When you are doing real estate, there are always mistakes.

That point that is not well located.

The m2 in the council register that does not match reality…

Things like that.

​

But you’re more or less alone on this or with your small team.

​

You assume that in multibillion dollar projects, things get more organized.

​

You know.

PPPs.

So complex.

So sophisticated.

And…

So… human.

​

Yeah, because humans, not banks, not machines, not financial models… humans deliver.

​

And humans “la joden”… or screw it up.

​

So, let me tell you about the time a consortium bought the wrong piece of land.

​

Yes.

Really.

​

The project was a fancy transport hub somewhere hot, shiny, and slightly disorganized.

Only slightly.

The private sector was in charge of acquiring land to build the shiny new thing.

I always think that this is a terrible idea… but you know, there are some countries out there with big pockets…

​

Anyway.

​

They got the parcel list from the government.

Reviewed the plans.

Did their due diligence, and…

Paid for the land.

​

So far, so good.

​

Until someone realized — a bit late — that one of the plots was off by 12 digits in the cadastral reference.

​

If that does not tell you much, let’s say that they had bought a plot of land 500 kilometers away.

​

In the wrong province.

​

In a different time zone.

​

Why?

​

Because the spreadsheet the government sent had coordinates in local time, and the engineering team was working in UTC.

The GPS mapping system adjusted the timestamp but not the location.

​

Beep… beep… beep… that sounds like sending something to Mars and counting meters like feet… who would do that?

​

Well… So instead of buying a 2-hectare plot near a train station… they bought a goat farm.

​

Beautiful.

​

The farmer was very happy.

An old, decrepit farm paid at the price of prime real estate.

Life is good.

The consortium… was less so.

​

By the time they sorted it out, the project was delayed six months, legal fees had gone through the roof, and the phrase “we’re confident this will not affect the timeline” became the most repeated lie in every press release.

​

And I’m not sure Twitter was very active at the time…

​

So, PPP contracts have risk allocation for everything… except stupidity.

​

Next time you see a project fail, don’t assume it was corruption or politics.

​

Sometimes, it's just someone who didn’t check the time zone settings on Google Earth.

​

Why could this not happen in the A30 in Montreal?

​

Check it out in the link below.

​

​

PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day.

PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com

PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below.

​

​