Derrick Penner
Sun

RESORTS I Vancouver-based Intrawest Corp. pre-sold 213 of the first 256 units it put on the market in its Florida Village of Imagine development for $83 million US to cap off what the company said was its biggest month in resort real-estate sales at $534 million US.

“Our record results in December are representative of the strong demand we continue to experience for our real estate in both mountain and warm-weather locations,” Intrawest chairman and CEO Joe Houssian said in a press release.

Intrawest’s holiday ski operations were dogged by bad weather in Whistler and a strike at its Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec. On the real estate side, however, the company launched four resort projects selling 93 per cent of the units offered, including the $425-million US sellout of the first phase in Intrawest’s Honua Kai resort on Maui.

The Village of Imagine, located in Orlando near the Orange County convention centre, is Intrawest’s second resort development in Florida following its Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort.

Intrawest also launched the Etoile du Matin project in Tremblant, Quebec and Lewis Ranch at its Copper Mountain, Colo. resort.

Houssian said the warm-weather properties will allow Intrawest to increase its annual unit-delivery rate.

“Our focus on accelerating the development of our real estate pipeline is paying off and we are confident that demographics will continue to drive demand for our real estate,” he added.

In a news release, the company said Village of Imagine is being developed as a joint venture that is owned by Orlando Village Development LP. Construction on its first phase is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2006 with completion expected in 2008. Plans call for the 12-hectare site to be developed into 1,000 condominium suites.

Intrawest shares closed at $33.77, down 12 cents in Friday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, which was 22.6 per cent higher than their six-month low of $27.55 reached Oct. 28.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

VANCOUVER I Bob Rennie seeking neighbours for eastern adventure

Michael Sasges
Sun

EAST

Presentation centre: 69 East Pender, Vancouv er

Telephone: 604-781-8189

Hours: Noon – 4 p.m., Sa – Th

Web: chinatowneast.com

Project size: 22 apartments, 2 buildings

Residence size: 1 and 2 bedrooms, 680 sq. ft. – 1,050 sq. ft.

Prices: From $329,000

Developer: Jameson Development Corp.

Architect: Walter Francl Architect Inc.

Interior design: mcfarlaneGreen Architecture + Design Inc.

Construction completion: February, 2007

David Polinsky divides his year between Miami Beach and Vancouver. He and a partner have just spent more than $1 million on two of the bigger upper-storey apartments in the East new-home project in Chinatown.

(Stay a newspaperman in one town long enough and the improbable and unimaginable will inevitably show up in your opening paragraphs . . . “divides his year . . .” and “$1 million on two . . . apartments . . . in Chinatown.”)

Polinsky, a San Francisco native, is 44 years old and retired, “from high-tech.”

“My biggest current hobbies are sailing, skiing and investing in real estate.”

Ownership in a previous collaboration between the Walter Francl architectural practice and the Jameson development company, Shaughnessey Mansions at 15th and Granville, was one factor in their East decision.

Bob Rennie, one of North America’s most successful real-estate agents, was another.

About Jameson, Polinsky comments: “I think they always do creative projects which are a real cut above the mostly cookie-cutter condos which you see from other, larger downtown developers.”

About the architect, he reports: “They do very clean and practical floor plans, with modern, European styling in the kitchens and baths. At the same time the building exterior should blend well with the existing structures on the street, which include some of the oldest, and best preserved, buildings in downtown Vancouver.”

In fact, the oldest building in Chinatown is right new door to the East project, the Wing Sang building, erected in 1889 and subsequently added on to.

(opening paragraphs . . . “divides his year . . .” and “$1 million on two . . . apartments . . . in Chinatown.”)

Polinsky, a San Francisco native, is 44 years old and retired, “from high-tech.”

“My biggest current hobbies are sailing, skiing and investing in real estate.”

Ownership in a previous collaboration between the Walter Francl architectural practice and the Jameson development company, Shaughnessey Mansions at 15th and Granville, was one factor in their East decision.

Bob Rennie, one of North America’s most successful real-estate agents, was another.

About Jameson, Polinsky comments: “I think they always do creative projects which are a real cut above the mostly cookie-cutter condos which you see from other, larger downtown developers.”

About the architect, he reports: “They do very clean and practical floor plans, with modern, European styling in the kitchens and baths. At the same time the building exterior should blend well with the existing structures on the street, which include some of the oldest, and best preserved, buildings in downtown Vancouver.”

In fact, the oldest building in Chinatown is right new door to the East project, the Wing Sang building, erected in 1889 and subsequently added on to.

