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Originally Posted by cam_wmh
Anyone at the Calgary Economic Outlook today? A quote today relating to Calgary's 30% commercial real estate vacancy; dramatic, but effective -- same vacancy rate as Manhattan during the great depression.
My questions of the bid committee, and more so the health of this city.What are the forecasted property tax increases, both with and without the Olympics? (all things equal -- no pipeline etc; )
They're preparing the financial report for later this month, with just 2 weeks for the public to review in time for the plebiscite.
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I was there and work downtown, with 1 in 4 buildings downtown empty, that is a lot of missing property tax revenues for the city and Nenshi seemed genuinely worried about this - probable because the city has overspent on long-term capital project like the library and this is a double whammy for the city now.
This financial report could be pretty ugly and would also be pretty tough to forecast when you think vacancy rates would improve and help cash inflows at the city. At least Nenshi acknowledged you can't raise residential property tax rates forever but won't believe it until I see it.
The three speakers that touched on the Olympic bid (Nenshi, Steve Allen Calgary Ecomonic Development & Mary Moran CEO Calgary Bid) all sang the same tune of this being a "refurbished" Olympics and that would help keep costs under control etc. They echoed the biggest cost would be housing that would then add low income housing to the city after the games were over. This low income housing, in my opinion, is the only long-term benefit for the city from the games but is adding this low income house really worth the entire costs of hosting the Olympics?
Todd Hirsh did have an interesting take though when asked about the Olympics. Essentially Todd said he thinks Canadians value and enjoy the winter Olympics and because there is a physical limit on what cities can host the winter Olympics, Calgary and other viable cities have to take turns hosting or there might not be a winter Olympics. He thinks this would be regrettable for Canada as a country and for our people and I tend to agree.
Most of my colleagues that I talked with after all seem to agree if there is no new rink for the Flames associated with the bid = no to the Olympics. The plebiscite's results should be interesting and everyone should go vote!