Grosvenor Pacific | 114.3m | 39 Fl | Completed - Page 5

whatnext · #81 Posted **Feb 6, 2018, 6:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcminsen

Nope, still there. I was in it a few hours ago trying to get a better angle of Vancouver House. It will probably be gone soon, though.

My mistake. It must have been the hoarding and evelopment signs that made it look less even appealing than usual.

The Courier had a good article on the absurdity of giving developers a tax break for these while small businesses fold left and right:

....But there is another factor that specifically hurts small businesses. I draw your attention to what has been happening for the past several years and seems to have escalated last year in particular. Let me cite one example.

Wesgroup is a development company owned by a guy named Peeter Wesik. Last year Wesgroup purchased five gas stations, including one in my neighborhood at West Fourth and Macdonald. By October the buildings were demolished and removed, the ground surface was covered with gravel and the property was surrounded with a chain link fence.

Thanks to a deal Wesgroup made with a not-for-profit outfit called Shifting Growth Society, wooden planter boxes filled with soil were placed on the property. In my particular ’hood there were 100 boxes mostly three feet by four feet in size.

Then signs were erected announcing “Your Community Garden Brought to you by Wesgroup.”

All of this was deliberately done before the end of October. Here’s why. That is the point on the calendar when the BC Assessment Authority folks turn up to determine the classification of the property.

In the case of these five properties, they changed from the previous year when they were “business or other,” which put them in Class 6, to this year where they are “recreational,” which is Class 8.

Now here is the point. By shifting the property from Class 6 to Class 8 the property taxes Wesgroup has to pay are cut to about one third of what they would have been — a savings of at least $15,000 on one property.

But the city treasury doesn’t suffer at all.

Vision councillor Raymond Louie says the money they aren’t getting from Wesgroup gets applied to all the other properties in the same category. So that means much of that tax burden gets passed on to all these small business with triple net leases(bold mine)....

http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/sm...aks-1.23140119

s211 · #82 Posted **Feb 7, 2018, 4:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatnext

My mistake. It must have been the hoarding and evelopment signs that made it look less even appealing than usual.

The Courier had a good article on the absurdity of giving developers a tax break for these while small businesses fold left and right:

This has literally been going on for decades, and it's funny to think it's only getting press now.

EVERY "public" garden on a privately-owned site operates as such for this very reason.

truenorth44 · #83 Posted **Mar 12, 2018, 5:20 PM**

There's been a little bit of activity on the site.

(my pics, March 11, 2018)

Cultural building site:

mcminsen · #84 Posted **Mar 14, 2018, 5:09 PM**

March 13 '18, my pics

osirisboy · #85 Posted **Mar 14, 2018, 5:28 PM**

And looks like another lane that's has had its h frames removed!

officedweller · #86 Posted **Mar 14, 2018, 9:31 PM**

Yeah, when did that happen?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcminsen

July 11 '17, my pics

Feathered Friend · #87 Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 1:39 AM**

Quote:

Vancouver’s little yellow house moved down the block. Umberto’s former Il Giardino making way for a major development. Tonight on the @GlobalBC Newshour.

Credit : Geoff Hastings
https://twitter.com/Geoff_Hastings/s...91122997686273