Discussions

When I inquired at one of the adjacent businesses, they told me they're building new federal offices and that the ones at 1039 Princess would be relocating there. I know 1039 Princess has been for sale for quite a while.

it's a building that will house service Canada. They'll move out of the old fed building on princess ....

It is in fact to be a Service Canada Centre, ETA April 2021. Was able to confirm some details today for this post:  
https://ebrandon.ca/buzzpost.aspx?buzz_id=727

So … the federal government will be a tenant, which should not be surprising. Our governments (all parties) have long had a policy of avoiding actual infrastructure investment and the implied capital costs - in favour of passing these front end costs on to others.  
 
Another advantage of letting others take responsibility for development, from government's point of view, is an ability to reward friends.  
 
I can admit that renting is, in general, more economical than buying, -in the short term, but I think that ownership is more economical in the long term. And an owner is much more in control of the asset.  
 
Kind of like another discussion here about leasing or owning a vehicle. Leasing is cheaper in the short run - low front end costs. Owning is more expensive in the short run but more economical in the long term. Often. Usually. It's good for some and not for others.  
 
So who is actually building and owning this new-to-be building? Who is the landlord? Where is the transparency?  
 
What are the standards by which our government of Canada selected this particular site and this particular landlord? Where is the transparency?  
 
Why is all of this new to us at this late stage? Was there community consultation that I missed?  
 
Why that particular location?  
 
Edited by plane watcher, 2020-02-26 17:37:56

Did you read the Buzz story. Most of your answers will be there. I have never seen tenders to build a public building were we all sit around listen to a consultation.

Adam's Buzz post doesn't state, but I bet if you dug through the tender documents you would find it.  
 
To answer Plane Watcher, part of the strategy of leasing is because the feds have been badly burned in the past, saddled with buildings they can't dispose of when needs change, or the process to divest of them is very complex and convoluted. Look at how long it took a settlement for the barracks in Winnipeg took to resolve because of the legal wranglings.

I wonder how the tax implications would differ in this situation.... obviously the landlord pays the taxes to the city. If the Feds own the building, would they ask for a break on the taxes? I know that ultimately the taxes are paid for by the tenant through the lease but from their point, it would seem weird to PAY taxes outright. I’m sure it likely happens someplace....

So what's going to happen with their existing location? Hopefully not yet another vacated downtown building..

Generally, crown assets will pay fee-in-lieu of taxes, generally equal to the amount of taxes. But if the building is privately held and leased to the government, I think the owner would just pay taxes as normal.

It's a crown-owned building that been for sale since at least mid-2018 according to the date in this Brandon Sun piece: https://www.brandonsun.com/local/federal-building-in-downtown-brandon-listed-for-sale-492666291.html.  
 
It was originally listed for 4.1 million, but it's down to 3.7 million in the current listing (see https://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/biens-property/id-reo/ins:cription-listing-19-eng.html).  
 
I do remember the original listing originally said that the new owners was supposed to keep the current tenants (i.e. the government), but that's since been removed, I'm assuming due to the impending move.  
 
This is also why the government is getting out of owning real property - it's so hard to dispose of!

Where indeed is the tender?  
 
I have spent the better part of a hour searching buyandsell.gc.ca, which is supposed to list all the tenders including leases. However, I can only find these two documents relating to the new lease, both expressions of interest from 2017 and 2018 respectively:  
 
https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-17-00786224https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-17-00786224  
 
https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-18-00840040  
 
I cannot find the related documents showing the actual tender, nor can I find who the tender was awarded to. For other tenders, they will generally link all the related documents at the bottom of the page. For example, I can see all the documents relating to Ben Wiebe Construction doing renovations to 1039 Princess back in 2016, I can see tender information relating to work done in Riding Mountain, tenders relating to Shilo, etc.  
 
But no actual lease tender, and no award tender. They do not exist on the website, as far as I can tell.  
 
So unless they have them filed somewhere else, maybe for security? Maybe it becomes an access to information act. Which I'm tempted to do at this point, just for transparency sake.

Merx is the platform governments use for tendering process. Google Merx tendering

I’ve submitted the question. May take a few days but will post if I learn more if someone else doesn’t beat me to it!

I didn't know about that one. 99% of it looks like it's provincial or municipal - there was only a handful (like maybe 5) federal ones going back to 2018, which were also on buyandsell.gc.ca  
 
Did find this one, but it's identical to the one I previously found, which is only an expression of interest, which points it back to the other website anyway.

I’ve been told CDE Management are constructing the building on Service Canada’s behalf and will serve as landlord.  
 
CDE has also built both local Boston Pizzas and are seeking an additional tenant for a separate 10,000 square foot building directly to the South of the under construction building.