Saskatoon Construction

[kgc087]

If LP has the money and is coming asking to buy the land, I hope to god our councilors SELL! Only in Saskatoon would they say submit your proposal or no we are looking for other things. The city can expect a VERY angry letter from me which will be signed by man other people if they f**k around and don't sell. (This is all assuming he has money )

[capitalist]

I agree, IF he has the money sell and get River Landing moving already or else we will be waiting another few years before anything will happen.
Does anybody have any updates on whats going on with The Lighthouse?

[kiwi4life]

I agree too, and ya what is happening with lighthouse???

[Kruzat]

HA

well if he manages to buy the land outright, how the HELL is he going to get the cash to actually build the damn thing?!?

[shmakim]

Well, for the first time in my life tonight, I watched the city council meeting on channel 10. I caught the meeting in progress, which is just as well: I think things got going at 7:30pm and it wasn't until just before 10:00pm that Michael Lobsinger from Lake Placid was invited to speak. He said that LP achieved a major milestone by securing financing for the project. He listed several authorities (US Homeland Security, Canadian and American embassies, some kind of EU commissioner) that have all approved the financing, and he expects to have the operating line of credit implemented this week.

Council invited him back to an (executive committee, I think) meeting a week from today at 1:00pm to provide updates.

He's provided a lot of confident talk for a long time, but never said concrete things like "this week", so I'm still hopeful. I think I'll be holding my breath for a week! Very exciting.

[JCA]

Im new, no biggie...

shmakim stole my thunder haha. no worries... this ones gonna be tight, if it actually does happen

[neoen]

I thought he said that they did expect to have financing finalized this week.


My favorite part was watching him sit through the first 3.5 hours of the meeting.

[kiwi4life]

Originally Posted by Kruzat

HA

well if he manages to buy the land outright, how the HELL is he going to get the cash to actually build the damn thing?!?

ha got that right.

[kiwi4life]

Originally Posted by shmakim

Well, for the first time in my life tonight, I watched the city council meeting on channel 10. I caught the meeting in progress, which is just as well: I think things got going at 7:30pm and it wasn't until just before 10:00pm that Michael Lobsinger from Lake Placid was invited to speak. He said that LP achieved a major milestone by securing financing for the project. He listed several authorities (US Homeland Security, Canadian and American embassies, some kind of EU commissioner) that have all approved the financing, and he expects to have the operating line of credit implemented this week.

Council invited him back to an (executive committee, I think) meeting a week from today at 1:00pm to provide updates.

He's provided a lot of confident talk for a long time, but never said concrete things like "this week", so I'm still hopeful. I think I'll be holding my breath for a week! Very exciting.

well after all the hassle, so far not too bad and quite positive... for now at least... just keep the fingers crossed, i dam well hope this all comes back, itll be good for saskatoon, i just hope he aint pulling our leg.

[dsim249]

So here's the follow up article from tonight's meeting.

Lake Placid CEO 'enthusiastic, committed' to River Landing project


By David Hutton, The StarPhoenixNovember 16, 2009 11:02 PM


Lake Placid CEO Michael Lobsinger

Lake Placid CEO Michael Lobsinger
Photograph by: Liam Richards, The StarPhoenix

Lake Placid Developments CEO Michael Lobsinger told city council Monday night his company will soon have financing in place and still wants to move forward with the development of their upscale megaproject at River Landing.

But the company still does not have the cash in hand to move forward, council heard.

“We remain enthusiastic and committed to entire River Landing project,” Lobsinger said.

The company’s bid to save the project sets up a compelling story for next week since a decision is expected on how to proceed on the piece of land is expected at the city’s executive meeting Monday, Nov. 23, where Lobsinger will also speak.

There, administration will give council several options for the site.

Lobsinger said he hopes to have a cheque for council by that time to give them certainty the company can build.

While the company could have made the $4.5 million payment on Oct. 30, they did not want to proceed until $200 million in credit is available to move forward.

New U.S. banking rules prevented Lake Placid from getting the money to Canada. It has now cleared the scrutiny of U.S. financing agencies, including the Homeland Security office, the Treasury Department, and the U.S. embassy, Lobsinger said.

