The City of New Westminster is optimistic it will sell Merchant Square, if this year’s budget is any indication.
Colleen Ponzini, the city’s manager of financial services, said the 2014 budget projects the sale of the Merchant Square officer tower that’s now under construction on Columbia Street. If the city doesn’t sell the office tower, she said the city would see a “significant increase” in bank charges related to the loan authorization bylaw.
“The plan is to have it sold, and we pay it back in this current year,” she told council at its Jan. 20 committee of the whole meeting.
According to Ponzini, the city will be incurring some new debt under the loan authorization bylaw. She said a good portion of the $570,000 debt would be for Anvil Centre and the office tower.
New Westminster city council received a staff report on the 2014 to 2018 financial plan, which includes the 2014 budget. The city is proposing a 1.28 per cent tax increase in 2014, which would rise to 2.59 per cent if a number of priority initiatives proposed by staff are included.
