‘These will be nice, high-quality units’

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Both existing subsidy programs have been in place since 2011.

An example provided by the city – based on an assessed value per unit of $193,000, including $47,000 in land value, and 2016 property tax rates – calculated a $1,176.08 property tax saving per year, a just slightly more than 50 per cent tax saving.

According to Canadian Real Estate Magazine data, the median price of apartment condos in Prince George in 2016 was $187,950 in August 2016.

If the 151 condo units sell for prices close to the 2016 median price, the value of the combined 10 year tax exemption for the complex would be worth more than $1.5 million, bringing the total value of subsidies for the project to nearly $8 million over 50 years.

“We see housing downtown as a huge benefit to the community,” Soltis said. “A&T Development from Kamloops came to Prince George and did The RiverBend (Seniors Community) project. We impressed upon them the need to have housing downtown.”

Having residents living downtown would increase traffic to downtown businesses and give people “ownership” of the area, Soltis said.

Attracting housing development downtown has been party of numerous city planning documents, including the 2009 Downtown Prince George Concept Plan.

A&T Development vice president Gary Reed said the city’s incentive programs were “very critical” to the company’s decision to proceed with the project.

“We feel over the last several years we’ve had a very good relationship with the City of Prince George. We do a lot of projects in a lot of communities... (and) it’s not always the case,” Reed said. “We’re really excited about this.”

At this point, plans for the complex are still in preliminary stages, but Reed said the plan is for the units to have a mix of oneand two-bedroom units with a variety of floor plans ranging from 500-plus square feet to 900-plus square feet.

“We take quite a lot of pride in building high-quality buildings,” Reed said. “These will be nice, high-quality units.”

It’s too early to say when they plan to start construction, as the city’s parkade structure needs to be completed first, he said. No final decisions have been made on the prices of the units.

Reed said A&T Development is aware of other failed housing projects in downtown, including the proposed hotel/luxury condo project announced by River City Hotel Inc. and River City Ventures Inc. in April 2012. Development of that project stalled, leaving a bare concrete foundation eyesore in the middle of downtown for years before work resumed on the site in 2016 to construct a 174room Marriott Courtyard hotel, minus the condos.

Downtown, and particularly the area around the proposed project, has seen positive change over the past four to five years, he said.

“We’ve got a long track record of finding value where others haven’t,” Reed said. “We’ve been around for 25 years and we’ve never started a project we haven’t finished.”

City council will consider approving the parking subsidy for the project at Monday’s city council meeting.

We’ve been around for 25 years and we’ve never started a project we haven’t finished. — Gary Reed