The hurdles were put in place when new rules governing the movement of money came into effect in the United States, he said.

Lake Placid is now back in the game to build the private-sector anchor of the long-awaited development project in the city’s south downtown — a $250-million-plus condo-hotel-office megaproject that would serve as the anchor to what many have called a city-defining place.

Lobsinger, who arrived early and sat in the front row for most of the long meeting before speaking around 10 p.m., told council the funding for the project will be in the company’s hands “some time this week.”

He filed the transfer approval with the City of Saskatoon’s administration, he said.

“That’s a major step forward in our pursuit of this,” he said.

If the money isn’t spent in Saskatoon, it will be spent elsewhere on property development in Western Canada because that’s the only constraints his financers have given him, he said.

He admitted the waiting game has been frustrating for city councillors and administration.

Coun. Tiffany Paulsen said the missed deadlines have “lessened the credibility of the project,” but it would be difficult to ignore someone willing to invest $200 million.

Lobsinger’s address to council Monday night is the latest in an exceptional series of events with the site that have largely been caused by the company’s inability to secure financing to move forward with construction due to the international market collapse.

A missed deadline in January to pay the remaining $4.5 million it owed for the land caused the company to begin paying interest.

Another deadline was missed in August. Council granted an extension to Oct. 30, but the company missed the deadline..

In August, council and the mayor said if payment by wasn’t made it was the end of the line, causing many to speculate that the project was dead at the end of October.

Lake Placid spent $7 million planning the development, Lobsinger said.

They have had to return deposits to all those who put them down on condominium units, which sold “exceptionally.”

He said he feels they could sell the 202 units out in two to three months.

Originally Posted by Kruzat

HA

well if he manages to buy the land outright, how the HELL is he going to get the cash to actually build the damn thing?!?

See bold sentence. I thought that was pretty clear from the beginning, the difficult part wasn't the 4.5 mil...

[Wyku]

Originally Posted by dsim249

They have had to return deposits to all those who put them down on condominium units, which sold “exceptionally.”

He said he feels they could sell the 202 units out in two to three months.

That will suck for those who already had the units if the project does end up going ahead. Hopefully they'll get first dibs on the units they originally had (if they still want them of course) if they go up for sale again.

I can't help but still be a little leary about whole financing debacle until Lobsinger says "I HAVE the money". We've been hearing "I should have the money this _____ (insert week, month, etc.)" or "The financing will be in place soon, I just need ______(this) long" for awhile now. Obviously with 7mil already invested he'd rather not take his money elsewhere without a fight to try and make some of that back.

[circle33]

Originally Posted by Lobsinger

If the money isn’t spent in Saskatoon, it will be spent elsewhere on property development in Western Canada because that’s the only constraints his financers have given him, he said.

"It's more of a Shelbyville idea"



credit: Simpsons.com

[Morogolus]

Yeah, it's pretty hard to be confident but I would say with all that talk about the US Treasury and financing laws and more specifics then we've heard before that it looks pretty good.

I would think that in the 3 years since this project was first proposed that costs have gone up quite a bit past the original 200 mil. Hopefully he's prepared for this..

[lbird]

US Treasury, EU, Cyprus, what? Oil and gas companies working in Saskatchewan and Alberta regularly put together $100M+ credit lines without all this mumbo jumbo. Usually the loan is spread over a few lenders, but I haven't seen the EU have to sign off on a loan yet. I think it's time to move on. If you like that design, just buy the plans from Lake Placid and have somebody else do it, I wouldn't trust Lobsinger as far as I could throw him.

[Morogolus]

Originally Posted by lbird

US Treasury, EU, Cyprus, what? Oil and gas companies working in Saskatchewan and Alberta regularly put together $100M+ credit lines without all this mumbo jumbo. Usually the loan is spread over a few lenders, but I haven't seen the EU have to sign off on a loan yet. I think it's time to move on. If you like that design, just buy the plans from Lake Placid and have somebody else do it, I wouldn't trust Lobsinger as far as I could throw him.

Well ya but he only wants another week, what do we have to lose?

