What Will Happen to Colwood Development?

For the Mayor of Colwood, the city just 10 kilometres west of Victoria, the Capital City Centre project is a disappointment that stares her in the face every morning as she makes the drive into City Hall to start her day.

Mayor Carol Hamilton tells us all she can do now is hope the developer behind the town's billion-dollar, mixed-use downtown hub can get its financial house in order, fast. League Financial Partners has filed for a Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) and has 30 days to come up with a plan to propose to its creditors and shareholders. As of today, investors are reacting with fear and anger about what is going on, wondering if they are going to lose their investment.

"We are still optimistic under the circumstances," the Mayor (right, snapped at St. John's Centennial Celebration) tells us. PricewaterhouseCoopers is the court-appointed monitor for the proceedings, and she's is hopeful everything gets sorted through, ideally, in three months. Perhaps League divests themselves of some of their other assets and concentrates on getting Capital City back on the rails. Perhaps another group comes in and takes it over. The targeted completion date for Phase 1 of the project was 2014. The retail component of Phase 1 is 77K SF and includes London Drugs, RBC, and Coast Capital Savings Credit Union. "We have to give them the respect to get their house in order, and hopefully they can pull it off," she says.