Archive for August, 2007

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Soup line serves variety of tastes

Thursday, August 9th, 2007

The Soupmeister likes to ‘play and have fun,’ drawing on 30 years of exec chef experience

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Ralf Dauns, the Soupmeister, has 100 varieties. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun

I found out about The Soupmeister from a colleague who raves about the soup whenever she picks some up for lunch. Naturally, I needed to get to the bottom of it.

So the next time I was near Lonsdale Quay, I swung in to see what was exciting her. At Soupmeister, you can hop on the counter stool and eat right there or buy some from the cooler and heat at home.

Owner Ralf Dauns has been making these soups since 1995, summoning 30 years of cooking as exec chef at several international hotels. He was chef at Teahouse in Stanley Park (now Sequoia) from 1993 to 1994. (The Soupmeister was originally called The Stock Pot and later renamed.) He grew up on a winery/guesthouse in Germany.

Dauns has some 100 different soups and his offerings are always changing.

“I worked in the industry for 30 years. You pick up a few things here and there,” he muses. “Sometimes I play and have fun.”

The Westcoast seafood chowder with salmon, snapper, clams, shrimp, clam nectar and veggies is a good test of quality in every which way. The chunks of seafood were fresh, plentiful, and surprisingly not overcooked; flavours were quite interesting. The soup base contains lobster paste as well and chicken and tomato stock. The carrot ginger soup is creamy and rich, thanks to the cream.

His roster of soups include Irish stew, French onion, beef stew, many, many chicken soup varietals, chowders, corn and crab, Thai shrimp curry and lobster bisque, green pea with ham, German lentil with homemade spaeztle, pumpkin bisque, Hungarian cabbage, Mexican bean with chorizo, garlic mushroom.

Takeout soups come in 16- and 32-ounce sizes. The small costs $3.25 to $3.80, and the large, $6.30 to $7.20. If you eat there, a 12-ounce bowl of soup with focaccia costs $4.50 (tax included) and a 16-ounce portion is $5.25.

Yes, it’s summer and it’s hot, but if you’re at work, chances are, you’re kept nicely chilled in air-conditioned offices. And you, too, can get excited about lunch.

– – – THE SOUPMEISTER

Lonsdale Quay Market, 123 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver,

www.soupmeister.ca

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

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Italian Touch an instant hit with locals

Thursday, August 9th, 2007

A new favourite eatery for the finest in pasta comes complete with its own oceanfront view

Michelle Hopkins
Sun

Silvia and Nicu Dumitrescu of Italian Touch Restaurant in White Rock with a signature dish, Pollo Marsala with Vegetables. Photograph by : Peter Battistoni, Vancouver Sun

Locals in White Rock have been raving about one of the latest additions to the waterfront.

Italian Touch, established less than a year ago by owners Nicu and Silvia Dumitrescu, has filled a gap by giving the area a much-needed, quality Italian restaurant.

Not only does the European couple have one of the best oceanfront views on the strip, but their pasta scores high points with diners.

My White Rock friends have been raving about this decidedly upscale Italian restaurant for months, having made this their new favourite eatery. The walls are painted in warm, neutral hues and adorned with scenes and paintings depicting southern Italy. The lights were low and the tables lit with candles, which gave the room a cosy glow to go along with the spectacular ocean vista.

My dining partner, Dennis, and I requested the intimate little table by the fireplace. Our lovely young waitress, Jennifer, dazzled us with a smile and promptly offered us water and menus. The rich aroma of sauteed garlic and olive oil wafted past us as a patron tucked into some garlic bread.

A glance at the carte du jour revealed the standard Italian fare one expects but with a few little twists. A patron nearby ordered the Gamberetti — jumbo shrimp sauteed with garlic, finished with Sambuca and parsley. I politely asked if they were good and he smiled and replied, “Absolutely delicious.”

I started my meal with the Insalata di Caprese, a medley of sliced bocconcini cheese and tomatoes drizzled with reduction balsamic vinegar and fresh basil. Dennis went for the Calamari Fritti: lightly dusted squid, deepfried and served with tzaziki sauce.

