Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Crowsnest Centre Sale

Well tonight at Council the CAO informed all that attended that the Centre deal is in place.
The municipality shall receive $1.1 million $300,000 in cash and the rest will be covered by the demolition.
Demolition will be complete by late summer (Oct 21), foundation will be in place by late fall and completion of the hotel within 24 months.
He also informed us that the Vachon Group will be announcing the name of the hotel within 30 days.    

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a sweet deal

Anonymous said...

Sweet deal for who?

Anonymous said...

So we get 300k and 800K worth of demolition promises? Sounds good, as long as after salvaging and the bulldozer strikes three times that they don't decide that they can't afford any further demolition?

Wouldn't this be the start of our second nightmare?

Anonymous said...

Good on them for coming out with details. Looks like parties involved bought themselves a lot of time to look for an investor. Hopefully they find one and this will come together. The Mayor and some councilors will likely to run again to see the project through. Four more years should be enough time to find an investor.

Anonymous said...

CNP Home wrote:
"deal is in place"

Did he say that the contract has actually been signed? On Monday it was "we arrived at a place where we can now move forward".

I think we could have done better than $300,000 by just putting the property on sale "as is". The advantage of the RFP approach is that we supposedly have more control over the development. Unfortunately, this company does not appear to be in a financial position to back up any guarantees.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:04 Why do you think they need an investor? It looks to me that they should be writing a cheque to the municapality for 300,000$ and in the very near future we should see some people working on the demolition.Approxaimetly a 2-3 year timeline for demolition and to build a hotel sound about right.Short term this should create some construction jobs, and long term some hotel jobs. This should increase our tax base. This should also help to bring in some tourists. All in all it is a good thing and I will give council the credit they deserve on this. But I also think that most of the credit still needs to go to Dean and the other 3 of the fab 4.Lastly, it does not matter to me at all, whatever this council does over the next 8 months not one of them will get my vote.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:24

Hotel don't bring tourists, attractions do.

What attraction does Crowsnest Pass have that will keep people there overnight. Fernie has ample number of rooms for all the skiers so thats out. Where I can see is the snowmobiliers. Let cut quaders out because really, it is nice enough that they all camp. So the snowmobiliers may stay, if the price is right and they happen to be close to the area. Seems like more you take to are now going deeper into B.C. or north to Revelstoke.

The hotel may stay open if the occupancy rates remain high. Hotels need to main an occupancy rate of about 70% to remain profitable. At 75 rooms that is roughly 53 rooms. Even if 53 rooms are filled on a saturday night, which is a dream I feel, what will happen on the weekdays and summer months. Reaching a 70% occupancy rate will be a significant challenge for the operator, and I cannot see any major hotel chain taking that sort of risk when they already have properties suffering from low rates due to the current US economy.

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:33 I do agree with you that the hotel by in self will not bring tourists.To say that we have no attractions though is wrong.We are not Fernie, But our ski hill is an awesome place to bring the kids to learn to ski(not nearly so busy and way cheaper),we have one of best golf courses in the area, hunting, fishing, cross country skiing, hiking, biking,sledding, quading, caving etc.. and some history things like the Bellevue mine and Frank slide interpetative centre.A new hotel that promotes these things will reap the rewards.I am 100% sure the hotel people know exactly what numbers they need to be profitable and considering this is their business, I must assume that they know what they are doing.
I am not looking for an argument, I am saying why would they spend millions if they thought they could not be profitable.

Anonymous said...

If they had an investor for the Hotel, this would have been part of their Press Rlease. Hopefully, they will get an investor and get going with the demolition. They should get credit for trying to do something, no different than any other previous council. They will not get elected again because of the way they have treated all the volunteers in the community. A small community can't afford to replace all its volunteers with paid consultants and administrators.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:20 Are you saying that this deal hinges on them finding an investor?Because I do not see that anywhere, in any report.Is this deal conditional on them finding a investor?Or is this your own personal opinion?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 12:03. Take a good look at the purchasers and tell us what you think.

