Comfort Level??? There was no mention of preselling these units during the election, when we first heard about the **Big Venture**

I was under the impression that **Daddy Warbucks** (Ghiai) was going to build the complex. It now appears that if they cannot sell 70% the complex will die on the planning table. Could this be a way for them to drop the project.??

I second kb

as a young adult about to finish school and settle into my first home, I am seriously considering opting for a condo unit of some sort. I will have to say this though, the curb appeal of this project is aweful and won't do anything to enhance the downtown. The project sign I have noticed on victoria street however is a lot more practical and a person like myself would pick that building over this overly artistic and impractical design. I am a very pro development person but frankly I hope this doesn't get built. I would prefer to have condo's like those on edmonton street? or by fort george park. Perhaps what this city needs downtown is a public square of some sort, blow up a block and build a park, bring in some cafes or a winter skating oval. What downtown pg lacks is a place to sit, a recognizable convenience store and a little curb appeal. Also, if you look at aerial photos of downtown you will notice that the footprint is very large and no attempts have been made to densify the facilities, yeah the civic center is nice but it is too far from the central core to make a difference.

well weezerfan ... you have hit the nail on the head in each case. Good for you for understanding quite well what is needed. This City lacks park space downtown and, despite the addition of trees in the CBD over the last decade, it is still not "green" when one looks at it it from a high vantage point. Most smaller cities have considerably more green visible. Just look at waht we have for a Civic plaza. A windswept piece of concrete works relatively well in a place like Toronto City Hall with huge populations. Yet even there, there is considerable greenery on the periphery.

The concept of housing on the perimeter of the Central Business District is well in place here, but no one has budged to build more. No infill units, no tearing down of some of the smaller, older houses which are in a state of direpair to be replaced by townhouses or "walk-up" apartment condos, no serious attempts at keeping some of the better houses and adding to them to convert them to muliple family units.

To get amenities into the CBD, one does not need residences there. A half block development with only 16 condos will have little if any impact.

I still wonder what happened to the proposal on the NW corner of Victoria and 7th. That had a much more credible appearance to it.

I know of no condo development which has been built without preselling.

Actually it has made national news that a developer in Calgary is building a large office complex even though he has no tenants yet. The office market in Calgary, has been "flat" for about a decade. I believe they had overbuilt. Now the vacancy is in the 3 to 5% range, if I can recall, but there are no takers to rent space in a new building. So, the developer has sufficient guts and finances to go ahead.

Preselling is the exception, not the rule. I believe in most places banks will look at backing a project if 50% is presold. Someone in that business might watn to let us know if I am correct on that. Seeing that it is 70% here is an indicator of how solid banks feel our economic climate is, especially the market for CBD housing which is virtually untried.

oops .... that should read "preselling is the rule, not the exception" ... these early mornings are killing me ...
;-)

When you are prebuying a Condo in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, etc., the plan is to buy in on the ground floor and sell out 5/6 years later at a huge profit. This is possible in the above mentioned areas.

As an example I have a friend who bought a Condo in Vancouver a number of years ago and his children lived there for 5 years while they went to UBC. This gave the kids relativley cheap accomodation while going to University and the original purchase was an investment. When they left University he sold the Condo for a huge profit. This type of investment can work well in the larger cities where real estate prices seem to be constantly rising. I would not attempt to do the same thing in Prince George, as it would be within the realm of possibility that after 5 years the price of your Condo could actually decrease.

Preselling works well for the Developer, however it may not be such a good idea for people buying Condos in a possible economically depressed area, which Prince George could be in the next 5/10 Years.

Vancouver and Toronto are unique. Such would not work in Montreal, Winnipeg, etc.

There are students at UNBC whose parents are doing the same thing. They buy houses rather than condos and, with any luck, they will at least have free rent if a few other students move in and pay rent. Anyone who did it 10 years ago would likely have lost money.

Owl. There were a couple of apartment complexes bought, and renovated in the last few years with a view of selling them to students attending UNBC. The information I have been able to ascertain is that none of them sold, and as a result they are now renting them out.

As I have mentioned before UNBC is a highly overrated University in this City. At best they have 3561 students, enrollment is down by 3% over last year. 67.7% of the students come from Northern BC, 24.5% from Southern BC, and 7.8% elsewhere (169 Foreign Students) I suspect that the percentage from Southern BC will fall as a result of the Universitys in Kelowna, and Kamloops.

There were 900 graduates from School district 57 this year. I suggest that a large percentage of them will not go on to University and a number of them will go to the college. This will leave very few to attend UNBC. If Graduation Numbers from other School districts in the Interior are the same as Prince George ( I suspect they are) then you are going to see a major decline in enrollements at UNBC and therefore less people who would be interested in buying a Condo.

Add to this the 10% drop in enrollment at CNC in the last 5 years and you can see that there is a problem looming.

If UNBC can be sold as a destination University then it would have a chance to grow, however thats a pretty hard sell when you have winters like we do.