Keep in mind with these numbers, the city report assumes that the numbers supplied by CSEC are accurate with regards to the construction of CalgaryNext. They are not saying that Ken King lied or exaggerated the numbers. The numbers King gave are only for the construction of the building (and that's all he ever claimed they were). The report neither analyzes or verifies the CalgaryNext construction cost estimates.
The $1.8 billion number is derived by taking the CalgaryNext numbers for construction and adding all the additional costs that will be required to get the site ready for construction, including the creosote clean-up; transportation and utilities upgrades; and land costs.
Most of this additional money will have to be spent regardless of what is ultimately built in the West Village. In fact, some of those costs will potentially be cheaper if CalgaryNext is built on the land rather than the current West Village redevelopment plan.
- The remediation of the land will be $85-140 million (the cheaper option will take at least a decade to complete).
- The land value is $80 million (I don't know if this is additional cost to the city or just potential lost value that the city could get from selling it to developers).
- Total infrastructure improvements come out to $327 million.
- The financing costs are another $370-390 million.
That's a half a billion dollars before interest, regardless of what's built in the West Village.