BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report
With all members of Hudson council in agreement last week, the town signalled it will expand its natural land holdings in the Sandy Beach area, and purchase a privately owned residential lot along the waterfront for $1.3 million.
The move will add the lot, commonly referred to by its assigned address of 2 Royalview Street, to the 35 acres purchased earlier this year from Nicanco Holdings. The $1.3 million price tag brings the total purchase price of land in the area to $10.2 million, including the $8.7 million price tag for the seven adjacent lots, which the town took formal title to in March.
The town will cover the Royalview purchase using funds from its accumulated budget surplus, thereby not adding to its long-term debt load, Mayor Chloe Hutchison confirmed yesterday.
The combined acquisitions, Hutchison said, “now, protects the full length of the unbuilt waterfront for the enjoyment of generations, current and future.”
The reaction from residents who commented on the move at the April 28 council meeting was mixed.
“I want to thank all of you here today for the fact that Sandy Beach is ours and for having the courage and vision, and listening to your people and making it happen after so many years,” said Laurie Rubin, a member of the Save Sandy Beach group, a grassroots movement that has been advocating for the preservation of the area.
A former councillor, however, questioned whether the town could afford the added expense.
Explaining he supports the $8.7-million purchase of the original 35 acres, former councillor Benoit Blais challenged the town’s new council on the price of the additional lot. He qualified his comment, saying he was in favour of the purchase, but not at any price.
“Can we afford to buy it for $1.3 million?” Blais asked, explaining the price per square metre is more than double the price per square metre paid for the lots acquired from Nicanco.
“We asked ourselves the same question,” Hutchison said in response, explaining that two separate independent evaluators pegged the value of the land very close to the $1.3-million price.
“It’s a buildable lot,” she added, explaining the proposed updated flood maps “will not have a substantial impact when they are adopted.”
The town could not negotiate the price, as the purchase is the result of the first right of refusal it registered on the property in 2023. Under the terms of the right, the town was informed of the current owner having accepted an offer to purchase the lot for $1.3 million in March, triggering its option to acquire the land by matching the offer.
“We either seize this opportunity or we don’t and the price continues to go up as land continues to increase in values,” Hutchison said at the April 28 council meeting.
As it stands now, the purchase plan for the original 35 acres in the Sandy Beach area — which includes $8.75 million for the land plus financing fees, pushing the acquisition cost to $9.6 million — will be covered by $2 million taken from the town’s accumulated surplus, with the remainder being carried by a $7.6-million loan, which was approved by the provincial government in January. This loan will be reduced to $5.6 million upon the receipt of a $2-million grant from Communauté métropolitain de Montréal, which was confirmed in February. The latest purchase of 2 Royalview will not require additional borrowing, as the funds will be taken from the town’s accumulated surplus.
According to the Registre foncier du Québec, the public database of all real estate transactions in the province, the lot at 2 Royalview was purchased by the current owner on July 15, 2021, for $780,000 plus taxes. No mortgage was registered.
On Aug. 1, 2024, a mortgage for $1 million was registered on the property. Granted by a private firm specializing in short-term bridge financing, the loan carries a 25-per-cent annual interest rate “calculated daily and compounded monthly.”
The current assessment role for 2025-2027 pegs the valued of the lot at just under $1.17 million. The previous role pegged it at just under $885,000. The annual municipal tax bill on the land is $6,224, according to the listing posted on the Centris real estate website.
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