Liberal Millionaires Club

The Journal Pioneer printed the briefest version of this story, omitting the $30 million Ghiz-easy-payment loan and the tunnel – they must have a tunnel for their fancy hotel.

The Guardian never prints the story on the web but does carry the 2007 pre-announcement story. All very hush hush and on the Q-T.

Why does one of the world’s richest men need our $30 million?

Homburg Invest is planning to spend $45 million in downtown Charlottetown on multiple properties and renovations.

The announcement was made in Charlottetown on Thursday at a press conference in the Confederation Centre.

Richard Homberg of Homberg Invest told the assembled crowd that his company has already started to build an 8-story office tower on Fitzroy Street beside the former Playhouse/JR’s Place. It also plans to build a 10-story hotel connected to the Confederation Court Mall, on the Queen Street side.

Plans also include improving the exterior cladding of the National Bank tower that is part of the mall complex, improving the exterior of the former Holman’s façade on Grafton Street, creating an underground pedway between the mall and the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

The plans also include renovations to the mall and a shift toward botique-style retail, said Homberg.
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Charlottetown city council quietly completed some planning groundwork Monday night for what may become the tallest, most dramatic building in downtown Charlottetown.

Dyne Holdings is proceeding with plans to construct a hotel that will tower above the Confederation Court Mall.
Part of the new hotel concept will make use of the vacant lot on Queen Street with the remainder of the hotel extending over the top of what is now the Bookmark store.
The plan was first made public in The Guardian in December 2006 when Mike Arnold, the person who led the development of Confederation Court Mall and who is now vice-chairman of the board of directors of Homburg Invest Inc. spoke to The Guardian about plans to build a 60-room hotel.
Dyne Holdings is part of Halifax-based Homburg Invest Inc. which owns the Dundee Arms Inn and the Northumberland condominiums in Charlottetown, plus a huge multimillion portfolio of properties around the world.

The most recent concept plan before city council is calling for 82 rooms in a hotel that extends up to nine stories plus a penthouse suite, 127 feet in all.

Across the street, the BCD place is six stories high and the Delta is close to 120 feet tall.
“This will definitely be the tallest building in the city,” said Devine.

The proposed height is 322 per cent higher than the 39.4-foot maximum height allowed under the city’s laws but council unanimously passed a resolution Monday without comment or debate granting
Dyne Holdings Ltd. its needed height extension.

“I think they are very serious about going forward here,” said Kim Devine, chair of the planning committee for Charlottetown. “They are anxious to get going.”

Tanya O’Brien, vice-president and general manager of Dyne Holdings, said nothing is finalized but if all goes well, construction could start this coming spring.

“This is just one step along the way,” she said of Monday’s approval.

Now Dyne Holdings must obtain and submit detailed architectural drawings to the city planning department. If that gets approval from planning board, and a parking arrangement is acceptable to planning board, then the project proceeds. Given the present zoning of the land, there is no need for a public meeting as part of the approval process.

Right now, the concept calls for a structure that has an all-glass façade in the upper stories, said Devine and confirmed by O’Brien.

There is also the issue of parking. Dyne Holdings needs to arrange for 82 parking spaces, one each for the proposed number of rooms.

Or it can buy its way out of that commitment.

“The developers have to reach an agreement with the city over parking,” said Devine. “They have the option of purchasing parking spaces in lieu, which is a required amount of money which in this case is $4,500 per space and that is a common arrangement that the city makes with developers that are developing in the downtown.”

The money goes into general revenue.