Comment 16719

By Capitalist (anonymous) | Posted January 07, 2008 at 15:51:53

hmag,

Interesting points, although I don't think thigs are that simple.

This location would be great for residential with ground floor commercial. Although I am not sure how economically viable it is with the present building. I am not an expert, so I will have to take LIUNA's word on it until I hear from someone else who is willing to risk money on this project.

Hmag, of coarse lots of people want to live here, in fact, over half a million already do and growing!
Although, a big problem with this project (and other downtown projects) is the city/provincial involvement. When the government announces that they would like to assist in a project the developers see this as a way for them to get easy money without having to meet the competitive demands of the marketplace (i.e. quality, cost-effectiveness). But what happens is that it distorts the downtown rental market. If the city pays $24 (or $37) per sq foot for space downtown, when good space is available at $10-20, what new developer is going to build downtown office space down the road? The city is basically saying to people "don't bother risking you money on downtown, if you wait long enough the taxpayers will do it for you". But that is only if you are connected politically, if not, then you are building elsewhere. In the meantime nothing gets done.

As long as there is a heritage designation to this project, the taxpayers will have a noose around their neck. Lets get rid of the designation and let LIUNA (or someone else) build something at this site without any money from the taxpayers.

As for this building collapsing, I admit that I am exaggerating. Although you have to admit that a building that remains unoccupied and open to the elements will cost more to re-develop. Also there is the threat of vagrants going in there and starting fires in the winter (I remember there being a news story on a minor fire at the Lister about a year ago).

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