Wednesday, November 12, 2008

HOW SERIOUS IS MILLENNIUM ABOUT THE HOTEL DOWNTOWN NANAIMO ?

SITE OF THE HOTEL BESIDE THE PNC

All that exists on the site of our new hotel is a pile of dirt, a pile of lumber, a hole, some chain link fence and a few signs.

This site was to have had a hotel built on it last year in the original agreement with Millennium Corp. After that deal failed a new agreement saw Millennium agree to have footings poured by May of this year. A never ending line of excuses seems to have satisfied City Hall who have stuck with this developer after one failed promise after another.

This is the same developer that the City of Vancouver has had to bail out with a $100 million loan to assure the completion of the Olympic Village project.

It has been reported in the local paper that Millennium has assured Mayor Korpan they have their financing in place and will complete the project by June 2010. There was nothing reported as to any proof Millennium has offered that this financing is in place, just more promises. Don't forget they were originally going to build a five star Marriott that was to open at the same time as the PNC. The question their performance begs is 'are they credible?'.

Mayor Korpan is quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying
"However, Mr. Korpan, the mayor, said Millennium has "reconfirmed" its financing several times in recent months, and changing developers could delay the project for another two years." This would make it appear that Mayor Korpan believes we should continue with Millennium with nothing more than their word they will be able to deliver.

There is NO reason for Millennium to scrap this deal as they have nothing to lose by dragging this out as long as they possibly can. It was also reported that the land where the Civic arena and foundry stood will be sold to Millennium interest free for twenty years. Sounds rather generous.

In the meantime the clock keeps ticking on our ability to make a success of our new convention center which is said to need the hotel to aid in booking larger conventions.

allvoices

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comment will appear after moderation before publishing,

Thank you for your comments.Any comment that could be considered slanderous or includes unacceptable language will be removed.

Thank you for participating and making your opinions known.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.