Malcolm Parry
Sun

James Schouw and Nazanin Afshin-Jam will leave their penthouse for one he’s building 200 feet higher. JAMES SCHOUW and former Miss World runner-up Nazanin Afshin-Jam have just about got their 5,000-square-foot Yaletown penthouse how they like it. Now they’ve recruited star realtor Malcolm Hasman to flog it for them.

The residence is atop the 19-unit, seemingly stone-walled building Schouw developed at Richards and Drake Street to architect-father Paul’s design.

The building is named Grace for the Graceland nightclub that once occupied a neighbouring site, and its penthouse possesses more decks than most Yaletowners do 10-year-old wines. There’s also a blue-tiled, 40-foot indoor lap pool with a thermostat Schouw keeps turning down and Afshin-Jam keeps turning up. Stacked beside the pool — which has no wave generator — are several surfboards painted by rock guitarist-singer Jim Cummins, aka I Braineater.

At a sale-hyping party the other night, Hasman called the joint “well-priced” at $3.5 million — i.e., $700 per square foot in a market where some touch $1,200.

“This stands alone in my professional opinion as the most spectacular penthouse in the city, although it doesn’t offer the view of your buddy Bob Rennie’s Shangri-La,” said Hasman, waving toward Ferrari and Maserati cars he’d parked beside the complex’s locking gate six floors below.

The vendors should enjoy a more expansive view next spring. That’s when they’ll move to the top of Grace Phase II, a 300-foot tower Schouw pere et fils are building next door. That project was to have been completed by now, but builders and buyers of the nearby Metropolis tower complained it would impede their views. A resulting micturational tournament took 18 months to resolve.

There’ll be no lap pool in the new building’s three-floor penthouse. But its living room will feature 40-foot-high windows and a 10-foot-higher ceiling.

Let’s see how Hasman describes that when the time comes.

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JOHN KOERNER, the 92-year-old painter, will vacate his low-rise penthouse this fall. He and bride Lisa Hobbs Birnie, the former Vancouver Sun scribe, will move close to the West End waterfront.

Koerner’s autobiography, A Brush With Life, will appear at the same time. It will include stories of his student-and-artist doings in 1930s Paris. Given the Czech-born Koerner’s innate courtliness, though, there may be less about 1938, when Britain and France betrayed his democratic homeland to futilely appease German dictator Adolf Hitler’s perverse ambitions.

One year later, Koerner and his estimable, long-lived clan began setting examples of energetic perseverance in Vancouver.

That Koerner still has his nose to the canvas was clear when his Celebration exhibition opened at the Diane Farris gallery Thursday.

Asked what land was represented in the smashing floral still-lifes, Koerner tapped his hair-covered head, smilingly flashed even teeth and, with clear eyes twinkling, said: “The one up here.”

“He’s adorable isn’t he?” said Birnie, who seldom showed such sentiment in her reportorial days.

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JURGEN GOTHE, the CBC-Radio DiscDrive show host and sometime Vancouver Sun reviewer-columnist, scored a hat-trick in Manhattan this week.

He received his third gold medal from the International Radio Festival of New York. It was his second time to be named as best network/syndicated personality. DiscDrive snagged another gold medal there in 1988 for best regularly scheduled network music program.

As well as radio, Gothe is getting encouraging news on the radiation front. Another batch of treatment appears to be keeping his cancer at bay.

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RED ROBINSON, the half-century disc jockey, says sales continue to rock and roll along for his and Greg Potter’s Backstage Vancouver: A Century of Entertainment Legends. Unsurprisingly, the book’s success has spurred others to volunteer photographs — so many that Robinson says a second edition is inevitable.

Of course, the inveterate collector — [email protected] — will always welcome more.

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BIF NAKED, the New Delhi-born, Winnipeg-raised rocker, is criss-crossing Canada to release her first-in-three-years album, Superbeautifulmonster.

The successor to her Purge and I Bificus albums was launched this week at the Yaletown waterfront’s Quay eatery-drinkery, where Naked — formerly Beth Torbert — displayed her extensive gallery of real tattoos. She was flanked by Fit For Women gym manager Alissa Martin and Simon Fraser University third-year philosophy student Vanessa St. Arnaud, whose similar skin embroidery was fake.

Wearing wigs with red devil horns, the latter two echoed my youngest brother Doug Parry, whose Doctor Doug and The Damned band wore Viking horns protruding from uber-englische bowler hats.

