The Globe and Mail

When Mark Townsend stands in a 93-year-old rundown building that his group is trying raise millions to save and rebuild, the most valuable thing he sees is the air. Under a city program, the space around, above and between the crinkled plaster walls and scuffed marble floors of the old bank at 1 West Hastings Street may be worth $3-million in an exchange of theoretical density for real capital. "It's a funny game where we get funny money," said Mr. Townsend, the executive director of the Portland Hotel Society, a non-profit society that owns the building.