Quote:
Originally Posted by Taeolas
I suspect the Aquillini group has to show they put forth a bit of effort to reclaim the money, and might have a bit of a case (due to the floods). But delays due to contractors (including the investigation into the fatality) would IMO be on their shoulders since they are ultimately responsible for who they hire and the people who their hired people hire.
I fully expect the City and Aquillini will settle out of court and we may never know the full amount they get back. As long as it is under 250,000; I think I'd be fine with that.
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Keeping any money is very short sighted. I understand the desire to keep projects in the core on time but this was a dumb project to try and make an example of.
I'm guessing it's a bit of he said she said on timing. The developer likely got a bit of an extension when they were delayed due to archaeological but might be able to argue it wasn't enough. If they shut down the entire site for 2 weeks or a month or whatever it may be, even if the city extends the deadline by the same time, you can't expect the pace will pick back up at the rate it was moving before. Those trades that were working can't go back to the developer and ask for more money for the delay. When construction stops, all those workers stop getting paid. They can't call the bank and ask for an extension on their mortgage because they unearthed some old stones, they have no choice but to move on to another project in the meantime. Equipment gets moved off site only to have to be moved back, maybe once they started that second project they can't move back the moment the developer calls and says "OK the city has said we can work again", all of this takes time and is a massive pain in the ass.
Also you've got a HUGE development company who saw our city as an opportunity to develop, they come here and build a beautiful hotel right in the core of the city, I'm sure the property tax bill alone easily covers the 250 in the short term but on top of that they employee hundreds if not thousands of people during its construction and operation. You've got all the tourists who come here and stay at the hotel, pumping millions into the city. The conferences who are willing to rent out the conference center because there is now a hotel attached and so on. The spin offs are MASSIVE, the 250 is NOTHING.
Why would a developer want to delay their own project? They wouldn't, they want it opened just a quickly as the rest of us so they can start making money and performance money aside, delays=more expenses. They're already paying the property tax bill on the lot, they're paying their own people to manage the project, paying to keep the lights on in the project management trailer which stays functional, interest on the debt for the project, etc, etc.
Next time around, do you think this development company decides to build another hotel here? Or do they remember how ungrateful Fredericton was? How we screwed them over? How not flexible we were?
As a Mayor, do you want developers to push you around? To cause delays and hardships for your citizens? No, of course not but as a Mayor you have to look at what is good long term for your city and the long term positives here vastly outweigh the short term negatives. Yes you have to set some precedence but again, this was not the project to do it on.
End rant.
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Maybe/hopefully they can do something with the other end of that lot instead.
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