Naked’s 13 songs include some devilishly cheeky lines.

From I Wait, co-written with producer Peter Karroll: “Hey! What’s your name? / Hey! Where ya from? / Hey! Where have you been all my life? / You look like a red-hot lover / Do I look like your future wife?”

In Funeral of A Good Girl, Naked sings the rock-reasonable lines: “You be the kid and I’ll be the candy store / Take me down, Baby / Do it to me now / Do it to me now.”

Then comes the unexpectedly demure: “I can’t believe I just said it out loud.”

Tattoos or no, Naked’s a rare one.

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NORAH ASHMORE, the jazz singer turned Kamloops schoolteacher, completed a three-year labour of love for Canada Day. It is the play Over My Mountain, on which she conspired with professional dancer Desiree Dunbar.

The show is based on characters who lived in B.C.’s Bridge River Valley — Ashmore and Dunbar‘s birthplace — between 1900 and 1928. It ally premieres today. The locale will be a town that also came back to life: Bralorne.

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MORRIS PANYCH, the hotshot writer-actor-director, is expected to make a trapdoor appearance at Performance Works July 7. That’s the night Chris Tyrell will host a $20-ticket party to benefit Performing Arts Lodge, the Coal Harbour retirement community for theatrical folk.

It’ll be a two-on-Granville Island night for Panych. His and longtime partner Ken MacDonald’s 1982 Last Call . . . A Post-Nuclear Cabaret will preview at the Waterfront Theatre, with David Adams and Marguerite Witvoet singing and drinking after an H-bomb apocalypse.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

CREDIT: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun Mark Goodman (left) and father David at a Vancouver apartment building they recently sold at 1150 Bute. Population growth is spurring demand for rental units.

The value of apartment building sales in Greater Vancouver shot up by 58 per cent during the first half of 2005 as low-cost financing fuelled investor interest in rental buildings, according to Vancouver realtor and apartment specialist David Goodman.

He said 66 Greater Vancouver apartment buildings were sold during the first six months of 2005 — the same number as last year — but the total value of the sales rose by 58 per cent to $258.4 million and the total number of units sold increased by 51 per cent to 2,512.

“A lot of positive economic factors are going on now that are sustaining the rental market and building investor interest,” Goodman said in an interview.

He said Lower Mainland population growth continues to support a strong demand for rental units, as the apartment rental vacancy rate has remained at or below two per cent for the past four years — even though many new condominium units have been added to the rental pool.

“People are moving back to B.C. and the Lower Mainland and many of them are in the construction industry,” Goodman said. “They need a place to live and can’t afford to spend $300,000 or $400,000 now to buy their own home. A rental unit is more affordable.”

He said financing costs of four to 4.5 per cent create positive cash flow for investors as the annual return on apartment investments now is typically higher than that — ranging from about 3.75 per cent to 6.5 per cent. Several years ago, financing costs were higher than the annual returns that investors could expect.

Goodman said that because of the improved conditions, buyers who got out of the apartment market several years ago have decided to return.

One such buyer was Grosvenor Capital Corp., which recently paid $12.9 million for a 67-unit apartment building on Balsam Street in Kerrisdale.

Goodman said at least 90 per cent of buyers today are local groups because Asian investors no longer plop down millions of dollars to buy three or four apartment buildings sight unseen, as they did in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He said many of those Asian buyers are now selling their buildings to take advantage of big capital gains.

Goodman said seven of the 66 apartment sales so far this year were for buildings priced at more than $10 million.

A major sale of eight buildings with a total of 550 suites is expected to close in a few weeks. A Toronto-based buyer is expected to pay around $50 million for the buildings, located in Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond.

“The buyer has thousands of rental units across Canada but this will be their first venture in B.C.,” Goodman said.

While the apartment market is improving, annual sales are still less than half of what they were during the early 1990s, when about 350 buildings were sold every year. Goodman said the 1990s market was fuelled by speculators who bought properties for the sole purpose of reselling them for a quick profit as soon as possible.

“Speculation fever dominated the market back then,” he said. “Everyone thought they could get in and out for a quick profit but there’s not a lot of that going on now. It’s a more solid, legitimate market based on economic fundamentals.”

Goodman said a few new rental apartment buildings are being developed now — including one in Richmond and two in Surrey — but it’s still more profitable for most developers today to build condominiums. Builders of new apartment buildings today will probably get annual returns of four to 4.5 per cent, he said.

