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| A new life for a historic waterfront property is in the planning stage, with the City of Prince Rupert outlining it's plans for renovation and retail opportunity for the old CN station |
Sometime in the future (for beer lovers, hopefully not too far into the future) the popular brand of local ale in Prince Rupert will be tapped out in a unique and historic North Coast location, with Mayor Lee Brain making note last week of a proposed leasing arrangement between the City and the Wheelhouse Brewing Company.
The Mayor providing a bit of a thumbnail sketch of the progress of the much discussed renovation project for the waterfront property, as well as to note that the Wheelhouse Brewing company was the only group that responded to the city's call for interest in the location.
The proposed lease for space in a renovated CN Station is for an initial term of five years, with the City looking to receive $53,520 per year for the first three years, followed by an increase to $60,210 per year for the following two years of the five year deal.
A market escalation clause is also in place for any extension periods to follow.
The proposed call for tenancy for the location was first made public in November of 2020, following up on some of the ambitions that the Mayor and Council have for the Prince Rupert waterfront location coming out of the Prince Rupert Vision 2030 presentation of 2019.
As we noted back in 2020, the local brewery had signed a leasing arangement with the City of Prince Rupert for space inside the city's space down at Rushbrook Floats.
For its part, The Wheelhouse Brewing Company is also sharing similar excitement to that of the Mayor, making note of they future plans as they celebrated the brewing of their 1000th batch of their signature product.
The vast majority of those weighing in on both the Mayor's Facebook page and that of the local craft brewers are clearly enthusiastic about the plans, but there will also be some important items of note for Mayor Brain and his Council membership to address at the August 23rd session the Mayor says will bring more information for the public.
One contributor to the Mayor's Facebook stream, did provide a few questions for the Council membership to consider and perhaps offer up some clarification on when it comes to both the renovation of the waterfront property and the leasing arrangements with the Wheelhouse collective.
Mr. Sandhu raises some valid observations, particularly towards the cost of the renovations and how the City plans to provide funding towards what should be some extensive work on the historic but aging and long abandoned structure at Rotary Waterfront Park.
He also puts forward some good questions when it comes to the rental lease structure that the City seems to have established for the facility.
As the public notice observes, any inquiries related to the proposed leasing arrangement should be addressed to the City's Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller, with the deadline to provide your feedback to the Council set for Friday, August 20th at 4 PM.
For more notes on City Council discussion themes see our archive page here.
You can also follow up on the themes of the Prince Rupert 2030 Vision plan from our archive page here.
The mayor works or supposed to work on behalf of the taxpayers and residents of the City of Prince Rupert. The CN Station renovations will cost in the neighborhood of 4 million dollars.
ReplyDeleteThe proposed rent will be $60,000. per year. $60,000 times 20 years rent is a return of $1,200,000 million dollars. This is not even a reasonable deal. The mayor states Wheelhouse was the only respondent. this does not obligate the city to sign an agreement. Why should the taxpayer fund a deal that no bank would look at. This is a commercial leasing enterprise not civic infastructure.
A lot of times no deal is better than a bad deal.
Who is going to pay the taxes on this building it is not eligible for a grant. Will the tenant pay the taxes or will the city pay the taxes. If the city pays the taxes the $60,000 a year will be about $40,000 after taxes.
ReplyDeleteGood deal if you are a friend of the city. The mayor and council should not push this through until more information is available. There is no hurray as it's not ready to move into. We should first authorize the building reconstruction.
The drawing appears to be just the building. Where is the parking going to be. The city in no way should contemplate providing parking from the few spots available at Kwinitsa Station. That lot is full very often.
ReplyDeleteIs the property zoned correctly? If the lease agreement is signed it will make it very hard for council to turn down any zoning change.
Has the city thought this thing through. There should be an overall plan presnted rather than little bits and pieces.