Taxpayers have spent $45 million in the city of Vancouver’s investment in infrastructure to make sure Barry Cain of Gramor Development can put money in his and his buddies’ pockets in a $1.3 billion development. We taxpayers also get to contribute millions to the $17 million cost of a 7-acre park. This is the Vancouver Waterfront project on 32 acres of former Boise Cascade property. This is the typical method cities, counties, states, and this country use to make sure developers get rich.
The project is projected to produce $33 million in taxes for Vancouver over the next 20 years. The oil terminal will produce $90 million in rent in that same time period.
I wonder what tax abatement Gramor will get? Will it be the same that Elie Kassab, president of Prestige Development, got for his development nearly 10 years ago? That was along with Kassab’s $200,000 pittance he paid for a half-block from the city, which helped make way for his $16 million Prestige Plaza. Most of the block had the Vancouver police station and jail on it, remember.
This is the “free market” Republicans talk about.
Bill Kelley
Yacolt
