Episode 74 Transcript – Onni Group Gardens

Hello! You’re live with Jessi Johnson and what I want to talk about today is a news article that my girlfriend brought me thinking I would find it very intriguing and I do. It’s about the Onni Group, a development company in Vancouver, how they are putting up these garden plots all over the city and you can come and rent one for whatever. At first I thought it was a good idea, I still think it’s a good idea, I’m not discrediting it at all, but there’s mixed views from everybody and I’ll explain why. They have these lots that they buy. Commercial properties and they take out all the buildings and they’re planning on building big condos, highrises. Standard development tactics. Right now the economy, the obviously anticipate it going into a down turn, which it is. They decided instead of letting the property sit there, they wiped everything out and brought in a whole bunch of topsoil and put up a nice fence, made these really nice garden plots. They actually even put in an irrigation system. They did a really good job. Apparently they spent $100,000 per lot. I think they have nine lots in the entire city. It looks good for the city because it shows greenery plus the local residents can actually go and garden in downtown Vancouver. Pretty cool. Personally myself, don’t know how comfortable I would be planting some carrots knowing the type of people that walk around late night in Vancouver and what they might do to my carrots personally but anyways, if you’re just doing flowers or you want a hobby, it’s a great idea. Here’s the truth behind it. After reading this article, what Onni’s done is they’ve gone back to the City and reclassified from Class 6 to Class 8. Class 6 is Business Development or Commercial and Class 8 is, I’m not sure of the name of the class, but it essentially means it’s for recreational purposes and non-profit which is true. They’ve converted all of their nine lots they own in the city, Onni is an extremely big and very professional, successful development group in Vancouver, they’ve converted them all. Now here’s the inside thing, the brilliance to all of this. They’re receiving a savings of upwards of 70% annual property tax because of this. Now their going to be saving about $357,000 per year by doing this and of course with the way the economy is, they’re predicting these gardens will probably stay for four or five years which is great for everybody else. It’s going to save them probably close to two million dollars, it works out to an average of $1,900 per garden lot. Good for them for being creative. The only downside is when they save money on property taxes, other companies have to cover a lot of that difference. It gets pushed off and other companies go up who are already probably struggling enough as it is. Either way, people get gardens but the other downside is one more speculation in their contract. When they sign a contact to get this garden, it is now considered illegal for them to write any form of complaint regarding Onni or the developments. Not just that particular one, because obviously they’re going to complain when they rip up that garden, they’re going to want to keep their garden, but for other buildings as well. If they do then Onni can essentially sue them. That’s a little bit vindictive but I understand they have to protect themselves. I’m not really picking any one side on this. I see both sides. I think it’s good for both sides. It’s also bad for both sides in some aspects as well. I’m Jessi Johnson. You can reach me at www.firsthomeinfo.ca and check out the article if you get a chance. Remember, Own Your Life! Have a good day, bye.