The owner of the Wing Sang property, Bob Rennie, sold the East apartments to Polinsky. (“We’re wearing many hats when we sit in this block,” Rennie underreports.)

Rennie intends to locate his corporate offices and his private art collection in the older building. Jameson will manage the conversion.

The peace of mind generated by the presence next door of the guy who sold you a home, or two, sounds like this, when David Polinsky is the speaker: “East is unique in that it is the first new development in many years in this section of Chinatown. Also, this part of Pender Street is one of the most culturally interesting blocks in the city. And with the advent of Woodward’s and the Koret Lofts, as well as Rennie Marketing’s gallery next door, the neighbourhood is only going to get more dynamic over the next few years.”

Bob Rennie attributes the uniqueness of the East new-home project to the history of the property on which the two East buildings will rise. It has been either empty or awaiting re-development since the Ho Inn was destroyed by fire in 1987.

“It’s the only new development that can happen on this street because it has sat as a vacant lot, waiting for development and, then partial development for the last 15 years. There are no other new developments coming on this block,” he says.

“And the next block [100 East Pender] is either built out or [has] some heritage restoration

. . . going on, similar to what we’re doing next door [in the Wing Sang building].”

Rennie acknowledges that joining him in Chinatown is not for everyone. “. . . if you’ve lived in Vancouver all your life, and someone says to you, ‘I’m moving to Woodward’s or ‘I’m moving to Chinatown,’ you will raise eyebrows because these areas are questionable. They’ve been forgotten; they’ve been let go. God knows why.”

The East homes will be located in a new building at the right in the photo, and Bob Rennie’s corporate offices and art gallery will be located in the heritage buildings at the left.

About the insertion of a new-construction facade into a historic streetscape, Rennie comments: “The goal was to complement what’s on the street. It’s new, you can’t pretend this is the heritage building. The building next door is the heritage building. I think the newness of this shows off the heritage restoration of the building next door.

The block on which East will rise commands deep cultural and commercial loyalties. Across the street from the new-home project is the Chinese Cultural Centre and, beyond it, the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. On the same side of the street is the original Ming Wo store (below top), opened in 1917, and, representing newcomers to the block, Funhauser Decor (below bottom).

STONE AND STAINLESS

In the East homes, the features and amenities the developer is offering reflect a belief in the acumen of the new-home buyer, Rennie says. “Just because you’re doing a Woodward’s or a Chinatown, and the cost of entry has a lower land cost, doesn’t mean the consumer wants inferior product.”

Stone slab will top the kitchen counters and bathroom vanities. European cabinetry will hang above and below them.

AEG will provide the gas cooktops and wall ovens, both in stainless steel; Bosch, the dishwashers, in stainless, and the stacking washers and dryers; and Panasonic, the microwaves, again in stainless.

The developer has selected a 24-inch refrigerator from LG, in titanium, for the standard package and is offering a Liebherr 24-inch in stainless as an upgrade.

“There is a philosophy that, if you’re buying ‘cheap’ land, you will offer ‘cheap,’ inferior product,” Bob Rennie says.

“But I think the consumer is too smart, especially the consumer who understands areas are emerging in a city.”

SHARED SECURITY COST

One amenity missing from the East package, but found in other new-home projects downtown is a concierge.

“A 22-unit building can’t afford a building manager on its own,” Rennie says. “The maintenance fees would be too high.”

East’s developer and Rennie have decided he and the eventual owners of the East homes will share the cost of a resident manager, who will look after his office and gallery and their homes.

“It’s no different than on Burnaby street [in the West End] . . . three buildings sharing night-time security of a patrolman on a bike who goes through the parkades.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Sun

The developer of the Terminus new-home project in Gastown reports that, as a source of building materials, the 115-year-old Grand Hotel is more than meeting expectations.

“We have been very pleased that so much of the original brick in the Grand is suitable for ‘facing’ material,” Robert Fung of The Salient Group says.

“We will be facing the entire west and south facades of the new Terminus project, as well as the upper exterior walls of the building, with original brick.”

The Terminus homes will rise on lots occupied by the Terminus and the Grand. Fung expects to begin selling them in March.

The Grand bricks defy identification, Fung reports. “We haven’t found any distinguishing marks on them that might reveal their provenance.”

Their high quality, however, means they were unlikely shipped here as ship’s ballast, he says.

The timbers that Ace Demolition is pulling out of the building also bear no maker’s marks. “It is interesting to note that though much of the building structure had suffered from severe rot and deterioration, there still remains a small amount of very good timber in various sections of the building,” Fung reports.

