Gabriel Wortman : big land developer or smalltime cash-only operator : or BOTH?

Make NO mistake : prime beneficiaries of  HRM CENTRE PLAN were owners who had earlier bought cheap rundown properties in downtown Dartmouth, like Wortman

Gabriel Wortman was such a total chameleon that one keeps asking : “Will the real Gabe Wortman please stand up, please stand up!”

After HRM created a new overall development plan for its central core, run down properties in the twin cities’ central core suddenly could be worth big fortunes, if they could be assembled into a lot big enough to erect a high rise.

That is because the new plan put HRM council on very shaky legal ground if they suddenly stopped a developer from putting up a ten to fifteen storey building on their downtown lot, merely because local residents opposed it in an election year.

Development can be a risky business if local governments suddenly change the rules after you put everything you own in hock to a bank to get your development started.

But the key takeaway was that there hadn’t been any cheap properties in the downtown core in Halifax since the late 1970s : but the downtown core definition for Dartmouth included a lot of what remains to this day slightly run down residential areas : bargains could be easily had up until the Centre Pan was passed.

So Gabriel suddenly saw his Portland Street lots, plus a tiny one he was trying to buy, easily double over their assessed value as a result of the plan - if he sold it in one piece to a developer.

Much much bigger profits might happen if he himself became that developer.

But you must put on your best bib and tuck to get anywhere as a developer : Banks definitely do lend to many sleazy people but not to visibly sleazy low life : you gotta at least look the part.

Gabe being such a natural actor (cum fraud), he might have been able to pull it off but for his other tendencies pulling him back down to his natural comfort zone.

If you ever walk into any sort of medical professional office, the first, second and third question you get asked is “do you have any medical insurance” ?

The bulk of their income comes from “third party payments” and their paperwork to get paid is at least as involved as the medical procedure is itself !

Wortman ran his denturist business on a cash only basis - very rarely allowing any other payment : even from well to do customers more used to other ways of doing business generally.

That memory of his unusual payment demands took hold in their mind’s eye after his murders spree and his death.

It just seemed so small time, so small town, so old fashioned ...

Big City Big Developer or small time small town cash-under-the-table sort of guy ?

Will the real Gabe Wortman please stand up, please stand up ?