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by circle33

"It's more of a Shelbyville idea"



credit: Simpsons.com

Shelbyville = Regina. I can see River Landing rising next to the new stadium, sans river of course.

Wikipedia says this about Shelbyville: "According to Grandpa Simpson, the city of Shelbyville was founded by Shelbyville Manhattan in 1796, who held the belief that people should be allowed to marry their cousins, because "they're so attractive"—a practice disallowed by fellow explorer and founder of Springfield, Jebediah Springfield."

Sounds like Regina to me. (No hate mail please, I live in Regina)

[shmakim]

Originally Posted by Stormer

Wikipedia says this about Shelbyville: .........
Sounds like Regina to me. (No hate mail please, I live in Regina)

Yecchh, please don't post stuff like that - it's gross, and Regina's just fine.

In other news, I took "a walk around...." King George this morning, sans camera. Actually started at River Landing: It was great to walk all the way from the Victoria Bridge to Victoria Park on the far side - the first time I've spent any time on the phase 2 walkways. Very interesting, inviting design, I loved the walk. It's not just a boring continuation of exactly the same ideas all along the walk... I mean there are themes, but each part of it is distinctive and curious. And once RLV is completed, loads of people will be able to call those parks their home. Wow. And construction was continuing.

I actually walked all the way through Victoria Park to Ave H and 12th St before making a winding walk through King George, to see some of these vacant lots mentioned recently in the S-P. Yep, found a few, 3 in a row along the west side of St Andrews Park, actually - one was an empty lot, the other two had very old houses that had been boarded up in compliance with an order from the city. I would say that that neighbourhood is ripe for redevelopment, but I was impressed to see that probably 10% of all buildings throughout the neighbourhood have been rebuilt or renovated.

If we could take the bottom 25% of all buildings and empty lots, leaving in place the ones that are reasonably cared for, and redevelop them, that neighbourhood could really flourish. It's got such great character... and not really that dangerous... is it? I kind of assumed the only really crime- and poverty-heavy area of the city is 20-22nd Sts most of the way down the alphabet.... maybe a little wider than those two blocks... but not King George and Riversdale.

I was surprised to see so many houses and so few apartment blocks through King George. You'd think something like 3 lots facing a park on Ave N and 15th would make a worthwhile site for some apartments.

Let's hear it for unexpected days off!

[kgc087]

I'm confident in LP, this development is necessary for Riverlanding to be complete. Without it, or with something on a smaller scale I think the whole vision will just not be realized. I'm so tired of the citizens and councilors of Saskatoon thinking so small! Lobsinger has a vision which is ready to be realized and why not do it here. Obviously there are issues with the financing that are not being released to the public, he is just not screwing around. He is dealing with a lot of money which would ruin him if it was all a sham. I give it a and fully support it!

[kiwi4life]

well good news hope this pulls through, and i hope he is telling the truth and the money comes through.

[gowest]

You have to admit that the LP project certainly brought this site and alot of Saskatoon alive with the idea of a bright future for River Landing. Putting that kind of coin together in the past year must be huge undertaking. Now that the deadline has passed by 17 days, when you read the Star on line and see the readers comments, one can easily see the rock has been moved and the C.A.V.E. people are out in full motion again. Why is it when ever something which could be good for the city comes to light, they are against it. We don't need another park on the riverbank and no way should Block Y be used for low cost housing. I doubt that any Saskatoon developer is in the position to consider a plan like this. I have trouble finding an extra couple of thousand dollars, so two hundred million must be slighty harder. There are so many experts in the last few days that seem to know how to do this or how to make a better River Landing site. Unfortunately none of us can do that as developers. I think the LP idea could make this city move ahead of what it has been for decades. If they can come up with the money now that's great let's move on it. If they can't then hoping fully someone else might have a great idea. If it is someone else, then we can be sure that it will be another ten years of an empty lot, sorry a new parking lot. There seem to be more and more C.A.V.E. followers on council and we may soon need to put the hitching posts back on downtown streets. (The old bylaw stated if you tie your horse to a hitching post, the city had to supply it with water.) Maybe the C.A.V.E. dwellers could do this with all their spare time. Let's hope this moves ahead.