AllTheNewsThatActuallyMatters
WithoutAGretzkyFamilyPhotoInSightVille
How about folks like Norm Farrell?
After all, Norm is a citizen journalist who is covering stories that actually matter right here and right now that no proMedia organ grinder monkeys, ink-stained or otherwise, seem to give a hoot-in-heckfire about.
….In 2008, the company (i.e. BC Ferries) announced plans to move into 90,000 square feet of a building at 800 Yates Street then under construction by Jawl Properties. B.C. Ferries sold its long time head office building, 53,000 sq.ft. at 1112 Fort Street, to the Jawls for $11 million.
According to Note on the BCF 2011 Audited Financials, the lease of new offices in downtown Victoria is for fifteen years, with four renewal options of five years each. The lease agreement includes payment of building operating costs and property taxes but other terms are undisclosed.
In addition to signing a long term lease before completion, BC Ferries lent the Jawls, developers of the $100 million property, $24.2 for fifteen years, secured by a second mortgage of the property.
What does BC Ferries get out of this? Certainly, it gets substantially more luxurious executive offices, almost twice the size of those in the old building. They also earn enduring gratitude of the influential Jawl family, people who style themselves as the largest private owners of premium offices and industrial space in the capital. Their properties include Cordova Bay Golf Course, Mattick’s Farm, Sayward Hill and Selkirk Waterfront. They are, of course, substantial contributors to the BC Liberal Party….
Recall, again, that all of this big spending has happened SINCE the 2008 recession hit.
OK?
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And the added bonus of Norm’s post?….The excerpt above comes AFTER a very nice, straightforward and irrefutable graph of falling oil prices over the last six months that lays waste to the lie that the just-invoked BC Ferries fuel surcharge has anything to do with the actual changing price of fuel…Of course, it may have something to do with the overall cost of fuel over the longterm, but the fact that the ‘surcharge’ comes now strongly suggests that the fine folks running BC Ferries (into the ground?) have decided they would rather soak the peons who live here and pay for everything (i.e. those that will be going home for Christmas) rather than the summer tourists…
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