Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps is defending a tax exemption given to developers in exchange for seismically upgrading heritage buildings.
The topic came up after councilors Ben Isit and Jeremy Loveday criticized a 10-year tax exemption for the Customs House luxury condo project in the Inner Harbour area.
But Helps says the exemption is given to any heritage building redevelopment that qualifies, as long as they seismically upgrade the building, "I'm not sure why this particular project is causing consternation. They are high end condos but, regardless, whether they're high end condos or affordable housing if that building falls down in an earthquake it's going to cause huge devastation right on our Inner Harbour."
Helps says, once the 10 year exemption is over, the city stands to make even more tax revenue because of the increased property value, "the value to taxpayers over the long term is - once the building is seismically upgraded and fully inhabited -- the property value goes up exponentially and so more taxes are paid."
The heritage building at Government and Wharf is being converted into condos by developer Stan Sipos.