Saturday, June 14, 2008

Prominent Liberal Sold Too Cheap...

The only story here is that Clifford McQuaid didn't get enough money for his land. We recently sold a one acre parcel of land on Pownal St. for around $700,000, a two acre parcel in West Royalty for over $900,000 and a half acre parcel neighbouring this property for over $300,000. We paid over $2,000,000 for a three acre parcel on University Ave. and over $450,000 for less than an acre on Spring Park Road. The math is pretty simple...30 apartments per acre by 4 acres equals 120 units for the site at a raw land value of $12,000 per unit which would easily make this land worth $1,440,000 at a minimum. Another approach to valuing this parcel would be to use the "going rate" for this area which is at least $10 a square foot which would put the property in excess of $1,600,000. The Government got a great deal here and I didn't see Mike Currie raise any "red" flags when he was a Cabinet Minister and his Government bought the former Eaton's property and also the parcel for the industrial park in his riding from a company that had Prominent Ties to the Tories!!! The good news and the only news here is that Birchwood School will finally get a much needed sports field.
Prominent Liberal sold land to province for sports field
WAYNE THIBODEAU The Guardian
A prominent P.E.I. Liberal is being paid more than $900,000 for a four-acre parcel of land in downtown Charlottetown that will be converted into new sports fields for inner city schools. Clifford McQuaid sold the land to the province through the Department of Transportation and Public Works. His company, Brown's Court Apartments Ltd., had wanted to swap the land, located near John Street, for a parcel of land owned by the province in the eastern part of the city. That land is located in Hillsborough Park. Foster Millar, director of public works and planning with the Department of Transportation and Public Works, said the land swap did not go ahead.“
"It’s a straight cash payment," Millar told reporters Friday. The new sports field will cost P.E.I. taxpayers $1.3 million. That includes the $900,000 to purchase the land, which is bordered by Lapthorne Avenue, John Street, Kent Home Improvement on Allen Street and the Confederation Trail. Birchwood Intermediate and its feeder schools will use the sports fields. The project will include a new regulation-size soccer-football field similar to the main Simmons field on North River Road in Charlottetown. Opposition public works critic Mike Currie said he's surprised not only by the purchase price but by McQuaid's connections to the Liberal government.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well put... Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I'm a little late on this one, but I think the real story is that fact that the land has twice the CCME recommendations for Arsenic, Copper, Zinc, and is contaminated with fuel oil but the province plans to turn it into a soccer field by putting 5cms of fresh dirt on top.