Encouraging trend shows that giant dwellings really can be green

Kim Davis
Sun

Canadians certainly like their space. Since the mid-1940s the average Canadian home size has increased by half, but the average number of residents/dwelling has decreased by nearly half. In essence, fewer people are living in bigger spaces.

At the extreme end of this trend is the megahouse: 4,000 square feet or more of living space. And like a growing number of other homeowners, megahouse owners are beginning to embrace green design.

A local wood supplier I know was recently contacted by a couple looking to use more environmentally responsible materials in the new home they are building. As their children have all moved out, they want to downsize from their current 10,000-square-foot house to a 6,000-square-foot home and are interested in “going green.”

And then there’s the eco-conscious couple with small children who approached an environmental designer about constructing the 4,000 square-foot home of their dreams using straw bale.

Both of these examples raise an important question: Can big houses really be green?

As an aside, in the Lower Mainland, the over-all trend toward larger houses seems to be shifting. Cameron Muir of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says metro Vancouver house sizes have probably reached their peak and will henceforth start to level off in response to the increasing scarcity of large lots in and around Vancouver. More and more municipalities are reducing lot sizes and encouraging higher densities (and therefore multi-family units) in an effort to control sprawl and its associated economic and environmental impacts.

This being said, there are still big lots out there, and for those who can afford it, few pass up the opportunity to fulfil their greatest spatial desires. More often than not, this translates into the megahouse.

So what does going green mean at this scale?

On the one hand, there are those who say that big green homes simply miss the point, and are merely “veneer green.” While homeowners may have a sincere desire to select products better for their own health and that of the environment, critics believe that dwellings at these larger scales, unless housing a large family, ultimately neglect one of the fundamental principles underlying sustainability — resource conservation.

While these homeowners’ commitment to environmentally preferable products is admirable, it is hard to ignore the fact that big houses require a sizable amount of materials to build and operate. For example, a conventional, medium-sized home uses less energy than a high-efficiency large home. To some environmental design and development professionals, homeowners who build large green homes fundamentally lack the “deep green” lifestyle commitment critical to sustainable design, development, and living.

On the other hand, there is the attitude that “at least they are doing them green.” According to this view, we must accept that there will always be people who want to build giant houses. (One builder’s client was frustrated that his municipality would not allow him to build a home bigger than 7,000 square feet on his property!)

And if they are going to build such large homes regardless, it is certainly better that they do so using sustainable materials and practices. Following basic market principles, this helps promote manufacturers and suppliers of environmental products and services, which in turn helps increase the demand for these products. This ultimately aids in bringing down prices and making them more accessible to the average consumer.

Noting this positive impact of green megahouses, Muir describes their respective homeowners as early adopters: People who have the financial means and want the cachet associated with particular products or services, i.e. eco-chic, healthy homes.

These early adopters provide eco-minded companies and suppliers with hands-on experience and the opportunity to promote their product. “Consumers are educated through desire,” says Muir. “It is commodity fetishism. It is not about the actual product, but rather the feeling it evokes.”

Big homes, have for millenia represented the luxurious ideal for many societies. While building them today blatantly ignores at least one of the key principles of sustainability (i.e. resource conservation), when done in the green tradition, they arguably become a powerful market force for change.

As Muir points out, “academic arguments don’t really sell products.”

“Consumers demand something because they aspire to it, but the message, the ideal, needs to be conveyed.”

While homeowners planning to build big green homes need to realize the inherent contradictions of such projects, it is far better to build green and big than just big.

Conventional megahouses may epitomize the pervasive denial of environmental degradation, but their eco-counterparts could play a pivotal role in inspiring consumers to adopt sustainable ideals for their homes.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

susan M. Boyce
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Glasgow building to be modelled on it

Randy Boswell
Province

Peter Wall and One Wall Centre. DAVID CLARK — THE PROVINCE

Architects in Glasgow who have announced plans for the tallest structure ever built in Scotland say an acclaimed new Vancouver skyscraper was the “inspiration” for their project, which is designed to kickstart a modern regeneration of the ancient city.

One Wall Centre, a gleaming, 48-storey housing-hotel hybrid that has become a landmark on Vancouver‘s skyline, was described yesterday by David McNaughton, one of the Scottish architects, as “a modern icon of Canada.”

