Fredericton — Just days after Fredericton City Council approved the sale of a parking garage complex at Brunswick and Carleton, council is now scrambling to re-purchase the property back from Ross Ventures Ltd.
The city sold the property on Monday for $1.85 million, well below its assessed value of $2.9 million. Now, city officials are offering $4.2 million to get it back following CBC stories stating that the planned development will be “the sexiest building Fredericton has seen built in a long time.”
When asked why the city has renewed interest in the property, Coun. Greg Ericson explained. “Fredericton does not want its name attached to anything sexy. We’ll do and pay anything to keep our city virginal and clean.
“If that means spending a few extra taxpayer dollars on buying out a strip club to tear it down, leasing an expensive piece of downtown real estate in order to let the zoning expire, or in this case, spending $2.35 million to hinder the development of a new ‘sexy building,’ then we see it as money well spent.”
The Manatee asked president and CEO of Ross Ventures, Jeff Yerxa, about the city’s offer. “We’re considering it,” he said. “We absolutely want the parking garage, but we are in the business of making money, and this is some of the easiest money we’ve ever had the opportunity to make.”
Updated: Since the release of this article, a crew has been seen on Dundonald Street, the site of Ross Ventures’ business The Happy Baker, erecting a new sign that renames it as “The Horny Baker.” It is unclear at this time whether these two stories are related.