My main course consisted of the Pasta Special — artichokes, sundried tomatoes and chicken in a spicy tomato sauce that was mouthwatering. Dennis was salivating because he went for the Prime Rib, and although it was good, mine was better.

Next time, I’ll have to try the Penne Quattro Formaggio, which comes highly recommended from one of my friends who eats here often.

Other signature dishes include the Veal Lemone and the Spaghetti Marco Polo, explains Silvia, who worked as an executive chef in Europe until emigrating from Romania nearly a decade ago.

“I started training when I was 17 in Romania and before we opened the Italian Touch I was sous chef at La Rustica,” she says.

Nicu, who greets everyone with a warm welcome as they enter the doors, says: “We want people to feel welcomed, to enjoy a good meal and feel like they are amongst friends here.”

– – – ITALIAN TOUCH

15077 Marine Drive, White Rock

Reservations recommended, 604-531-4044

www.italiantouch.ca

$$

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

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It’s a carnivore’s cavalcade

Thursday, August 9th, 2007

Mark Laba
Province

Raphael Lee, owner of the Bluse Stone Grill, with a combination plate. NICK PROCAYLO – THE PROVINCE

BLUE STONE GRILL

Where: #220-4501 North Rd., Burnaby

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-415-3443

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: Open from 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. every day except Wednesday

– – –

I think it’s safe to say you’d be hard-pressed to find a vegetarian in Korea. Because this is a cuisine that seems to centre around meat, meat and more meat. As exemplified by this place, where beautifully backlit photographs of raw meat are hung on the walls for ambience. As if to say, forget landscapes or paintings or any of that other artsy crap — the meat of the matter is meat itself. Nothing could be more beautiful than that. If the Mona Lisa had been rendered in pork belly and sirloin, then perhaps that would be a work of art worthy of hanging on the walls of this restaurant.

Took a trip out with Ricky Roulette and Snobby Bobby, a man who makes it his business to know everyone else’s. Here’s a guy who, no matter the ethnic restaurant, somehow ends up lecturing the owner on the country’s history and culture. Hell, this time he even threw in a few Korean phrases.

Private dining rooms similar to Japanese tatami rooms line one side of the restaurant and the rest of the place is made up of booth seating, all featuring the one essential element to this cuisine — a stone grill in the centre of each table. Here is where the miracles of meat are performed.

We started the festivities with a round of Hite beer, a Korean lager that’s almost tasteless except for a slight metallic ring to its finish. Stick to the soju instead, a rice and barley drink with a whopping alcohol content and which all the Korean diners around us were throwing back with reckless abandon.

“Y’know, when they have to deliver the food on big trolley carts piled with plastic tubs, y’know this is serious eating,” said Ricky Roulette. And so it was. Korean dining is a lengthy and social event.

Essentially, you pick your cut of meat, it’s trundled out to your table and the grilling begins. First, a series of small bowls of dipping sauces and salads and such arrive. These include two simple yet spectacular dips of yellow bean paste and a salt-and-pepper-with-sesame-oil schlimazel that will awaken any cooked beast. There’s also a shredded daikon salad with rice vinegar and a touch of chili, pungent pickled kimchi, bean sprouts with chili sauce, raw jalapeno and garlic slivers and an oddly out-of-place pasta salad.

“Ah, a medley of typical Korean pickled wonders augmented by fusili,” said Snobby Bobby.

“Just shut up and turn the meat,” Ricky Roulette replied.

And what a carnivore’s cavalcade this turned out to be. We tried the prime beef rib-eye roll ($19.95), the spicy pork ($9.95), the marinated thin-sliced rib-eye roll with mushrooms ($14.95) and the pork single-rib belly ($14.95) that resembled fat slabs of bacon. This is truly esoteric meat eating at its best, and you’d best bone up on one of those butcher’s cut-of-meat diagrams before hitting this joint. A pair of scissors is supplied along with tongs, so you can snip your meat into bite sizes. There are also all-you-can-eat affairs for $18.95 per person with two meat selections and all the accompanying condiments.

Needless to say, being a lover of edible critters, I found this feast an eye-opener as well as a tastebud shaker — and I haven’t even delved into the hot-pot offerings such as beef and small octopus yet.

“Now for dessert,” said Ricky Roulette. “What say we try that lemon meringue meat pie?”