He added that with so much of Canada‘s architecture shaped by 19th-century Scottish stonemasons, “It’s nice to have architectural echoes back across the pond.”

The Vancouver tower, completed in 2001 and named the world’s best new skyscraper at the time, is British Columbia‘s tallest building.

Designed by the Vancouver firm Busby, Perkins and Will, One Wall Centre was the first high-rise in Canada to combine residential and hotel floors, and it pioneered a host of “green” features that reduce electricity use and greenhouse-gas emissions.

Its eye-shaped footprint and extremely slender construction have been hailed as unique, and the building was named B.C.’s top engineering project in 2002, partly for a series of innovations that ensure its stability in the face of high winds and earthquakes.

McNaughton, who is designing Glasgow’s version of the tower with partner Bob Ramage, said the city is infamous for “large, grim tower blocks” built after the Second World War and which have communicated a sense of “misery and desolation” to the world.

But with the city poised to invest about $3 billion for a massive urban-renewal program, a still-unidentified consortium has proposed the 42-storey building modelled on One Wall Centre as a gateway landmark in Glasgow’s east end.

Soaring 10 floors higher than any existing building in the city, the new tower would — like its Canadian counterpart — offer a mix of commercial units, hotel space and condominiums.

“From a professional point of view, it is the opportunity of a lifetime for me,” Ramage told reporters at Wednesday’s announcement of the project.

“It will not look exactly like One Wall, but when one is involved in a project like this, such structures become an inspiration.”

George Redmond, a Glasgow councillor who chairs the city’s facelift commission, told reporters Wednesday that “the skyscraper will be a legacy of Scotland‘s biggest renewal development.”

McNaughton said he and Ramage pored over architectural publications from around the world before they discovered One Wall Centre.

“We said, ‘Wow, that’s the kind of thing we would like to do.'”

They asked a friend in Vancouver to send pictures of the building and plan to visit the B.C. skyscraper as part of their own planning and development of the Glasgow tower.

McNaughton said they have completed initial drawings of the proposed building but are not yet releasing the images.

David Dove, a principal architect with Busby Perkins and Will, said Glasgow‘s planned imitation of One Wall Centre “certainly is flattering” and “we’ll be very anxious to see what their building looks like.”

© The Vancouver Province 2005

Ashley Ford
Province

Jewel Nomani contends that he is acting to protect his investment. SAM LEUNG — THE PROVINCE

A long simmering, bitter civil war has broken into the open between investors at Le Soleil Hotel, one of downtown Vancouver‘s better known boutique hotels.

The battlefield, already littered with more lawsuits and counterclaims than a bad mosquito day in Winnipeg, now sees the hotel with two reception desks to welcome guests.

Vancouver hotel figure and businessman Zul Somani’s Sunbelt Hotel Management Services Ltd. and Executive Inc. runs hotel operations through an affiliate, Le Soleil Hospitality Inc.

But, on the second floor, 567 Hornby Apartments Ltd., led by investors Jewel Nomani and Vancouver medical practitioner Dr. Andrew Louie have opened their own reception desk.

This seemingly bizarre business arrangement is virtually unheard of and is merely the latest development in a complex drama that has dragged in investors from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia the U.S., Bahrain and Canada.

Trying to cut through the legal maze — at last count there were something like 14 active lawsuits pending — is a test in itself, but in essence, it boils down to a battle for control by investors over their investments.

Somani says there are close to 100 units in the hotel pool, while 567 claims control of 31 rooms, which they are attempting to rent out. 567 has changed all the locks on its doors, managed to put in its own telephone line, runs its own website and has a Vancouver City licence to operate as a hotel.

“We also have our own concierge, cleaners and laundry services,” says Nomani.

The pair say they have the potential over the next few months to bring 60-64 rooms under their control.

Nomani said Louie’s rooms had been empty for a year before the pair acted to protect their investments and “we are now getting revenue from our rooms.”

Nomani, a Vancouver businessman says that Somani has gained control of the strata council and he and Louie are merely moving to protect and enhance their investments and produce revenue.

The pair also believe Somani is attempting to buy up units from other investors on the cheap by offering under-market prices.

“His game plan is to try and get total control of a building that cost $34 million for around $16 million. He has a powerful legal team and they keep throwing out lawsuits hoping to exhaust the remaining investors into selling to him,” Nomani says.