“That’s actually considered okay by some people today. Three years ago, you’d have to go to a psychiatrist if you accepted a return like that.”

STATS TELL THE STORY

Sales of apartment buildings in the Lower Mainland in the first six months of 2005.

Buildings sold: 66 (the same as in the first half of 2004)

Housing units in buildings sold: 2,512 (up 51 per cent over same period last year)

Dollar value of buildings sold: $258.39 million (up 58 per cent over same period last year)

Source: Goodman Report

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

THE ISLAND: Victoria Harbour view, sea life among the attractions of Esquimalt

A tsunami of redevelopment is sweeping from the seedy Downtown East Side to the Fraser River

Other

From the Downtown East Side to the East Fraserlands, the eastern half of Vancouver is seeing renewed interest from developers.

While the excitement surrounding the Woodward’s building at Hastings and Abbott is attracting the most attention, the waves the project is creating are rippling outward through Gastown and Chinatown, down Main Street and Commercial Drive and even to upscale West Georgia.

“The right projects and the right develop­ments can really strengthen this neighbour-hood,” said Robert Fung of Salient Developments Ltd., which is co-ordinating the development of 110 residential units as well as about 80,000 square feet of commercial space in Gastown and the surrounding area from its headquarters in Gaoler’s Mews.

Setting the tone for the developments is 310 Water Street, a 22-unit residential project Salient completed two years ago.

“We took a building that was vacant, derelict, and turned it into some really high-styled, very cool units competitively priced,” Fung said.

His next project promises to do the same with five adjacent properties in the zero-block of Water Street, which will be built out in three phases over the next four years. The first phase of 46 units begins later this summer at 36 Water Street.

Commercial space isn’t being left out of the equation. While Storyeum and other tourist-ori­ented enterprises are a vital part of the area’s economy, Fung believes other businesses are needed that will both serve and employ local residents.

Construction at Gaoler’s Mews will add 30 commercial live-work units, and Fung is com­pleting a deal for the Copp building at 163 West

Hastings, a 32,855-square-foot property over-looking Victory Square.

“We’re going to bring that back,” he said of the building, most notable now for the bright yellow and red Money Mart canopy adorning its Edwardian-era façade. “I think it’s going to be one of the killer little office buildings in that area.”

The projects require money, however, and despite fluctuating construction costs – a major reason Fung declines to put a price on his total investment in the area – none of what is hap­pening would be possible without greater con­fidence by lenders and incentives from the city.

“The lenders have seen density transfer hap–pen with some big players, there’s a lot of guys doing it,so it’s more recognized now as a viable way to do things,” Fung said.

Heritage incentives

A greater understanding of the dynamics of redeveloping in the area has fueled a momen­tum that didn’t exist five years ago, and increased interest in the city’s two-year-old her­itage incentives program.

First introduced in 2003, the incentives aimed to facilitate redevelopment of heritage proper-ties in Gastown, Chinatown and along the Hastings Street corridor. They are starting to open doors to opportunities developers had overlooked as too difficult.

“[City staff] have made some stellar moves in how they can realize heritage conservation while encouraging high-quality residents and businesses,” Fung said.

He intends to apply for heritage incentives to support the makeover of 163 West Hastings, just as he has in the current makeover of 528 Beatty Street. That project, set to complete next year, will include the addition of two new storeys to accommodate 36 condos and street-level retail space.

Robert Fung of Salient Developments Ltd., is co-ordinating the development of 110 residential units and 80,000 square feet of Gastown commercial space.

All told, four applications for the incentives have been approved – three in Gastown and a fourth in Chinatown – and seven more are in process. A further six are expected in the near future. Plans are also afoot to extend the pro-gram in the Hastings corridor through the Victory Square neighbourhood west to Richards Street.

The pattern illustrates the extent to which revitalization in Gastown is spreading through adjacent areas, but the bellwether project for the area’s revival will be Westbank Projects Corp./Peterson Investment Group Inc.’s redevelopment of the former Woodward’s department store at 101 West Hastings Street.

Comprising a total of 850,000 square feet, the project includes 200 units of social hous­ing, over 400 units of market housing as well as 70,000 square feet of retail and 31,500 square feet designated by the city for allocation to com­munity groups.

Site preparation could begin as early as this fall, with construction beginning in earnest next year and wrapping up in 2008. Total cost is pro­jected to be over $149 million.

“We think it’s the right project with the right developer at the right time, but of course, we’re now into the point of fine-tuning and doing value-engineering on the project to make sure we get our costs in line,” said Michael Flanigan, the city’s project manager.