THE BOTTOM LINE: Where meat meets its maker.

RATINGS:
Food: B+;
Service: B+
Atmosphere: B

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

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Wireless USB will help cut the cords

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

Michelle Kessler
USA Today

A customer uses a laptop during a haircut at a barbershop in East Northport, N.Y., that offers Wi-Fi service.

Dell  and Lenovo  plan to launch the first mainstream laptops equipped with Wireless USB in the next few months. The technology allows electronics, such as a PC and a printer, to communicate without cables.

Sound familiar? Bluetooth, Wi–Fi, WiMax and several other wireless technologies all do essentially the same thing: They use radio waves to send bits of data through the air.

The difference is that Wireless USB can transmit bigger chunks of information at a time. It’s fast enough to easily stream a movie from a PC to a TV. Or it can send a huge document from a PC to a printer in seconds. Most other kinds of wireless, such as Wi-Fi, are slower.

The catch: Wireless USB works well only at distances of up to about 30 feet.

The Wireless USB name may be a bit confusing, since most PCs already have USB (universal serial bus) connections. These are the paper-clip-size ports usually found on the side or back of a computer. They’re used to plug in digital cameras, music players and other electronics.

Wireless USB is designed to eventually replace these corded connections.

Much of the underlying technology behind USB and Wireless USB is the same — one version just uses wires and one sends information through the air.

Eventually, Wireless USB will be built into the inner workings of many electronics, says Dan Kelley, marketing director for network-gear-maker D-Link. When that happens, a digital camera owner may need to simply push a button to transmit photos to any designated PC within 30 feet.

But that will take a few years, because Wireless USB faces a chicken-and-egg problem, Kelley says. Few people will buy Wireless USB before there are a lot of products that have it.

But electronics makers won’t start installing Wireless USB until there’s demand. Wireless USB parts cost $5 to $15 wholesale, a sizable sum in the fiercely competitive electronics market, says tech analyst Ken Dulaney at researcher Gartner.

In the short term, add-on adapters can add Wireless USB capability to some electronics. In most cases, the adapters will plug into a regular USB port. Plug an adapter into the USB port on a digital camera, for example, and it will be able to communicate with a Wireless USB-equipped laptop. D-Link plans to launch an early model in a few weeks.

For Wireless USB to take off, electronics makers will also have to explain to consumers how it’s different from other kinds of wireless.

“There’s a lot of confusion,” says Dulaney.

There are so many different kinds of wireless technologies because each one does one thing well, says Tom Ribble, a marketing director at Lenovo.

It will take years for the many types of wireless to work out their differences and for the new technologies to become the norm, says tech analyst Bob O’Donnell at researcher IDC.

But, eventually, “there will be a whole rash of things” without wires, he says.

“It will really improve the experience (of using electronics),” Ribble says.

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Public Wi-Fi use raises hacking risk

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

Byron Acohido
USA Today

Wi-Fi users make the most of access provided at a Panera Bread in Westchester, Calif.

LAS VEGAS — Laptop road warriors beware: Wi-Fi hot spots that let you hop onto the Internet anywhere you travel leave you wide open to hackers.

The basic problem: T-Mobile and AT&T (T)— the largest providers of Wi-Fi hot spots in coffee shops, bookstores and airports — don’t require encryption of data traveling wirelessly between laptops and the Internet. Neither do hotels and municipalities with free Wi-Fi hookups in public areas. T-Mobile and AT&T do recommend customers download and use their free encryption software.

“If you’re using Wi-Fi in a public place and you’re not getting hacked, it’s only because there’s nobody around bothering to do it,” says Robert Graham, CEO of consultancy Errata Security.

Wi-Fi eavesdropping has long been a security concern. Anyone with a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop can download free Wi-Fi monitoring programs. An eavesdropper can sit up to 100 feet away and monitor what you do on the Net, says Rick Farina, security engineer for wireless security firm AirTight Networks.

There are no estimates of how often this happens. No one has ever been arrested for Wi-Fi hacking. But with Wi-Fi now in mainstream use — T-Mobile and AT&T supply hot spots at more than 15,000 locations in the USA, and cities such as New York and San Francisco supply free public access points — intruders are starting to take advantage, said security experts at recent Black Hat and DefCon security conferences.

