Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist
GASPÉ – The Town of Gaspé is issuing a serious warning to the developer Logements CVP regarding the construction of 144 apartments near Carrefour Gaspé, as announced in September 2021.
“The municipal council tells me that the elastic is stretched to the limit. We were supposed to have a working meeting today (September 3) on this subject that unfortunately did not take place. The council is starting to get exasperated. The land has been acquired for three years,” explains Mayor Daniel Côté.
According to the elected official, there have been changes in the developer’s partners.
The mayor is hoping to have a quick follow-up. “We have no choice but to put pressure back on. We had applied pressure by giving notice of the exercise of our termination clause, which allowed us to take possession and full ownership of the land we had ceded,” Mr. Côté mentioned.
The elected official hopes for a positive, credible and solid response by mid-September. “Not a day goes by without citizens or developers contacting us. We are concerned and we hope to see progress on the file. There will be a meeting – I hope – within the next two weeks, that this will be resolved and that buildings will be raised,” the mayor adds.
“It is not the Town that is delaying the process. We have placed a lot of hope in this project. We still hope that this project will be carried out, but our patience has reached its limits,” the elected official clearly stated.
In February, the Town of Gaspé had already mentioned its intention to exercise its termination clause. A termination clause is a contractual mechanism that allows for sanctions for a party’s failure to meet its contractual obligations, by providing that the contract will be terminated at the fault of the party that has failed to respect its commitments.
In September 2021, Logements CVP purchased the municipal land for $300,000, when its assessment at the time was $566,000, to create Le Domaine de la Baie.
The investors also deposited a $266,000 security deposit, repayable in four installments each time a complex was built.
The project includes four buildings with 36 units each, to be built at a rate of one building per year until 2026. CVP had promised to start construction on December 31, 2023. In fact, the first foundation was to be poured by that date, which did not happen.
The project ran into technical issues due to the steeper-than-expected slope, which forced the developer to go back to the drawing board, erasing hopes of starting construction as early as 2022.
The pandemic also caused delays for materials, shifting the construction start date to the original plan of 2023.
Initially estimated at $25 million, the project could now reach over $40 million in its current form.
The announcement had been made with great fanfare, and the project was presented as the largest real estate development in Gaspé in 50 years.
The site offers an exceptional view of Gaspé Bay, is close to a shopping centre, and is less than five minutes from the heart of downtown and an equivalent distance from the LM Wind Power blade plant.
144 housing units: Developer responds to Gaspé’s ultimatum
The developer Logements CVP, which plans to build 144 housing units near Carrefour Gaspé, attributes the delay in the project to the Town of Gaspé.
On September 3, Gaspé issued a serious warning, demanding that the project announced in September 2021 be completed. The mayor said the town council was getting frustrated by the slow pace of development.
“We are really disappointed with what is happening with the Town of Gaspé. They are threatening us. I have been asking for a meeting with the council for over six months to explain that the constraints put in place by the town are too restrictive,” says one of the administrators, Allyson Cahill-Vibert.
The potential land reclamation included in the contract is the element that causes problems. “It’s really restrictive for us from the point of view of financial institutions. We’re taking enormous risks,” she says, bringing up the initial dispute with the Ministry of Natural Resources to complete the transaction. “There was a clause with the Environment (ministry). The town couldn’t sell it to us. We lost a year right there. We changed our plans several times to adapt them with the town. We have to connect to a pumping station that still doesn’t exist. The CPE (Centre de la petite enfance) was imposed on us. We tried to work with them. We wasted a lot of time and energy with the Ministry of Families and the CPE to give them a head start on the ground so as not to lose 80 daycare spaces. We’re working very hard. Our plans are made,” notes Ms. Cahill-Vibert.
The developer is looking for a contractor to move the file forward as well as a new partner. “But as long as the Town of Gaspé leaves clauses such as the repossession of the land in their favour or the performance bond penalties, we cannot move forward, we are blocked,” she continues.
Furthermore, the nearby project of 80 affordable housing units is pulling the rug out from under their feet. “We were supposed to collaborate with the Town of Gaspé and not work in opposite directions,” she says.
In the event that the Town carries out its threat, the developer is reserving its options. “If the Town takes back the land from us, we will analyze all the options on our side,” warns Ms. Cahill-Vibert, who indicates that she could build apartments elsewhere in the Gaspé Peninsula.