Comment 111688

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted May 22, 2015 at 10:18:53 in reply to Comment 111685

Why $400 million? Why $600 million?

Since the whole point of the calculation is to see what a reasonable estimate for the cost to the City is, and whether it would be acceptable and worthwhile (e.g. in terms of increased tax revenues, economic activity or improving liveability) it is important to start with a fairly accurate estimate of the cost.

If the cost to the city turned out to be $150 million, then the cost to the city would only take 12.5 years to pay off ... thereafter it's pure profit to the city. And that doesn't account for benefits other than tax revenue.

In terms of acceptability, it is important to compare how other cities handled similar development of industrial land. For example, False Creek or Coal Harbour (owned by a railway) in Vancouver, the industrial waterfront in Toronto.

In Vancouver land prices eventually rose high enough that Canadian Pacific itself, through its real estate arm Marathon Realty, redeveloped its lands because they could make more money from development than keeping it as industrial. That could happen here too.

And don't forget that the City has happily spent hundreds of millions of dollars of its own money building the Linc and RHVP with much less direct benefit and at tens of millions in ongoing maintenance each year.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2015-05-22 10:32:16

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