Wi-Fi hot-spot hacks “are absolutely taking place,” says Tom Brennan, technology risk manager for security consultant Access IT Group. “It’s easy to do, and the reward is very high.”

Brennan cites an example of a tech systems manager on a lunch break in New York‘s Bryant Park, who used his laptop via the city’s free hot-spot hookup. The manager logged onto his company’s network to troubleshoot a computer server. An eavesdropper nabbed his username and password. Later, someone used the information to access the server. “People are on the road using wireless, they get breached, and when they go back into their network, they’re owned,” Brennan said.

Crooks are using off-the-shelf routers, equipped to broadcast Wi-Fi hookups around the home, to spoof the popular paid services. The spoofer broadcasts a bogus T-Mobile or AT&T connection signal, then captures data transmitted by victims, says Pravin Bhagwat, AirTight’s chief technology officer.

“If I’m at a location where a particular hot-spot provider does not provide a service, but still I see its service being advertised, that means it’s a spoof,” says Bhagwat.

Farino estimates 95% of Wi-Fi data traffic is unencrypted.

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Heritage touch adds depth to Foundry

Sunday, August 5th, 2007

Southeast False Creek, once an industrial area, is now ideal for city-style living

Kerry Moore
Province

CeasarStone counters offer sensuous luxury here and in the bathrooms. Photograph by : Les Bazso, The Province

Kitchen cabinetry comes in light or dark shades and wood panelling covers fridge door, too, while stainless appliances add modern touch. Photograph by : Les Bazso, The Province

Euro-style cabinetry and drawer pulls in bathroom set the tone; even the bedroom has a view in this tower condo Photograph by : Les Bazso, The Province

The name “The Foundry” is a heritage touch, says Dori Gatensbury, and refers to the southeast False Creek area’s industrial origins.

The sales manager of Polygon’s Foundry, Gatensbury says the building will be just two blocks from the Olympic Village, although residents will be living in the Foundry a year before the athletes move in.

“The area will be completely changed by the time of the Olympics. There will be an elementary school, daycare, community centre and the seawall will connect with all the adjoining neighbourhoods.”

A quiet street car, she adds, will run from Science World to Granville Island, the new Canada Line SkyTrain will have a station a minute’s walk away plus, and for those wanting a sea journey, there are aqua-buses and a boat launch. Canucks fans can walk to GM Place in 12 minutes.

“We are seeing people with different needs from a home. Couples who bought in Yaletown a few years ago say they want to stay in the area but are looking for a larger unit while others are doing the opposite and downsizing from a west-side home. We have young families, too.”

Amenities in the units are high-class. CaesarStone countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms promise more durability than granite and the kitchen features stainless-steel appliances, including a microwave. The refrigerator is fronted by cabinetry so it’s less obtrusive. All sinks are undermounted, says Gatensbury, and, with one or two exceptions, there is hardwood laminate throughout the homes, except for carpeted master bedrooms and porcelain tile in the bathrooms.

A choice of two colour schemes offers neutrals in either a lighter or darker shade and, once chosen, will run through the suite affecting walls, flooring, cabinets and counters.

For buyers who are downsizing, less will still look like more.

“All homes have in-suite storage and it’s possible to buy more storage space, too. Helping to open up each apartment’s space are nine foot ceilings, very large picture windows, and double sliding doors in some bedrooms.”

Penthouse and sub-penthouse units not only get the top views but built-in air-conditioning, as well. On an equal-opportunity basis, however, all homes share in the co-op hybrid car that comes with the building and can be booked through a resident caretaker.

The Foundry also will have its own community garden plots.

Gatensbury notes that although there is one car space per unit, it’s possible to buy an extra parking place.

Occupancy is early in 2009.

THE FACTS

The Foundry

What: 106 apartment, townhome and city-home residences in a 13-storey tower and separate townhome block.

Where: Southwest corner of Crowe and West 1st Avenue. 300 W. 1 Ave.

Developer: Polygon Foundry Tower Ltd.