However, Somani refuted that outright and says he only owns one unit in the building.

“I am not in the business of buying and selling suites but we have investors who want to,” he said in an interview yesterday.

He said he has never heard of two reception desks in a hotel in Vancouver and says he doesn’t believe it will work.

The soft-spoken Louie says it is a “filthy war and I got tired of being kicked around.”

Investors, mainly from Singapore, initially paid between $240,000 and $280,00 for their units. Recent room sales have been in the $160,000 to $170,000 range.

Le Soleil opened its doors for business in1999 with 128 units, 119 rooms, at a cost of approximately $35 million. It was developed by American Corporate Suites (Canada) Inc. led by then Vancouver businessman Barry Hong.

American went bankrupt and the receivers sold the hotel’s common property leases, including the car park and lobby areas to Sunbelt for $1.53 million, a sale approved in 2002 by receiver D. Manning and Associates of Vancouver.

One of many lawsuits claims Sunbelt‘s leases of the common property are not valid as they were sold without the owner’s permission.

The Singapore Straits Times quotes Singaporean management consultant K.W.Tan, a Le Soleil investor, saying Sunbelt is forcing the owners to sell their units at a loss by holding on to common areas essential to hotel operations.

Somani denied in an e-mail to the paper that Sunbelt is causing owners to sell their units at very low prices. “In the past, we’ve bought units offered for sale either in the open market or directly offered to us by individual owners,” Somani said in his e-mail..

Sharookh Daroowala, president of the LMS 3837 strata council of the hotel said in an interview yesterday that “the January 2005 elections to the strata council were fair and square and conducted and supervised by Crosbie Property Management Ltd. who oversees maintenance of the property.

“Mr. Nomani and his group unsuccessfully tried to control the strata council but lost by a wide majority,” he said.

“Le Soleil Hospitality Inc. has commenced legal proceedings against Mr. Nomani and Dr. Louie and others alleging breach of fiduciary duty, breach of confidence, conspiracy, wrongful interference with contractual relations, inducing breach of their contract and have applied for an injunction restraining Nomani and others from further participation.

“Originally the Somani group was at odds with approximately 90 owners, but most of them have since settled their differences and given the units to Le Soleil Hospitality Inc. to manage or have sold their units.”

Daroowala said the injunction application will be heard next month. Well over $2 million has been spent in legal fees in the last three years, he added.

An irony: Last year the hotel was named by influential Conde Nast Traveller magazine as one of “the world’s best places to stay.”

Architects says One Wall Centre just the shape they need for city renewal project

Randy Boswell
Sun

VANCOUVER SUN FILES One Wall Centre, the tallest highrise in Vancouver at 48 storeys, is the model for a 42-storey proposal in Glasgow

Architects in Glasgow who have announced plans for the tallest structure in Scotland say an acclaimed Vancouver skyscraper was the “inspiration” for their project, which is designed to launch a modern regeneration of the ancient city.

One Wall Centre, the gleaming 48-storey housing-hotel hybrid that has become a landmark on Vancouver‘s skyline, was described Thursday by David McNaughton, one of the Scottish architects, as “a modern icon of Canada.”

He added that with so much of Canada‘s architecture shaped by 19th-century Scottish stonemasons, “It’s nice to have architectural echoes back across the pond.”

The Vancouver tower’s eye-shaped footprint and extremely slender construction have been hailed as unique, and the building was named B.C.’s top engineering project in 2002, partly for a series of innovations that ensure its stability in the face of high winds and earthquakes.

McNaughton, who is designing Glasgow‘s version of the tower with partner Bob Ramage, said the Scottish city is infamous for “large, grim tower blocks” built after the Second World War and which have communicated a sense of “misery and desolation.”

But with Glasgow poised to invest about $3 billion in a massive urban renewal program, a still-unidentified consortium has proposed a 42-storey building modeled on One Wall Centre as a gateway landmark in Glasgow’s east end.

Soaring 10 floors higher than any existing building in the city, the new tower would — like its Canadian counterpart — offer a mix of commercial units, hotel space and condominiums.

“From a professional point of view, it is the opportunity of a lifetime for me,” Ramage told reporters at Wednesday’s announcement of the project. “It will not look exactly like One Wall, but when one is involved in a project like this, such structures become an inspiration.”