The sound timbers, much of the surviving interior trim material, doors and bathroom fixtures – “including some original, but very nasty, clawfoot tubs” — have been sold to heritage builders and salvage specialists.

The dismantling also turned up blocked-up windows. Some provided daylight to a series of small hotel rooms via a narrow three-foot-wide light-well. Others, in the east wall of the Grand “were bricked-up when the adjacent building to the east was constructed by the same hotelier in 1911.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Election excitement grows, Diamonds glitter at Whistler, and an old jacket leads to some new wealth

Malcolm Parry
Sun

JIM SHAW, the Shaw Communications Inc. CEO, opened the Cordova-off-Thurlow Shaw Tower with a genteel party for 600 and appropriate fireworks Wednesday.

Guest oohed at the latter and aahed at the studios in which Michael Eckford and Fiona Forbes host their Urban Rush cable-TV show and Fanny Kiefer interviews guests for her Studio 4 With Fanny Kiefer program.

Those on-camera folk circulated in a crowd that included the tower’s developer, Ian Gillespie, multibillionaire Jimmy Pattison, Liberal senator Larry Campbell and enough lawyers to form a government.

So did Shaw staffer Edmond Wong, who starred in the city-shot feature film The War Between Us and has since played a gang mastermind in the two-part miniseries Dragon Boys with Byron Mann and Hong Konger Lawrence Chu.

With its precedent-setting all-Asian cast, Dragon Boys reportedly impressed CBC-TV brass enough to have its March airing upgraded to September.

The 31-year-old Wong naturally hopes that will result in the shooting of episodes three and four.

Shaw’s behind-the-camera staff weren’t given free-run at Wednesday’s wingding. Allotted to hang guests’ coats were Kiefer’s producer, Bre Hamilton and Urban Rush producer Lisa MacFarlane. You mightn’t see that at a CBC celebration, say.

– – –

JACOB BROUWER, the insurance-adjustment firm head and long-time Conservative party bagman, was even jollier than usual at the Shaw party. The party’s rapid rise in the polls means “a lot of people are now returning my calls, and cheques are coming in every day from people who didn’t send them before,” he said.

Brouwer kibitzed with Shaw director and former Tory deputy prime minister Don Mazankowski. But neither would address rumours that, should the Tories be elected, Mazankowski would be part of a transition team in Ottawa..

Wearing a Grit-red tie, Brouwer skated around the suggestion that a change in government might see him rejoin the CN board. Brian Mulroney appointed him there to replace Liberal David McLean. Jean Chretien later derailed Brouwer and re-installed McLean, who is now chair.

Angus Reid, who sold his polling firm to the global Ipsos organization in 2000, was more overt.

“It’s coming! It’s coming,” he enthused to Mazankowski. “I know a lot of Liberals who say they’re voting Conservative this time.”

Said to be months away from re-entering the polling game, Reid greeted the prospect of a Conservative government with: “Politics is going to get interesting again from an Alberta and B.C. perspective.”

– – –

SPENCE DIAMONDS will be the draw at our town’s Plush club tonight and Garfinkels in Whistler Monday. No, Elmo, it has nothing to do with folk getting engaged. That’s the name of the Toronto DJ who’ll be spinning disks.

– – –

TONY STRACHAN pronounces his name Strawn. Son Alex, the CanWest TV reporter, favours Strah-kan. But that isn’t the item.

Rummaging through drawers recently, Strachan pere found the dust jacket to a 1932 first edition of fellow novelist Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

The book itself had long gone. But — nothing ventured — Strachan listed the jacket on e-bay. A Boston dealer soon paid $4,000 US on behalf of a collector-client who desperately wanted the jacket for the far-less-valuable book he already owned.

“And that will put me into business class,” said Strachan, packing for a vacation in Spain.

– – –

PARRYNOIA: World Gullibility Week is coming. Send $200 and I’ll give you the details.

– – –

LING HONGLING, the Lanzhou University professor, says golf was played in China 1,000 years ago — centuries before Scots claim to have invented it.

Let’s guess the professor’s anthropologist colleagues will soon link Chinese water torture to the even more agonizing bunker variety.

Locally, Gung Haggis Fat Choy organizers worry that claims for golf’s provenance may disturb the ecumenism of their annual Toddish McWong’s Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner. That Jan. 22 banquet — 604-689-0926 — raises funds for the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, Ricepaper magazine, the Save Kogawa House campaign, and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.

– – –

SHANE O’ BRIEN and Mark Reddekopp’s Third-off-Burrard Jones Gallery is showing The Grand Hotel series of paintings by Prince Edward Islander Brian Burke. The works portray various characters awake, asleep or even dead in dreary-looking beds.