But regardless of the cost, plans for market housing, a grocer and 20,000-square-foot drug–store as part of the retail component promise to draw much-needed pedestrian activity to the area.

“It needs to bring people into that neigh­bourhood,” said Ian Gillespie, president and CEO of Westbank Projects Corp. “The more market housing we get, the better it is for that neighbourhood. The more retail customers, the better it is for that neighbourhood. The more office tenants, the better it is.”

But Gillespie knows Woodward’s can’t stand alone. “Its impact is only as good as the rebirth of Gastown, Chinatown and everything else,” he said.

“It’s all part of the solution of fixing some of the issues that are there.”

Greenway project

Gillespie believes the successful redevelop­ment of Woodward’s will herald a larger revival in East Vancouver. He is amply confident in the area’s prospects that he’s already planning new projects in the area.

He’s not the only one.

Purchasers and tenants are taking a new look at surrounding areas such as Carrall Street, where a city-sponsored greenway from Chinatown to the harbour promises to integrate the east side of downtown.

Jessica Chen-Adams, a city planner active­ly participating in the greenway’s development as well as the revitalization initiative for Chinatown, doesn’t expect change to happen overnight, but she said new projects are first steps in the area’s overall renewal.

“The community is a lot more cohesive com­pared to four years ago,” she said. “That’s very critical because that makes investment possi­ble.”

Arthur Griffiths and Lorne Milne of GMC Projects Ltd. are already building on the strength of the greenway’s promise for the area. GMC is redeveloping 1 Alexander at the green­way’s north end. Over the next year, Griffiths and Milne will upgrade and renovate the 35,000-square-foot building with an eye to securing design firms and other tenants look­ing for heritage office space.

Robert Tham, managing broker with Archer Realty Ltd., said many investors are willing to spend the money now in anticipa­tion of the area’s revival. They’re not buying with a view to tomorrow, but 2010.

“They’re looking at five years down the road, then doing something,” he said.

That hasn’t stopped net rents in areas such as Railway Street from rising to $10 and $12 a square foot, a trend also seen in the South Main area. The resurgence of the area began two years ago as trendy new restaurants, hip fashion retailers and new condo developments attracted attention to the area as the next neighbourhood to watch.

Referbishing the old Woodward’s Building (proposal at centre) is seen as a key to salvaging the still-seedy Downtown East Side.

Mount Pleasant

Today, with con-dos rising rapidly on the slopes of Mount Pleasant and south along Kingsway, strata-titled retail units have been selling for close to $400 a square foot and commercial space east of Cambie has been commanding higher rents.

New tenants are capitalizing on the neighbourhood’s growing residen­tial population as well as the prospect of the two

major retail developments in the 2200 and 2300 blocks of Cambie, said J.J. Barnicke Vancouver Ltd. broker Ryan Saunders.

Bill Goold, an apartment building special­ist with Re/Max, sees long-term potential: “East of Main Street and south of 12th is the new West Side.”

Retail rates

This is prompting turnover. Rainmaker Entertainment Group Ltd., architects and other design professionals are moving in, tak­ing up warehouse space formerly occupied by garment factories and light industrial users.

“They’ve been paying $6 a foot, but the own­ers want $8,” Saunders said. “The area is clean­ing up and it’s kind of a funky, cool area to be in.”

Typical retail lease rates vary widely across the East Side, Saunders explained. Space on the Downtown East Side ranges from $12 to $18 per square foot; Gastown is in the $12 to $25 per square foot range and Main Street space goes from $10 per square foot to as high as $35 per square foot in prime areas near 17th Ave.

Industrial space

East Vancouver also has a selection of indus­trial properties and prices for the land has sky-rocketed in the past year. Sale prices for industrial buildings sit between $85 and $130 per square foot, but typically average $95 a square foot.

For prime commercial buildings the price can be as high as $180 per square foot and, according to a survey taken earlier this year, $1 million an acre for East Vancouver industrial land is not uncommon.

Industrial lease rates are in the $5.57 to $7.00 per square foot zone for existing buildings. Like most of Greater Vancouver there is pressure for rezoning of industrial land to residential and retail space.

With projects such as the 78-home Brix by Pacific Rim Property Developments Ltd. springing up on Commercial Drive and plan­ning underway for the $400 million redevel­opment of the East Fraserlands, the gentrication of the blue-collar East Side appears set to con­tinue for years to come.~