George Redmond, a Glasgow councillor who chairs the city’s facelift commission, told reporters Wednesday that “the skyscraper will be a legacy of Scotland‘s biggest renewal.”

McNaughton said he and Ramage pored over architectural publications from around the world before they discovered One Wall Centre.

“We said, ‘Wow, that’s the kind of thing we would like to do.'”

They asked a friend in Vancouver to send pictures of the building, and plan to visit the B.C. skyscraper as part of their own planning and development of the Glasgow tower.

McNaughton said they have completed initial drawings of the proposed building but are not yet releasing the images.

David Dove, a principal architect with Busby Perkins and Will, said Glasgow‘s planned imitation of One Wall Centre “certainly is flattering” and “we’ll be very anxious to see what their building looks like.”

VANCOUVER TOWER AN INSPIRATION:

Scottish architects say One Wall Centre is the model for a planned highrise that will be Scotland‘s tallest building. Details of B.C.’s tallest building:

– Completed in 2001.

– Designed by Busby, Perkins and Will.

– 48 storeys tall.

– Combines residential and hotel space, pioneers “green” features that reduce electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions.

– Honoured as world’s best new skyscraper (2001), B.C.’s top engineering project (2002).

Ran with fact box “Vancouver Tower An Inspiration”, which has been appended to the end of the story.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

An adjustment in the economy south of the border would affect B.C. as well

Michael Kane
Sun

Spendthrift American consumers have set the stage for a dramatic economic slowdown that will spill across the Canadian border, a bank economist said Thursday.

Even if U.S. house prices don’t contract but simply increase at a more normal pace, the waning “wealth effect” will have a big impact on consumer spending, TD Bank’s Beata Caranci said.

That will hurt Canadian exports from lumber to manufactured goods and services, like tourism, although the impact on B.C. will be partly cushioned by trade links with Asia.

“Our economy is so intimately tied with that of the United States that any significant change in their economic performance will usually be reflected on this side of the border,” said Werner Knittel, B.C. vice-president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. “They are our single biggest customer, so if they slow down, our folks are going to slow down. B.C. is little more diversified than other parts of Canada, but if the U.S. consumer stops spending, the chances are we are going to see a fairly significant hit.”

Both Knittel and John Winter, president and CEO of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, said the study highlights the need for businesses to reduce their reliance on the U.S. and develop other markets.

Winter noted that B.C. exports machinery, plastics and finished products to the U.S., as well as lumber. He said tourism, already being hurt by relatively high gas prices, will suffer more if Americans sit on their wallets.

Caranci argues the U.S. expansion is on “borrowed time” because rising interest rates will increasingly pinch consumer budgets and moderate home refinancing, which has accounted for as much as half of the growth in real consumer spending over the past two-and-a-half years.

At best, she says higher interest rates will slow the U.S. economy by the second half of 2006. But if consumer confidence is seriously undermined, or if a protracted house price correction takes hold, she says U.S. economic growth could slow to a crawl.

Unlike previous house price corrections, Caranci acknowledges there is no housing glut and demand is underpinned by low interest rates, low inflation and low unemployment, although affordability is already eroding in a number of regions.

However, she said the size of personal debt burdens and credit — made easy through interest-only loans and home equity lines of credit — is one variable not prevalent in prior boom cycles. “This introduces an entirely new element of risk that has yet to be tested.”

Other economists are more optimistic. Patti Croft, who first warned about a U.S. housing bubble more than a year ago, said consumers account for 70 per cent of U.S. economic activity, and will eventually slow spending to Canada‘s detriment. But she said the conditions that usually prompt a real estate decline — tighter monetary policy, rising mortgage rates and rising unemployment — are not in place.

Croft, chief economist at Vancouver-based Phillips, Hager & North, noted that U.S. borrowers can write off the interest on mortgage loans, and about 75 per cent of their outstanding debt is at fixed rates which makes them less vulnerable to the current tightening cycle in short-term rates.

“The other thing with houses is that prices don’t normally collapse. So when we talk about a bubble bursting, it is not like the stock market where the bottom literally falls out,” Croft said. “Ordinarily, when you do get a correction in housing, it is more of a drift as opposed to a collapse, so that’s a mitigating factor as well.”

