spoke on November 10 2010 7:47 AM

So, I do believe this is the fourth winter the Sandman's project is going into. This is an example of what happens when a do it yourselfer trys to undertake a project beyound their capacity. The Seniors building that WIC did on 20th and Victoria, is about the same size and way more complicated and done in half the time.

Posted by: vocer on November 10 2010 8:14 AM

B&B Music returns to George Street? B&B never left George street... Also B&B ceased to exist almost 6 months ago when it was sold to Long and Mcquade Music.

Posted by: verballabel on November 10 2010 8:16 AM

The Sandman is being built by a uber rich company that does not care how long it takes to complete. I hear that one of the two restaurants is now open (Rockford I believe)

Posted by: verballabel on November 10 2010 9:00 AM

To my above comment. Can the city put any type of strain on builders to have construction completed in a timely manner?? Not like the four year project that is the Sandman.

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 9:35 AM

He spoke ... so it sounds like you know that they were possbily just going over the exterior finish to clean it up and fix some of the loose tile areas they encountered.

Then had to make a decision of how to re-clad. It is just that the strapping has been on there for a considerable time. Possibly they were not able to figure out how to re-clad with variable areas to accommodate in each bay.

So far it looks to me like they are setting themselves up for earlier future problems than the tiles presented. Water will eventually run into the space behind whatever cladding they will put on. So the best is usually a design which allows it to do that. Which means the real water barrier is what used to be the substrate for the tiles.

Tiles are a bad choice in this kind of climate. I am surprised they lasted over 30 years, especially given that the water on the "sills" ran down the face of the building.

Posted by: He spoke on November 10 2010 11:33 AM

Gus, I absolutely agree, they are going to have huge problems with the cladding system they picked.

Lets just say, if this new system fails, it will not be 2 oz tile falling 60 feet. We are talking thousands of pounds crashing down, likely decimating anything with in 30 feet. vehicles will be flattened, not damaged.

Of course its only my opinion.

Posted by: He spoke on November 10 2010 11:35 AM

I do believe the Garibaldi's are building the structure through their own cash flow, and not borrowing money on it.

Posted by: He spoke on November 10 2010 11:45 AM

Back to the story posted, I think the downtown has improved. It appears that the social dynamics has shifted a bit.

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 12:03 PM

Hmmmm ... sounds like a stone facing. I have not seen the plans. Risky, as you say. Metal would have been safer

There was a recent story of stone veneer falling off some high rise in a large North American city and all metal "clips" had to be tested, I believe.

I saw a 10 storey high brick facing come down an apartment building in Ottawa several decades ago. Happened to be walking down the street on the other side at the time. No one was hurt. It was above the main entrance to the building and took the shallow cantilevered canopy with it.

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 12:28 PM

I do not think it has gotten worse. That is the best I can say.

One needs to have some indictators. Social as well as physical. Perceived as well as actual.

The physical is easier. The social one needs some information that I, for instance, do not have ready access to.

Physical by observation.

1. I think there is less retail/office space which would draw at least some people to the CBD. That should be a simple count that the DBIA should be working with IPG on keeping up to date.

2. I believe that above street office space has been filling in during the last 5 years. Again, it would be nice to get some idea of the vacancy rates.

3. restaurants? .. as always, some open, some close ..... the Keg renovation has me a bit baffled. It was high time for a makeover. I guess they did not have much choice of whether to move or not.

Seems like everyone is waiting on the announcement regarding the Wood tech centre location. I suspect it will not be the best news for the CBD.

Posted by: Rounder on November 10 2010 1:56 PM

What are the details about the Keg renovation? Earlier this year it was reported they would be opened before Christmas. Now it looks like they won't start construction until next year.

If the City wants re-development and new development downtown, maybe they should look at why it takes too long to get approvals.

I heard that there were building permit and land acquisition problems between the City and the Keg. You would have thought all of those would have been in place before a business closes it's doors for a renovation of this size.

Having your doors closed for at least 6-8 months with no revenue coming in must be hard instead of the 3-4 months originally planned.

Posted by: verballabel on November 10 2010 2:51 PM

Could the Keg have decided to just stop operations? Anyone know of any employees there that may be in the know?

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 2:52 PM

I thought I saw a post on this site some time ago that there was a structural problem, something with a wood truss or beam. Perhaps some concern about timber trusses used.

There are all sorts of scenarios of why that may happen. It sometimes happens because a building like that requires a professional engineer and/or architect to provide design drawings and certification while the owner may assume that technologists or interior designers would be acceptable.

If the problem was actually one that involved one or more structural trusses and a structural engineer was not involved prior to construction start, then the "problem" may not have manifested itself until the construction started and a building inspector first stepped on site.

I am not sure if there is a notice of the contractor posted on the site. Maybe this is another owner controlled job, which has its own problems of trade coordination involved with it if they are busy on other projets for contractors who they typically get their bread and butter from.

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 2:53 PM

I thought they laid all employees off.

Isn't gossip fun? ... :-)

Posted by: gus on November 10 2010 2:53 PM

Shows to go they have no communications person ... LOL

Posted by: Harbinger on November 10 2010 5:16 PM

Didn't take long for that stereo/foam store across from the Boston Pizza to get started and finished. Oh, by the by, if you want to rent the old foam store at Domano and Gladstone, it's only $6000(thousand dollars ) a month rent.

Posted by: jakeadoo on November 11 2010 12:44 PM

I asked a few tradespeople and businesspeople about the Sandman and why it was taking so long?The common answer I got was "would you be in a hurry to open in this economic climate",seems reasonable to me.