You’d think O’Brien, who has a three-month-old at home, would feel mocked by the scenes of slumber. Not so. The baby has slept eight-hour stints for two months, he says — ever since nursing mother Kerry received the traditional Irish advice to drink Guinness stout.

The kid sounds like a natural to inherit an art gallery. His name is Tate.

– – –

ERIN and SEAN HEATHER sell plenty of Guinness at their Irish Heather eatery-drinkery in Gastown. And their back-of-the joint Shebeen room always has 100 rare whiskies ready for pouring.

The Hibernian mood will shift to Yorkshire Tuesday, when the Shebeen Club (folk who like literature and libation) celebrate the late Anne Bronte’s birthday with a $25 meal of ham-and-cucumber sandwiches, sherry and talk of “petticoat feminism” to follow.

– – –

GENNARO IORIO, who is executive chef at La Terrazza, will roll out a meal 20 times more costly than the Shebeen spread Feb. 9.

That’s not just for chow, mind. For $500 each, diners will receive a French premier grand cru wine with each course. After clearing their pipes with champagne, they’ll knock back a Chateau Haut-Brion 1996, Lafite Rothschild ’87, Latour ’96, Mouton Rothschild ’95. a Margaux ’97 and a Chateau d’Yquem ’94.

Some may wrap up their evening with a few hoquets — hiccups.

– – –

MATTHEW MALLON, the Vancouver magazine editor, was to have fronted the glossy monthly’s Fork + Glass event at the Vancouver Club Feb. 3. The wingding will be part of the monthly’s second-annual international wine competition.

Mallon won’t get to raise a glass at the do. But he did receive the fork recently — the pitchfork, that is.

Word is writer-publisher-editor Gary Ross will be named Monday to succeed Mallon. Ross’s previous editing gig was at the 118-year-old Saturday Night, which died another of its many deaths Oct. 20.

[email protected] — 604-929-8456

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Frances Bula
Sun

VANCOUVER I Get rid of plans for about 660 units of “modest” housing to save $8 million; reduce the number of social-housing units from about 660 to 330 to save $16 million; reduce the number of child-care centres from five to three to save $3.2 million.

But keep the full-size community centre, boating facility, and parks for the future community of about 16,000 people in Southeast False Creek.

Those are the recommendations from city manager Judy Rogers if Vancouver’s new Non-Partisan Association council wants to reduce its investment in Vancouver’s last big block of empty land near the downtown.

The previous council had decided to invest that money from the city’s $1.2-billion property endowment fund in order to create a model sustainable, mixed community, with a significant component of social housing and “affordable” housing in the approximately 2,000 planned units — one-third for each.

The much-awaited staff report, issued late Friday, gives council various options for revising the former council’s plan that offer councillors choices between cutting all of the “modest” housing component or just part of it, reserving up to 29 per cent of the future housing units for social housing, reducing the size of the community centre, and finding $10 million from other sources for parks.

But Rogers makes strong recommendations for having no “modest housing” component at all in the development and the minimum 20-per-cent social-housing requirement.

Rogers says the city was anticipating having to discount its land to future private bidders by $8.3 million to reduce the approximately 600 planned units of modest housing to a level considered affordable.

As well, she said “what it would look like, how it would be delivered, and how any required funding would be provided are very uncertain.”

Rogers also said councillors could try to reserve more land for social housing.

But what would be the point? “The city does not have a shortage of affordable housing sites — it has a shortage of senior government funding to support construction of the buildings.”

But Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie was appalled at the report.

“Our worst [fears] are being confirmed that only the very rich will be able to live in our city.

“Southeast False Creek was an opportunity for us as a city to look for unique opportunities to make the city inclusive in all housing price levels.”

The staff report didn’t recommend any more extensive changes than that because it would have meant having to open up the whole plan to a new set of public hearings, which would delay building of the Olympic village.

Four Vancouver development companies who have been short-listed to bid on the village, which must have a minimum of 250 social-housing units, are supposed to be putting in their bids by Jan. 30.