Sizes: One-bedroom, one-bedroom-and-den, two-bedroom, two-bedroom-and-den apartments; two-bedroom townhomes, two-bedroom sub-penthouse and three-bedroom penthouse. From 600 sq. ft. to 1,359 sq. ft.

Prices: From $454,9000

Open: noon to 6 p.m. daily. Closed Fridays. 261 West Second Ave. 604-879-8277. polygon.com.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

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Council barking up the wrong tree here

Sunday, August 5th, 2007

How can they order your dogs out when they own them as well?

Tony Gioventu
Province

Dear Condo Smarts:

I’m a single guy with two medium-size dogs in a Vancouver highrise building.

When I moved in three years ago, the president of the council told me, “Don’t worry about the pet bylaws. Everyone has dogs and we never plan to enforce them.”

Last week I received a notice from the strata council that an owner has complained about my dogs barking in the afternoons and that I am in violation of the pet bylaws and will have to remove my dogs within 14 days.

There is nothing in our bylaws that says the council can order the removal of pets and my dogs always go to the office with me, so the complaints are wrong.

How is it possible after all this time for the strata to enforce the bylaws? The bylaw prohibits dogs and permits one cat. I would estimate we have over 50 dogs and about 10 cats in the building. What about council members who have dogs?

— Calvin Meyers

Dear Calvin:

Everyone has to comply with the bylaws that are filed in the Land Title Registry, unless they are under an exemption granted by the Act.

Before the strata corporation imposes any fines or requires you to pay for any enforcement costs, they have to have received a complaint, have given you the details of the complaint in writing and provided you with a hearing, if you request it.

Council cannot impose bylaw conditions that do not exist in the bylaws.

You do raise a very interesting and complicated problem, though. I made a few calls and discovered that, contrary to the bylaws, every one of your council members has a dog.

So how would the council even convene a hearing when they have the same violation you’re being accused of?

The real message in all of this is that your strata does not appear to want to prohibit dogs, and it’s time for your strata to vote on some new pet bylaws, get legal advice on how to either exempt the current pets through bylaw amendments, or simply repeal your pet bylaws and start fresh.

Communities change and bylaws need to be reviewed and changed on a regular basis.

Next week: People

Tony Gioventu is the executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association (CHOA). Contact CHOA at 604-584-2462 or toll-free 1-877-353-2462, go to www.choa.bc.ca, fax 604-515-9643, e-mail [email protected]

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

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American Home Mortgage giant shuts its doors, lays off 6,000

Saturday, August 4th, 2007

Other

NEW YORK – American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., one of the country’s biggest mortgage companies, ceased new business yesterday and blamed its woes on the stricken U.S. housing market and a related credit crunch.

Numerous mortgage lenders have gone out of business in recent months, but American Home Mortgage is one of the largest to be hit by problems. It minted US$59-billion in loans last year, up from US$45-billion in 2005.

In a statement late Thursday, the home-loan giant said it had stopped taking new mortgage applications and had told most of its employees they would be laid off yesterday.

“The company employee base will be reduced from over 7,000 to approximately 750,” the company said.

“The market conditions in both the secondary mortgage market, as well as the national real-estate market, have deteriorated to the point that we have no realistic alternative,” said Michael Strauss, American Home Mortgage’s chief executive.

The multitrillion-dollar U.S. mortgage sector has been buffeted by a national housing slump, a sharp rise in home foreclosures, and tightening credit conditions, which makes it difficult to borrow fresh cash and offer new loans.

The market’s troubles have also hit Wall Street because some large banks bundled mortgage portfolios into complex securities that were traded as debt instruments.

The Standard & Poor’s ratings agency announced yesterday it had downgraded its outlook on Wall Street investment bank and brokerage Bear Stearns to “negative” due to mortgage-related concerns.

“Bearn Stearns has a relatively high degree of reliance on the U.S. mortgage and leveraged finance sectors, and its revenues and profitability would be especially affected if there were an extended downturn in those markets,” the ratings agency cautioned.

American Home Mortgage’s problems worsened considerably this week after it revealed Tuesday that it was unable to fund lending obligations of US$300-million and also unable to borrow fresh capital to shore up its operations.

Its share price and market worth has been pounded in the past week.

