David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos @Kathryn98967631 and 47 others
I heard the Queen has a retreat in those woods hence old growth still exists. Methinks one good thing about the elite is that they care about the forests and the wildlife around their private getaways N'esy Pas?
https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2019/04/new-players-enter-forestry-sector-near.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/forestry-property-sales-new-brunswick-1.5104435
New players enter forestry sector near Miramichi
Kilmer Group unloaded nearly 16,000 hectares of its N.B. forest properties to German investors
A purchase of
265 New Brunswick timberland properties in the Miramichi area involving
German investors, a firm that partly owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and a
flamboyant international land dealer has introduced new players into the
province's forest economy.
It's generating curiosity but no immediate concern.
"I don't know anything, nothing" said Patrick Doucet, the general manager of the Northshore Forest Products Marketing Board, whose members also own forest land in the area.
"It's good to know. I'm glad I heard it. I didn't know it"
The
Kilmer Group of Toronto owns a major piece of the Toronto Maple Leafs
and until recently more than 15,000 hectares of New Brunswick
timberland. (Trevor Dunn/CBC)
A
CBC review of property and corporate records connected to the sale
shows there were two transactions in December for a combined $12.3
million to buy more than 15,000 hectares of mostly forest in central New
Brunswick. It covers a combined area larger than Grand Manan Island.
The majority of the properties sit within 20 kilometres of either side of Highway 8 between Doaktown and Miramichi.
Properties were sold by Fornebu Lumber Company Inc. Fornebu operates a major sawmill outside Bathurst that was not part of the sale.
The company also retained control of three large Crown land licences that gives it access to 900,000 hectares of provincially owned forest that feed its Bathurst mill.
Fornebu also buys wood privately from local sellers in central New Brunswick. Doucet said as long as that continues he is unconcerned with the change in ownership of the land.
"They (Fornebu) can do what they want with their properties," said Doucet. "As long as it doesn't affect our woodlot owners we're OK with that."
Prasad
Chandrakanthan was installed by the Kilmer Group as President of
Fornebu Lumber last June and signed off on the sale of Fornebu's
extensive New Brunswick land holdings in December. (Prasad Chandrakanthan/Submitted)
Fornebu
has operated in New Brunswick for the past decade and acquired most of
the properties at the heart of the sale in 2009 from UPM-Kymmene when it
ceased operations in the province.
Last June, Fornebu was absorbed by the Kilmer Group — a Toronto investment firm best known for its ownership stake in media companies and sports franchises including the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors through Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment.
Kilmer installed one of its vice-presidents, Prasad Chandrakanthan (Chandra), as president of Fornebu in June 2018 and he signed off on the land sales in December.
Chandra did not return calls last week asking about the deal.
Even less is known about the group that purchased the land and why.
The transaction was facilitated by Halifax land broker Farhad Vladi. He is better known for finding private islands for wealthy European and Asian buyers.
Online pictures show Vladi posing with world leaders, royalty and celebrities at locations all over the globe.
But last winter he was focused for a time on far less glamorous pursuits — sizing up fir, jack pine and spruce trees in New Brunswick locations like Bartibog, Blissfield and Holtville.
Farhad
Vladi owns a company based in Halifax that primarily markets private
islands to the wealthy. But he has also brokered timberland sales in
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for German buyers from his office in
Hamburg. (Submitted)
Vladi's office said he was travelling in New Zealand this week and unavailable to speak.
But, in December, he was involved in setting up a company to buy the land — NBH Timberland (Nova Scotia) Ltd. — and briefly served as its president until the transaction with Fornebu closed.
Immediately following the transaction in January, Vladi was replaced as president of NBH Timberland by German businessman Stefan Buttgereit. Matthias Helmstetter, also of Germany, is the only other listed director.
Corporate
records show Halifax lawyer Gregory Auld as NBH Timberland's local
agent in Canada. He did not immediately return a message asking about
the company and its plans.
Vladi has an office in Germany and has brokered timberland deals in the region for Europeans before. In 2009, he arranged the purchase of 4,000 hectares of J.D. Irving Ltd. land near Digby, N.S., for a German businessman he said was looking for a retreat.
The sale agreements give Fornebu exclusive right to buy softwood off some of the parcels it sold until 2028, giving some hint the new owners plan to continue with forestry operations. But beyond that little is known about what, if anything, the sale means for central New Brunswick forestry.
The transaction is one of the largest land sales in the province since J.D. Irving Ltd. bought 90,000 hectares of forest from Bowater in 2006. Despite the amount of land involved, the purchase has mostly gone unnoticed
A spokesman for New Brunswick's Department of Energy and Resource Development said last week he was not aware of the sale and would need to look into it before offering comment.
In a statement released Tuesday morning, Energy and Resource Development Minister Mike Holland said the province has no knowledge of what the new owners will do with the lands they purchased but speculated there may be more to the deal than just forestry.
"We are uncertain of the new owner's future plans, but do know that much of the private property involved in this business-to-business deal is riverfront," said Holland in a statement.
CBC's Journalistic Standards and PracticesIt's generating curiosity but no immediate concern.
"I don't know anything, nothing" said Patrick Doucet, the general manager of the Northshore Forest Products Marketing Board, whose members also own forest land in the area.
"It's good to know. I'm glad I heard it. I didn't know it"
The majority of the properties sit within 20 kilometres of either side of Highway 8 between Doaktown and Miramichi.
Properties were sold by Fornebu Lumber Company Inc. Fornebu operates a major sawmill outside Bathurst that was not part of the sale.
