Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
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.
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It is, however, disingenuous for the city to include this in the "cost" of the project. The bolded part should have been stripped out of the cost and made a standalone alternative against which CalgaryNEXT would be compared.
Yes, the economic comparison between the two would consider the lost opportunity value. But it is misleading for the city to bury it in the cost estimate. Cost estimates should be a measure of dollars out the door to build the asset.