The company’s share price fell US76 to close at US69 yesterday, down from US$1.45 a day earlier and off from US$10.47 a week ago. The company’s market worth, meanwhile, has slumped from over US$500-million to around US$40-million in the same period.

Mr. Strauss founded the Melville, N.Y.-based firm in 1998, and it grew rapidly into one of America‘s largest lenders. Business soared during the housing boom of recent years, but the U.S. property binge ended abruptly in early 2006.

American Home Mortgage is not the only ailing lender.

Another big firm, Countrywide Financial, reported a steep drop in its latest quarterly profit last month.

The lender said coming months were likely to be “increasingly challenging.”

Countrywide Financial ‘s shares dropped US$1.77, or 6.6%, to close at US$25 on the New York Stock Exchange amid wider market losses.

Foreign investors have also taken substantial hits from the distressed US mortgage market and credit crunch.

The German mutual fund Union Investment has frozen one of its funds linked to U.S. mortgage bets, Union Investment administrator Nikolaus Sillem told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

Fears about U.S. real estate and America‘s mortgage industry have also rattled global stock markets this week.

© National Post 2007

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Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will tax any vacation property outside Canada but you can claim a credit for foreign taxes paid on your Canadian return

Saturday, August 4th, 2007

Jamie Golombek
Other

Your vacation property may be located beyond Canada‘s borders, but that doesn’t mean that it is outside the reach of the tax man.

As a resident of Canada, you are taxed on your worldwide income. When you dispose your property you could have a capital gains tax liability on its appreciation from the date you bought it until the sale. If you own the property at death, you are deemed to dispose of it at fair market value. Any of these scenarios might pose a significant tax problem.

First, let’s deal with worldwide income. If you are like many vacation-property owners, chances are that you rent or at least try to rent your property when you are not occupying it. If so, any rental income after deducting the appropriate expenses is taxable in Canada.

The unique problem with foreign rental income is that the country in which the property is located may also tax rental income, potentially resulting in double taxation. The good news is that you can generally claim a credit for any foreign tax paid on your Canadian return. You may end up paying the higher tax rate, but that is still better than paying tax twice.

Some countries, such as the United States, may impose a withholding tax on the gross rental income (pre-expenses), which must be deducted by the rental agent or tenant before paying you the rent.

As surprising as that may sound, Canada has a similar rule, generally requiring a Canadian tenant to withhold 25% of gross rental income paid to a non-resident. There was a 2003 tax case involving a tenant who failed to report such tax withholdings to the CRA. The CRA successfully

argued before the court that the tenant was “deemed to know the law? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

The U.S. withholding tax, set at 30%, can be avoided if you file a special tax form to have the rental income “effectively connected” to the U.S. This is done by sending the Internal Revenue Service a letter attached to Form 1040NR — U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return. On this return, you will report your rental income after expenses and will be taxed at graduated U.S. tax rates. Details can be found in the IRS Publication 519, Tax Guide for Aliens (www.irs.gov/ pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf).

When disposing of foreign property, if you sell it for a profit the capital gain is taxable in Canada. However, the same gain may be taxable in the country in which it arose. Again, a foreign tax credit is generally available and you’ll end up paying the higher tax rate. If your vacation home is in the U.S., you may find that the purchaser is obligated to withhold 10% of the proceeds, which you would then claim as a credit against any capital gains tax owing when you file a U.S. return.

Finally, if you die owning your vacation property, Canada’s tax rules consider you to have sold it for proceeds equal to fair market value, which can give rise to Canadian capital gains tax. The country in which the property is located may also impose a capital gains tax or, as is the case in the U.S., may impose an estate tax based not merely on the appreciation of the property but on the property’s full fair market value. While a foreign tax credit may be available, the U.S. estate tax can often be considerably more than any Canadian taxes paid on the gain. – Jamie Golombek, CA, CPA, CFP, CLU, TEP, is vice-president, taxation and estate planning, at AIM Trimark Investments in Toronto.