The company also retained control of three large Crown land licences that gives it access to 900,000 hectares of provincially owned forest that feed its Bathurst mill.
Fornebu also buys wood privately from local sellers in central New Brunswick. Doucet said as long as that continues he is unconcerned with the change in ownership of the land.
"They (Fornebu) can do what they want with their properties," said Doucet. "As long as it doesn't affect our woodlot owners we're OK with that."
Last June, Fornebu was absorbed by the Kilmer Group — a Toronto investment firm best known for its ownership stake in media companies and sports franchises including the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors through Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment.
Kilmer installed one of its vice-presidents, Prasad Chandrakanthan (Chandra), as president of Fornebu in June 2018 and he signed off on the land sales in December.
Chandra did not return calls last week asking about the deal.
Even less is known about the group that purchased the land and why.
The transaction was facilitated by Halifax land broker Farhad Vladi. He is better known for finding private islands for wealthy European and Asian buyers.
Online pictures show Vladi posing with world leaders, royalty and celebrities at locations all over the globe.
But last winter he was focused for a time on far less glamorous pursuits — sizing up fir, jack pine and spruce trees in New Brunswick locations like Bartibog, Blissfield and Holtville.
But, in December, he was involved in setting up a company to buy the land — NBH Timberland (Nova Scotia) Ltd. — and briefly served as its president until the transaction with Fornebu closed.
Immediately following the transaction in January, Vladi was replaced as president of NBH Timberland by German businessman Stefan Buttgereit. Matthias Helmstetter, also of Germany, is the only other listed director.
Vladi has an office in Germany and has brokered timberland deals in the region for Europeans before. In 2009, he arranged the purchase of 4,000 hectares of J.D. Irving Ltd. land near Digby, N.S., for a German businessman he said was looking for a retreat.
The sale agreements give Fornebu exclusive right to buy softwood off some of the parcels it sold until 2028, giving some hint the new owners plan to continue with forestry operations. But beyond that little is known about what, if anything, the sale means for central New Brunswick forestry.
The transaction is one of the largest land sales in the province since J.D. Irving Ltd. bought 90,000 hectares of forest from Bowater in 2006. Despite the amount of land involved, the purchase has mostly gone unnoticed
A spokesman for New Brunswick's Department of Energy and Resource Development said last week he was not aware of the sale and would need to look into it before offering comment.
In a statement released Tuesday morning, Energy and Resource Development Minister Mike Holland said the province has no knowledge of what the new owners will do with the lands they purchased but speculated there may be more to the deal than just forestry.
"We are uncertain of the new owner's future plans, but do know that much of the private property involved in this business-to-business deal is riverfront," said Holland in a statement.
29 Comments
William Reed
This should end well.
David R. Amos
Reply to @William Reed: Methinks any decent Circus always does N'esy Pas?
David R. Amos
Methinks we should not hold our breath waiting for Minister Mikey Holland or his minions to make a comment about this "news" item N'esy Pas?
Al Clark
Reply to @David R.
Amos: Methinks Mikey won't concern himself for 1 second about small land
transactions that are perfectly legal and ordinary and will likely
result in a few wealthy germans building hunting/fishing lodges on a
dying river system. You DO know that wealthy germans have been buying up
wild lands for a bargain for decades now Nosey paw? I know a few, so
you must know a BUNCH! ;-)
David R.
Amos
Reply to @Al Clark: Methinks you know exactly who I am However nobody is quite sure who you are N'esy Pas?
Al Clark
Reply to @David R.
Amos: I know well who you are from your internet presence. Me, not so
much and I like it that way. Social butterfly is why I think you have to
know some of the foreign , rich, happy campers. A very good friend of
mine's dad was in on the ground floor in the seventies. He bought a
couple of large farms to deer hunt for the cost of a years membership in
his German hunting club. He later sold them to other Germans at a VERY
healthy profit and they were very happy with their "super deal". The
same thing is happening with fundy coastal lands and islands being
scooped up by Americans with wads of cash.
David R.
Amos
Content disabled
Reply to @Al Clark: "Social butterfly is why I think you have to know some of the foreign , rich, happy campers." Too Too Funny Methinks you just proved that you know nothing at all N'esy Pas?
David R.
Amos
Reply to @Al Clark: Oh My Go figure why my reply was blocked
John Montgomery
As long as they don't cut down all the trees.
David R. Amos
Reply to @John
Montgomery: Long ago I heard that the Queen has a retreat somewhere back
in those woods hence the old growth still exists. Methinks the one good
thing about a lot of the elite is that they have so much money they
don't care about making a profit off a few sticks like the Irving Clan
does sometimes they care about the wildlife existing around their
private getaways N'esy Pas?
Marguerite Deschamps
Being part owner of the Maple Leafs, they sure know how to make money on the gullible.
David R. Amos
Reply to @Marguerite Deschamps: Methinks you would be the one to know N"esy Pas?
David Peters
If I'm not mistaken, that's where some of NB's finest timber is located. Old growth.
Al Clark
Reply to @David
Peters: Yes, CFA profiteers always SAVE the best stuff. SURE! I'm sure
the last ten saviours of the Newcastle Mill who rode in with the
obligatory huge Gov't grant for "necessary modernization" and then rode
out again a few years later ALL did this LOL. I remember when we were
kids and could smell the stench 10 miles downriver. For a long time we
thought it was the poop mill, being unfamiliar with the word pulp ;-)
David R.
Amos
Reply to @David Peters: Methinks that some would call it unceded territory N'esy Pas?
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