Anonymous said...

as I've said before, the future is eco-tourism and the Calgary traffic heading to Fernie. Put a chair on the ski hill, expand the trail network, and convince the people on the way to Fernie to stop in CNP. Canmore started by poaching the people on the way to Banff, so the template is set. Good Luck.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:18 I know the history of the purchasers.But if there is a contract in place that states pay me 300k on this date, I am assuming that they already have investors or bank loans.The problem once again is that council and administration who always tell us how transparent they are come out with no details of the contract. I think they should post the contract on their webpage for all to see.When do we receive the money?If the timelines are broken what are the penalties.Did we offer them any incentives? These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered.

Anonymous said...

Dean
Why didn't administration just tell us outright that we will received 300K and will not be responsible for the demolition of the centre. Don't say that the deal is worth 1.1M and spin the deal so it looks like we saved 800K on it project. Wiggle Wiggle

Anonymous said...

They will just get enough to pay their wages till we get rid of the sponges.

Anonymous said...

I am a little concered about the details of this hotel deal.I would of thought that Gallant and Saindon both would have reported this on their blogs(This should be a pretty big deal!!). Are they afraid that if they make this announcement that people will ask them direct questions about the details.Is the contract public information or does it fall under FOIP.If they are as open and transparent as they say they are they should post the contract on there website.

Anonymous said...

A little off topic, but this relates to the financial dealings of the Administration. The latest budget projection shows that the Peace Officer program will fall far below budget expectations. This is because of the pie-in-the-sky revenue projections from "automatic traffic control" fines and a dip in overall revenue generation "take" from traffic fines. Must be Yellowknife type of dealings.

If that is what was used to justify the PO program, it will bee interesting to see the funny numbers that flow out of the CLC deal. Our municipal guys are not above board and think they can do whatever they want. Open and transparent, they say. Bull!

Anonymous said...

I found this FOIP Commissioner's decision on what should be disclosed in this kind of situation:

http://www.servicealberta.ca/foip/commissioners-decisions/order-f2008019-summary.cfm

Just a one page summary. There is a link to the Full Text (12 page PDF) which is worth glancing through to see the reasoning that goes into these decisions.

Anonymous said...

Municipal Inspection of the Village of Boyle (2009) (66 page PDF)

Just glancing through, there are several problems that will also be found in CNP, including land sales.

Anonymous said...

Keep in mind good folks of the Crowsnest Pass. Right now you have a commitment, that is what we are being told. To rip down the centre by late summer, which in terms us simple folks understand is election time. After that the parties by mutual agreement could change terms of the agreement. What is the municipality going to do take over a one third built hotel two years from now? Hand over the property to the second bidder from this process? Spend $100,000's in ligation?
They went with an inferior bid because at the end of the day it was their only bid. The only purpose of this is so Bruce and his subordinators can stand up in September and say look at everything that is happening here.

Anonymous said...

What if the Quebec manufacturer is the Bombardier Inc.? Why not build the new regional jet in Sentinel? This would show that our leadership is taking our economic problems seriously, but probably not enough to win the next election.

Anonymous said...

Another corporate press release on our website:

"Medican Construction and Group|Vachon have signed an agreement with the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass to launch a 50-75 room hotel in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in 2013. The hotel project, located at the intersection of Highway 3 and 20th Avenue, in Blairmore (the former Crowsnest Center site), will include a pool, hot tub, breakfast area, meeting spaces and will be accompanied by a complementing restaurant and sports bar, as well as an enhanced commercial area development.

Medican and Group|Vachon are planning to have a Community Open House on February 12th, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. at the Blairmore Elks Hall (2025 – 129th Street) to gain community input with respect to the development.


So it's a three-party agreement? That could be tricky if things don't go well.

At least it's not another wine & cheese gala for Bruce's buddies at our expense.

Anonymous said...

They "have signed an Agreement". What does this mean? Have they signed a legally binding contract? None of this makes sense to me. 50 -75 room hotel.They do not know what they are going to build?And what community imput could they be possibly looking for.If I tell them I would like to see something along the lines of The Banff Springs hotel are they going to build it?No! Is it to feel out the public about shared use of the pool?The simple answer of course would be yes.But it is all about the details. And this is what worries me, no details. Council and their transparency have told us next to nothing for details.If they got a great deal and are not afraid of the details do you not think this would be posted on a blog of a councilor or the municipal website.I have a very bad feeling.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Hotel deal just got 100,000$ worse.We have to provide green space and pay for it.I can not wait to see all of the details.I have a very bad feeling.