The staff report acknowledges that some decisions can’t be reversed, which means staff haven’t been able to come up with a way to recover all $50 million of costs and lost profits for the land.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

LEPAGE REPORT I Nationally, prices strong

Sun

B.C.’s booming economy continued to drive home prices in Vancouver and Victoria with both areas registering doubledigit gains over the last year.
   A fourth-quarter report released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services said in Vancouver, the average price of a standard condominium experienced the greatest appreciation in the city, rising 15.2 per cent, year-over-year, to $276,000, followed by the average price of a detached bungalow, which increased by 12 per cent to $550,400. A standard two-storey property in Vancouver rose by 11.4 per cent to $630,600, the survey said.
   “Vancouver is currently experiencing an economic boom, with a shortage of labour being the only limiting factor in the city’s growth,” Bill Binnie, president of Royal LePage Northshore, said in a news release. “The construction industry has been one of the most active sectors, with residential, commercial and infrastructure construction all experiencing unprecedented activity.
   “Listing inventory continues to fall short of demand despite the number of new construction projects,” Binnie said. “As the city continues to grow along with our economy, these tight market conditions are expected to persist for years to come.”
   Victoria’s real estate market remained the country’s leader in the fourth quarter of 2005, the survey said. Condominiums in the city continued to enjoy the highest-price appreciation with the average price increasing 30 per cent, yearover-year, to $221,000.
   Nationally, housing prices remained strong in the fourth quarter of 2005 and should rise about six per cent this year on average, Royal LePage said. But the number of homes sold will likely drop, bringing the market into balance and giving buyers more clout in the market, says Phil Soper, CEO of Royal LePage Real Estate Services.
   “We’ve been climbing this mountain. We reached the top in 2005 and now we’re on a very high plateau,” said Soper.
   According to Thursday’s report, the average price of a two-storey home in Canada rose seven per cent, yearover-year, to $327,269 in the fourth quarter of 2005.
   Increases ranged from 21.2 per cent in Victoria (to $325,000), to 15.5 per cent in Calgary ($245,089), 13.2 per cent in Winnipeg, 11.6 per cent in Vancouver ($630,750), 10.2 per cent in Halifax (180,500), four per cent in Toronto ($443,737) and 2.6 per cent in Montreal ($301,181).
   A sound and growing economy in Central and Atlantic Canada is fuelling moderate price increases, while demand for houses in the energy-rich West caused prices to surge, Soper said.
   Soper says buying activity peaked in 2005, pushing the market into the next stage of the housing cycle this year, as the number of homes sold is expected to fall by three per cent.
Overview
Here are some selected average prices from the Royal LePage Q4 survey:
   Vancouver
Standard condominium:
$276,000 +15.2%
Detached bungalow:
$550,400 +12.0%
Standard two-storey:
$630,600 +11.4%
   North Vancouver
Standard condominium:
$241,000 +13.7%
Detached bungalow:
$500,000 +11.1%
Standard two-storey:
$600,000 +11.1%
   West Vancouver
Standard condominium:
$360,000 +9.1%
Detached bungalow:
$720,000 +10.8%
Standard two-storey:
$795,000 +10.4%
   Source: Royal LePage

Vancouver still most expensive

Ashley Ford
Province

Victoria, not Vancouver, had the dubious distinction of having the fastest-growing housing prices in Canada over the last quarter, says Royal LePage in its latest house-price survey.

However, Vancouver continues to hold the crown for the most expensive housing in the country by a long margin. The report said the average price of a two-storey home in Canada rose seven per cent, year-over-year, to $327,269 in the fourth quarter.

Increases ranged from 21.2 per cent in Victoria to $325,000, 15.5 per cent in Calgary to $245,089, 13.2 per cent in Winnipeg to $200,857, 11.6 per cent in Vancouver to $630,750, 10.2 per cent in Halifax to $180,500, four per cent in Toronto to $443,737 and 2.6 per cent in Montreal to $301,181.

Royal predicts housing prices will continue to creep up this year, rising an average six per cent. But it also says home sales will start to dip this year, bringing some hoped- for balance back in the market, said Phil Soper, CEO of Royal LePage Real Estate Services.

“We’ve been climbing this mountain. We reached the top in 2005 and now we’re on a very high plateau,” said Soper.

Soper says buying activity peaked last year, pushing the market into the next stage of the housing cycle this year, as the number of homes sold is expected to fall by three per cent.

“We’ve lived through a seller’s market now for several years, in which if you owned a home and didn’t have to move into another one, it was a great time, because you had many more people looking at your property,” he added.

“We’re coming to a period now where that demand has been satisfied, and where buyers and sellers are entering into negotiations on a more equal footing.”

But, he agrees, the surging economies in Western Canada could see house prices climb above the national average this year in B.C. and Alberta particularly.

Earlier this week, Statistics Canada released data showing the prices of new homes rose by about five per cent in 2005 for the third year in a row.

“The upward pressure on home prices continues,” says BMO Nesbitt Burns chief economist Sherry Cooper.

© The Vancouver Province 2006