Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
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. |
Looking at the list, the $80 for land purchase is the land that would be required for the city to buy to complete the Calgary Next Project. Theoretically, the city would have to buy some, but liekly not all of this land to build WV without CalgaryNEXT.
Financing costs could be a lot less without CalgaryNEXT, since the payoff of loans could be faster, with more money being raised by property tax paying properties.
Yes, there is some of this cost that is listed by the city that is costs connected to the west Village, no matter what goes there. That isn't really the issue. The city is just putting on the table what it would cost to build CalgaryNEXT right now, under the proposed agreement.
The problem comes in with the amount of money that the CRL is able to pay for. Taking the prime chunk of land that would be in the CRL, and making it a non tax paying entity, is a big strike against making a CRL work.
Yes, lots of the same money will be required no matter what is built in WV, but without CalgaryNEXT, the CRL is likely actually capable of providing the money required.
I'll also agree with others on KK coming across fairly well this morning on the radio. He still has a lot of hope for a project and funding model that has Zero chance of happening at this point, which is a problem.
I think the only way to change the funding structure to potentially make the funding work for the proposed CalgaryNEXT, is either for the CSEC to provide a whole lot more money, AND eliminate the requirement for a CRL to provide some funding, OR to have the CSEC buy all of the land required, and pay property tax, which might make the CRL work.
Other than that, Alternative sites will nearly certainly have to be used.