Helmut Pastrick, chief economist at the B.C. Credit Union Central, said U.S. interest rates are not expected to rise rapidly because the goal of the U.S. Federal Reserve is engineer a “soft landing” and slow growth.

“There are concerns that housing has had such a long run in the U.S. that it could be due for a correction but that remains to be seen,” Pastrick said. “Housing has surprised everybody on the upside and low rates have been the main reason for that. I don’t think they will shoot up to critical levels.”

Laura Jones, B.C. vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, described the TD study as “a bit of a cloud on the horizon, but nothing to get too alarmed about.” And forests analyst Craig Campbell said there is nothing to cause a spike in U.S. interest rates and slow down the general demand for housing.

“There is a lot of speculation and conjecture about the so-called housing bubble but the fundamentals do not support that,” said Campbell, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Vancouver.

He noted that U.S. homes are getting bigger, and remodelling and renovations are at record levels. Much of the spending is by older baby boomers who are relatively financially secure.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

A signage bylaw could threaten corporate funding for the arts, festival director says

Marke Andrews
Sun

CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun Because of a bylaw, the new Vancity Theatre will not be allowed to carry a sign with that name, which organizers say could put its funding in jeopardy. Vancity provided nearly $1 million in sponsorship funds for the project.

CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun With a city policy on naming rights at least six months away, Alan Franey, director of the Vancouver International FIlm Festival, fears for the future of much-needed corporate sponsorship in the arts.

The Vancity Theatre, new home of the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), will open in less than three weeks. But if you drive around looking for it, you won’t see any signage identifying the downtown venue.

That’s because the city of Vancouver will not permit corporations or individuals to put their names on the exterior of buildings that are owned or managed by the city because it violates the city’s sign bylaw, and the city will not negotiate case-by-case situations until it has a policy on naming rights, which is not likely to be drafted for another six months.

The city’s sign bylaw prohibits what’s called third-party advertising, which includes a corporate name on the outside of a building where that corporation has no presence.

Vancity, which gave almost $1 million to the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society (GVIFFS) to build the 175-seat theatre at 1181 Seymour St., is regarded as a third party because it does not have a branch office in the building. Vancity can have interior signage at the Vancouver International Film Centre, which also houses the film festival’s offices, a production room and a media and arts gallery.

Alan Franey, VIFF director, said there is a possibility that Vancity could ask the society to pay back the money the corporation gave it, which has already been spent on the building.

“If that’s the case, do you know anyone who wants to buy a brand new projector or sound equipment?” Franey asked with a shrug, eyeing the theatre speakers, which sat in boxes at the front of the theatre.

Franey said the non-profit society just doesn’t have that kind of money to give back, and worries about the future of the festival.

Even though the society had a deal with Vancity more than two years ago to name the space the Vancity Theatre, a July 21 Vancouver city services and budgets meeting prohibited the naming. At the meeting, it was ruled that no city-owned or city-leased facility would carry a sponsor’s or individual’s name on the exterior of the structure until the city comes up with a policy on naming rights, which likely won’t occur before next spring. Council also said it would not have any one-on-one meetings with parties to negotiate an exception to the sign bylaw.

Heather Redfern, executive director of the Alliance for Arts & Culture, attended the meeting and said that the city effectively tied its hands over dealing with case-by-case appeals.

“There are several projects [in the city] at the point where the pieces are coming together,” said Redfern. “With corporate funding, the lead gift is often a naming gift, and that is a significant piece.

“For council to put a six-to-12-month moratorium on any decisions on naming civic buildings, it’s made it impossible for anyone to bring an appeal to them.”

Christina Medland, senior cultural planner for the city, said the VIFF never came to the city for a one-on-one meeting regarding this issue.

“At council [the society] said that they entered into this agreement two-and-a-half years ago, but they did not come to council,” said Medland, who said the issue of putting Vancity’s name on the exterior is a sign bylaw issue, not a naming-rights issue.

The city does not own the $3 million building, but manages it. Amacon, the developer of the property, originally had plans to build a residential tower at Seymour and Davie Streets, and was given approval by the city to build a second residential tower on Seymour if it also built the film centre, which anchors the two residential towers.

As a sub-tenant of the building, the GVIFFS will not pay rent, but will pay the city an endowment of $100,000 a year. Franey said the sum is reasonable; the society was paying an annual rent of $80,000 at its old building on Homer Street.

