To the Editor,
Re: Developer cites lack of council support for killing hotel deal, July 14.
City hall spin doctors have been busy, no doubt helping the Chinese hotel lawyer flip the blame for pulling out on those ‘nasty’ majority councillors, who are actually watching the city’s interests.
Council granted the developers exactly what they wanted – an extension, money previously offered to improve Piper Park and giving away first refusal of managing the convention centre. Now the lawyer lists these as the reasons to run. He forgets to say, they did not live up to the signed agreements.
Bottom line – nothing has happened at the make-believe hotel site since that flashy press-photo groundbreaking. Now only those torn promotional banners flap in the wind.
Regardless, the time is now to repurpose or sell the conference centre – before somebody thinks up something to keep taxpayer money continually bailing out the white elephant.
K.T. ShawNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Developer cites lack of council support for killing hotel deal, July 14.
My thanks to councillors Bill Bestwick, Gord Fuller, Jim Kipp, Jerry Hong and Bill Yoachim for bringing an end, perhaps inadvertently, to this charade of SSS Manhao building a $50-million hotel and bringing in 70,000 visitors a year.
It seems strange that, while the company was having problems raising funds for the project, it didn’t hesitate to walk away from the $4.5 million it allegedly had already invested. It was a disappointment that none on council insisted on examining the sheaf of papers the company lawyer repeatedly waved around at a council meeting declaring they were receipts for work already done.
I just hope the buy-back clause in the agreement is iron clad, otherwise we could end up with a foreign company owning, as an investment, a prime lot in the very heart of downtown Nanaimo.
Joe IvesNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Developer cites lack of council support for killing hotel deal, July 14.
Honestly, I feel like the city I live in has a character from South Park as mayor.
The mayor is speaking out about council’s decision to give a six-month extension that was rejected by SSS Manhao. That was the developer’s choice, not council’s.
Then the mayor went on to suggest that the company sue the citizens of Nanaimo for costs related to whatever this company spent. The mayor telling a company to sue citizens of his town. What on Earth is going on with this man?
From what I can see, he is so spiteful and hateful towards ‘the five’ that he throws them under the bus at any given chance and this time, all of the citizens of Nanaimo. That just exudes selfishness to me. This is not a characteristic of a leader whatsoever.
This man should be stopped from speaking to the media. His venomous words are damaging to all of Nanaimo.
Louise GilfoyNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Developer cites lack of council support for killing hotel deal, July 14.
Taxpayers have been subsidising the conference centre to the tune of $1 million per year while we wait for this ‘essential’ hotel to be built. All this time there is no sign of any progress on the hotel construction and the developer has missed two deadlines.
But when council puts a couple of conditions on yet another six-month deadline extension, in the hope of pressuring the developer into action, all of a sudden it’s council’s fault the deal fell through?
Seems to me it wasn’t council that was disrespectful, it was the developer that was disrespectful – continually ignoring deadlines. Forcing this developer to ‘fish or cut bait’ was the right thing to do at this stage. Now we can move on with either repurposing the conference centre or getting a serious development proposal that incorporates the conference centre. Either option is better than waiting forever in limbo.
S. I. PetersenNanaimo