[email protected]

© National Post 2007

 

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$10 million penthouse tops off Harbour Tower

Saturday, August 4th, 2007

5,800-square-foot home, pool unique in careers of builder and broker cap construction

Sun

Grace Kwok (in a sub-penthouse show home) takes an expansive view of the $10 million Amacon is seeking for the penthouse: it’s a lot to ask here – but not around the world

The safety barrier enclosing The Melville’s “sky Garden” is the top-most component of an upper-floor feature of the building that, when illuminated, will act as a beacon over Vancouver’s West End. The garden shares the roof with the pool and hot tub, a sauna and an exercise room.

Penthouse Pool

The Amacon development company is topping off its Melville residential tower in Vancouver‘s Coal Harbour neighbourhood with appropriate punch, a penthouse with a list price of $10 million.

The 43rd-floor penthouse is a four-bedroom, five-patio, six-bath 5,800-square-foot residence with prospects east and west and north and south.

Outside are common-property amenities whose location and proximities are possibly without precedent in a new-home project locally and and certainly without precedent in the careers of builder and broker, a swimming pool, a hot tub and a “Sky Garden” for the use of all Melville residents.

“This is a first for Amacon, to build a building that is 43 storeys [high] and that has a roof deck that includes a pool and hot tub,” comments company president Marcello De Cotiis, whose family has been building and developing Lower Mainland properties for more than 40 years.

”We have built buildings before with pools above residences and retail, but those have been on the third floor, say, not the 43rd. That said, it wasn’t that difficult because the support and technology were something we were comfortable with . . . .”

“I have never sold a property with a pool 43 storeys above the street. This is a first for me as well,” reports Grace Kwok, the long-time new-home-project broker.

Kwok’s current assignment at The Melville is to find buyers for the penthouse, currently under construction, and eight sub-penthouses, listed from $950,000 to $2.4 million, and ready for occupancy.

(She is selling from two finished sub-penthouses and sold one just the other day.)

The homes under the penthouse and sub-penthouse floors are all sold and many are already occupied. Construction of The Melville started three years ago.

If $10 million for a home is a pile of money absolutely, it is not relatively, Kwok comments of the penthouse list price.

”If you look at other luxury properties in this city, or in other cities, New York or Tokyo, per square foot and consider all the amenities, The Melville is a great deal, and only one family can be the proud owner of this one-of-a-kind penthouse,” she says.

For her client, inclusion of a luxury residence atop the Melville building is a profession, or expression, of confidence in Vancouver.

”Our vision for the Melville project was to achieve a landmark for downtown Vancouver in terms of design and flair, to mark the coming of age and maturity of our beautiful city,” De Cotiis says.

”The result, we hope, is a very attractive architecture that features a copper metallic exterior, a Vancouver first, and the tallest building in the area. What better platform from which to enjoy such beauty than a custom designed home in the sky.

”The 360-degree view covers water and mountain, park [Stanley] and city. With so much to offer, this $10 million home makes a subtle statement of confidence for its owner and brings sophisticated living in Vancouver to a brand new level.”

(The building’s “landmark” quality will be especially evident at night when the ”Sky Garden” glass barriers are lit and turned into images of ”sails” or ”waves” in the night sky.)

Not unique, but rare, Melville residents will enjoy the services on offer at the Loden hotel next door to the building, ranging from a 24-hour concierge to room service. The Amacon development company is also building the Loden.

The rooftop grounds are not the only outdoor amenities at The Melville. At the terrace level, there is another garden, a walkway beside a stream a patio and children’s playground.

There’s also a large entertainment room with kitchen and wet bar, a games room, a library and a media room.

Gardens on two floors make water conservation an important consideration. Retained rainwater will be used for landscape irrigation.

Two telephone numbers for readers wanting to know more are 604-876-9222 or 778-869-7222.

CHRONICLER’S PICK

Mike Chadwick, the author of Vancouver In Focus, The City’s Built Form, a photographic survey of downtown Vancouver buildings and landmarks, had this to say about The Melville in an essay Westcoast Homes published in the spring (“10 buildings downtown to call home,” May 12):

‘ANTICIPATES FUTURE’

”This tower, to be completed later this year, anticipates the future by incorporating sustainability features such as steam heat and rainwater retention for landscape irrigation.

”Tall and slender, the Melville’s striking features include a curved glass sail on the roof; recycled heavy timber facades at street level; copper cladding from ground level to the roof, cumulating in an offset triangle behind the glass sail.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

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