Franey is concerned that this issue will scare corporations away from sponsoring arts groups and arts events, where federal, provincial and civic money is harder to come by the farther you move away from central Canada.

Ray Comeau, Vancity marketing manager, met for several hours with Franey Wednesday afternoon, after which he said he will continue to meet with the society to figure out a solution.

Asked if Vancity may ask for the nearly $1 million back from the society, Comeau said, “We haven’t made that decision. We will continue to dialogue with VIFF at this time, and help them as much as we possibly can.

“This is a disappointment for us,” said Comeau. “We entered into this a couple of years ago in the hopes that it would culminate with this year’s festival.”

The Vancouver International Film Centre hosts its first event Sept. 7, with a media conference for the film festival, and hold movie screenings at the theatre shortly after the media conference. The Vancouver International Film Festival Trade Forum will be held there Sept. 28 – Oct. 1, and the film festival (Sept. 29 – Oct. 14) will screen movies at the theatre daily.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

New Cambie Street location customized for neighbourhood’s condo dwellers

Wendy McLellan
Province

CREDIT: Gerry Kahrmann, The Province Ross Saito’s new Canadian Tire store is designed for downtown urban shoppers.

Take just a few steps into the brand-new Canadian Tire store on Cambie Street in Vancouver and it’s clear that something is different.

The place is huge, bright and bursting with merchandise.

But instead of shelves full of automotive parts and perplexing fix-it gadgets, there’s high-end kitchen equipment and hardwood floors.

There are leather sofas in the paint department, upscale bathroom displays and, in the automotive-service department, the waiting room has slate floors, plasma TVs and a wireless Internet connection, not to mention the complimentary shuttle service and free (alcohol-free) wet bar.

“You can still get all the tools and stuff, but it’s not front and centre,” said Ross Saito, owner of the new store which officially opens today.

“Here, you walk in the doors and see home decor — the tools are the last thing you see.”

The store is designed for a different market than the typical Canadian Tire, said Saito, who has eight Canadian Tire franchises in the Lower Mainland. Surrounded by False Creek condominiums and just across the bridge from Yaletown, it was designed with urban dwellers in mind — especially those with a taste for some of the finer brands.

The 63,000-square-foot store still sells the usual range of camping supplies, motor oil and drill bits, but it also has new home decor “boutiques” with items for every room in the house, including the patio.

“This is very unique for a Canadian Tire — it’s the only one in the country,” Saito said. “With our city location, we tried to change the design to cater to our customers in the area. It’s really more like a department store.”

The new store was a $10-million investment for Saito, who owned the traditional style store that was bulldozed nearly two years ago to make way for the new model.

“It’s a gamble, but I don’t think it’s a big one,” he said. “I know the demand from the old store — and there’s no Home Depot or Wal-Mart next door.”

Canadian Tire has been replacing or renovating its older-style stores across the country with a more modern look as part of its five-year strategic plan, said Mark Foote, president of company’s retail division.

The new design, called Concept 20/20, includes a different layout, more products in several categories and an expanded assortment of items, including home-office supplies and greeting cards.

Skylights, wood finishes on interior fixtures, and big-screen displays are aimed at giving the customer a warmer, department-store shopping experience.

Saito’s Cambie Street store takes the new style a step further by customizing the design for people who live in the heart of the city.

“This flagship store in Vancouver is unlike any other Canadian Tire store and is a great example of how we used a strategic and innovative design to offer our customers in the urban market an outstanding and completely unique shopping experience,” Foote said.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

Layout no longer designed just for dad

Fiona Anderson and Darah Hansen
Sun

CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun Canadian Tire’s Ross Saito chats with customers Lloyd Macil Quham, his wife, Swan, and sons Hanxi and Deniston at the new Cambie Street store, holding its official opening today.

Hardwood floors, sleek leather chairs designed for customer comfort, brighter lighting and modern, urban decorative displays set out over 63,000 square feet of merchandising space will greet shoppers today as the newly designed Canadian Tire officially opens on Cambie Street.

The style of the new store is a deliberate move to try to attract more female shoppers, said Mark Foote, head of marketing for the hardware retailer.

It replaces the old-style format that typically featured a dense display of merchandise in boxes stacked high on shelves between narrow shopping aisles. That style, said Foote, tended to appeal best to the male shopper and children up to the age of 14 years.

