This Ghiai must be on glue to think he is going to sell his condo's across the street from a casino/bingo hall full of destitute people. I as a tax payer do not like the idea we will subsidize this developments to the tune of nearly 50% of their combined cost.

Colin can not be trusted with our tax dollars IMO.

I think there is inadequate information about these projects to make any kind of guess as to what is planned.

I believe the question is whether the citizens of PG should be told what is planned. Perhaps there are some sensitive negotiations going on which should not be in public until they are concluded? Perhaps that is the topic on some of the recent in-camera meetings. Or perhaps it is the progress on finding a replacement City Manager.

I understand that the money to provide parking facilities downtown comes from the City through collecting money from downtown property owners who do not have to provide on-site parking typically required according to parking schedules in the Zoning Bylaw. That policy could be reviewed, but has probably worked well in the past.

I believe the Plaza 400 development worked in a similar fashion. I do not know the details of the BDC building which, I believe, may be outside of the parking district. That was the most recent parkade constructed in town.

As downtown properties, which are presently being used for surface parking, begin to be developed we will get a double whammy. First, the parking spaces which were there will be lost and second the new development will generate further need for parking.

The Ghiai development, if it goes ahead, will remove parking spaces from the current inventory and will generate new parking for the 16 or so condos and for the proposed retail space.

The gaming centre property, on the other hand, has some surface parking which belongs to the land owner and is not part of the city owned inventory, I believe.

I suspect that the new parking structure under the gaming centre will provide enough inventory to cover the loss of the existing surface parking on the gaming centre site, plus increased use, plus the parking which will be removed from the Ghiai proposal site, plus possibly even addtional parking generated by the expected retail space in that building.

I recall reading that at some time Ghiai addressed the parking issue in the media and stated that in the PG downtown he would not have to provide parking for his development, but that he would do so for the residential suites, which is reasonable since no one in PG would want to have to rent a space in a parkade 4 blocks away to store their car(s). We simply have not gotten to accepting that way of thinking here.

That is the way I look at it. But frankly, we do not know because the city fathers and mothers like to keep us mere plebes in the dark. I love transparent, open, democratic societies.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=241944846&size=o

;-)

This smells of scam. Ghiai Development is no way a legitimate company go to www.ghiai.com.
Every project they list is computer generated proposals but not one real project.

Check out ‘About Us’ link and all his family history. What kind of professional company has a website so basic and so much nonsense on it?

Check out “Links” page it has a list of Iranian sites. What is all this for?

Check out “Contact Us” I tried to call a few of the phone numbers and they are disconnected.

Sorry but when a project is going nowhere and I am not sure what the scam is but some of you out there must agree.

Ben you should take your skills you applied with Alcan and investigate this one.

More on this scam.

Go to www.ghiai.com then click on ‘About Us” then click on “Clients” in the top right corner of the page. You will get a list of so called clients except any valid company would list full address, contact information etc. Here they say PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE PURPOSELY OMITTED TO MENTION NAMES OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUAL CLIENTS IN ORDER TO RESPECT THEIR PRIVACY. What a load of crap.

This is screaming ‘Scam” Did anyone at City Hall not take a moment to check this guy out?

Go to “About Us” again and note this near the bottom YVES GHIAÏ IS A MEMBER OF THE ARCHITECTURAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. Well let’s go to http://www.aibc.ca/index.html and click on ‘Find a Member’ surprise he is not listed under any category.

Free Enterprise, I followed your suggestions and looked up that www.ghiai.com site.

I think you are on to something. It certainly does not appear to be a serious business site, but it looks like a colourful scam.

He claims to have a presence (headquarter) in British Columbia, but lists neither company address in B.C. nor a phone number.

Amazing. Let us hope the city did not advance any money to him or pay for some of his trips to Prince George.

He claimed the other day that construction costs have skyrocketed and that the project will be delayed for at least six months. Does he think that the costs are going to be lower half a year from now? What a dreamer. Now he suggests that he could build the project in California for the same amount of money. I say, go ahead, Ives.

Has there been any sale of investment units to local investors? Usually they are sold in $25,000 per unit lots. Like in the River Ranch affair all the little investors may be left holding the "bag with the whole at the bottom."

Beware. Perhaps the Better Business Bureau should have a look at that whole "Metropolis" thing.

This has got to be amazing...
the contractor has already been determined to do the work BEFORE it is even passed by the city.
So, something stinks in my opinion

I wonder if Ghiai has any connections to the proposed Islamic Center for 5th and Foothills that was sprung on the neighborhood pre-planned by Colin with no advanced notice to the direct neighbors of this development.

IMO they got the land for next to free and had obvious help from the city keeping the development from the public until final approval.