“But we’ve never been a good enough store for mom,” Foote said. “She’s been there, but we’ve designed the store more around dad.”

According to Foote, female shoppers have traditionally represented 50 per cent of foot traffic in their stores, but only 35 per cent of consumer spending. Research conducted by the company showed women “were not inspired enough to really want to shop for some of the things we think we can sell,” he said.

Three years ago, the company began its push to change those figures, looking to add 20-per-cent growth to its bottom line, said Foote. Attracting the female shopper proved the key to achieving that revenue target.

Foote said the Cambie Street store is its most “forward-thinking” example of what will inspire women to shop.

“It’s nice and bright and colourful like most new Canadian Tire stores, but the designs are quite different and the front entrance of the store is not like any other Canadian Tire store,” he said. “You don’t see tools and automotive when you walk in.”

The differences you will see are in-store boutiques, brighter lighting, and “lifestyle displays” where the products are set up so the customers can see how they should look, said associate dealer Ross Saito.

“It all comes down to the assortment, the fixtures [and] the shelving which are just more appealing to the female shopper,” Saito said.

It looks more like a department store than a hardware store, he said. There is also less focus on car oil and more on home decorations.

“We have 63,000 sq. ft. so we can do really nice displays and showcase the product in a different manner rather than just putting out boxes and boxes of stock and trying to sell it that way,” Saito said.

Canadian Tire’s plan to attract more female shoppers is based on good business. Eighty-five per cent of all retail purchases are either directly or indirectly influenced by women, said John Torella, a senior partner with retail consultants, the J.C. Williams Group.

“I think what Canadian Tire is finding out is what most retailers know, which is that the female is the chief purchasing officer of the home,” Torella said in an interview.

The new store replaces the 7,000 sq. ft. Canadian Tire, with its narrow aisles and crowded shelves, that had been at the same location at Cambie St. and Seventh Ave. for more than 20 years.

“What you’ll see in the [new] store are the aisles are a lot wider [and] it’s more of a boutique feel,” Saito said.

The “boutiques” are stores within the store, with high walls separating different areas, Saito said. So when customers walk into the paint department, for example, all they see is paint.

The four-storey building includes a 5,000-sq.-ft. kitchen centre featuring high-end appliances, kitchen gadgets like cappuccino makers, and dishes. There is also a roof-top garden centre, a home decor section and a 13-bay automotive service centre with plasma television screens, laptop access and complimentary coffee and newspapers.

According to Torella, trying and succeeding to attract women shoppers is a huge challenge. Success will depend on the in-store experience — how the merchandise is displayed.

“It’s not just a rack of items. You’ve got to show it in use. You’ve got to dramatize it. You’ve got to romance it,” Torella said.

“Women place a lot more importance on the shopping,” Torella said. “Men are buyers. Women are shoppers.”

In June, U.S.-based Lowe’s Cos. Inc. announced it would be bringing its female-friendly shopping experience, with brightly-lit stores and upscale products, to Canada. Quebec-based Rona Inc., which now has 33 stores in B.C., started to transform its stores to attract women almost 10 years ago, Rona spokesman Slyvain Morissette said in an interview.

Canadian Tire operates nearly 1,100 stores, gas bars and car washes and has more than 48,000 employees across Canada.

The official opening of the Cambie store, which unofficially opened its doors Aug. 10, is scheduled for this morning.

CANADIAN TIRE’S STRATEGY TO ATTRACT FEMALE SHOPPERS

The retail chain’s new flagship store at 2290 Cambie Street is designed to attract the widest possible clientele by using:

– Lifestyle-inspired displays.

– Wide aisles, better for strollers.

– The auto service department has complimentary refreshments, wireless Internet access, luxury shuttle service, leather seating, a stone feature wall, plasma screen TVs, and a hostess who greets you upon arrival.

– Stylish West Coast apparel and footwear.

– A gourmet kitchen centre with an expanded selection of espresso machines.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

2005 is looking set to top last year’s mark for property resales, experts say

Derrick Penner, with files from Eric Beauchesne
Sun

British Columbia‘s real estate resale market will hit a record in 2005 before calming in 2006, the Canadian Real Estate Association is predicting in a revised sales forecast.

CREA chief economist Gregory Klump said the real estate market story is still dominated by low mortgage interest rates with a continuation of low rates expected to drive resales in B.C. to 102,600 by the end of the year, 6.4 per cent higher than the 96,385 resales recorded by the Multiple Listing Service in 2004.

He added that nationally, CREA is predicting a 1.1-per-cent gain from record 2004 sales, and that Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Newfoundland will also hit highs.

“Homebuyers in many markets across the country took advantage of mortgage interest-rate cuts in the second quarter of 2005, especially in British Columbia and Alberta,” Klump said.

In its earlier forecast, released this spring, the CREA predicted that home sales would decline from last year’s record.

Dave Barclay, president of the B.C. Real Estate Association, said the CREA forecast for B.C.’s real estate resales might be “a bit conservative,” and he disagrees that interest rates are the prime driving force pushing sales up.

“From a Canadian perspective that may be true,” Barclay said. “But in B.C., I think it’s more due to the strong economy.”

Barclay said increased demand for resources, rising international trade, high population migration to the province and rising wages are all combining to create a good climate for real estate sales in B.C.

Klump said that on a national scale, Canada has seen seven years of rising real estate prices, the longest run of consecutive increases recorded by CREA over the past 25 years.

In terms of consecutive annual sales increases, at five years the streak is the second longest on record, two years shy of the uninterrupted increases posted from 1983 to 1989.

And, unlike in the U.S., or during the previous 1980s housing boom in Canada which eventually went bust, there’s still no evidence of a housing price bubble in any Canadian markets that could burst, Klump said.

CREA recorded 8.2-per-cent growth in sales over the first quarter, momentum which extended into the second quarter and is expected to carry over into the third quarter.

“In addition, many homebuyers will jump into the market this fall to take advantage of pre-approved mortgage rates if the bank rate is hiked in September as widely expected,” Klump said.

It is widely expected that the Bank of Canada will raise its key overnight lending rate 25 basis points to 2.75 per cent when it meets next Sept. 7.

However, Barclay is doubtful that the bump in that key lending rate will have much of an impact on bank mortgage activity.

“Banks have been extremely aggressive at getting mortgage funds, so whether all that [increase] will be passed on to consumers, we’re not even sure,” he added.

Barclay also debates CREA predictions of a cooling of B.C. real estate sales. CREA is predicting that B.C.’s resales will drop 4.7 per cent to 97,800 in 2006. Nationally, the association believes sales will fall 3.3 per cent over 2005 figures to 451,000.

Barclay said the B.C. Real Estate Association is forecasting strong economic growth, with steady sales and house price increases for the next five years.

However, B.C.’s housing supply situation, the high debt levels of buyers and a significant investor component in the market are all risks that could dampen the market, said Andrey Pavlov, an assistant professor of finance at Simon Fraser University.

Pavlov does not believe the world’s central banks will have much appetite to raise key interest rates because of high energy prices.

“Even the U.S. [Federal Reserve] I don’t think is going to raise rates much [more] because they have a natural brake on the economy in high energy prices,” Pavlov said. “In Canada, that’s magnified by the strong Canadian dollar.”

What concerns Pavlov in B.C., and Vancouver in particular, is the province’s current boom in new housing construction.

Currently, the housing inventory is tight, he said, but at some point builders will complete the projects started by developers who sought to cash in on strong demand and high prices.

“Eventually there will be lots and lots of new units on the market, and the real question is, is income in B.C. going to grow at a fast enough pace to absorb all the supply?” Pavlov said.

He added that few people analyze the supply side when looking at the local market, although booming construction has had a dramatic effect on other world cities.

“Every major real estate market around the world has had a substantial — 10 per cent or 20 per cent or more — decline in prices for precisely the same circumstances: everybody is building as prices go up, and all of a sudden you have too much,” Pavlov said.

He added that investment buyers who are snapping up real estate with the intent of renting their properties could also be influencing the local market and driving the demand for additional supply.

Pavlov said that if enough investment buyers have difficulty renting their properties and attempt to sell, that could also help dampen the market.

He also worries about the amount of debt in relation to income that banks are allowing home buyers to take. Banks, he said, seem willing to let borrowers take loans with large loans relative to income, which leaves them vulnerable to any changes in their financial picture in terms of their ability to keep paying mortgages.

“I don’t want to be a pessimist, but there are those warning signs out there,” Pavlov said. “I just want people to think about them.”