3,200 units mostly geared to the poor will be built over the next four to five years

Frances Bula
Sun

Vancouver‘s housing director says a social-housing construction boom is under way in the city that hasn’t been seen since the years just before B.C.’s housing program was cut in 2001.

“We haven’t had this level of production since the late ’90s,” said Cameron Gray, as he contemplated stretching his staff to deal with 12 new housing sites that were officially put on a fast-track process last week by the city and province.

Gray said city staff will be going flat out as they try to ensure six of those sites, with 600 units among them, have buildings ready for occupation by mid-2010. That’s at the same time as 2,000 other units are already at different stages in the pre-construction phase and as the other six, more complex sites are going through the fast-track process.

“The chances of getting [the first six sites] built by the Olympics is going to be tough, so it’s more likely the summer of 2010,” said Gray. He wasn’t sure when the next six sites might be completed.

But ultimately, it means that 3,200 new social-housing units will be coming on stream in the next four to five years. That’s such a change of direction for the B.C. Liberal government that hardly anyone outside the busy city planning department and B.C. Housing can believe it.

NDP housing critic David Chudnovsky dismissed last week’s announcement about the fast-track agreement as another “housing announcement with no housing,” since the provincial government officially announced only the money for pre-construction design and planning.

And David Eby, a Pivot Legal Society lawyer, said it’s sometimes difficult to believe the money will actually be there when it comes time to build the sites.

“We’ve been hearing rumours of major funding announcements for months, and then it has never come through.” But if it turns out to be true, it’s wonderful news, said Eby.

“And what’s crossed my mind is that this is a significant reversal of housing policy.”

Housing Minister Rich Coleman confirmed the province will proceed directly to construction on all 12 sites as soon as they are through the city’s processes.

“Our intention is to amortize these projects and get them done. We can do that through our borrowing capacity,” said Coleman.

Gray said the first six sites likely to get to the construction stage are the ones in the Downtown South, International Village, 16th and Dunbar, Seventh and Fir and Expo Boulevard.

The current 3,200 units in production will have one-third to one-half of the units dedicated to people who need support services. Almost all of it will be geared to the poorest — people who have incomes of $25,000 or less. And the units will be small.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Study cites higher building costs to meet future ‘green’ codes

Stuart Hunter
Province

Landslides, such as this one in North Vancouver in January 2005, are an example of the impact climate change can have on property values, according to a report commissioned by the Real Estate Institute of B.C. Photograph by : Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province

Climate change could affect the design and location of new real-estate developments — and substantially alter prices in B.C., says a new report from the David Suzuki Foundation.

The study, entitled Hot Properties: How Global Warming Could Transform B.C.’s Real Estate Sector, says changes in purchasing behaviour, new government regulations and the way insurers assess risks will affect new developments and could also alter property values.

The 27-page report, commissioned by the Real Estate Institute of B.C., was prepared by Nicholas Heap, the foundation’s climate and energy policy analyst.

“The Real Estate Institute of British Columbia has been concerned about the issue of sustainability for some time, and climate change, as we are all starting to realize, will force real-estate

professionals to find innovative ways to reduce greenhouse emissions,” REIBC president Scott Ullrich said in a news release.

“B.C. is already a North American leader in the fields of green buildings and sustainable development, and the institute hopes to build on that.”

Some of the effects expected are an increase in building costs in the short term as “new standards for increased resilience and increased requirements for energy-efficiency in buildings take effect, a shift toward more compact, less land-intensive forms of development and a continued acceleration in market demand for green buildings.”

Some examples of how climate can effect buildings include homes flooded in Tsawwassen, houses burned by the Kelowna wildfires and homes in Mission and North Vancouver hit by landslides.

The report was presented last week at the real estate institute’s conference in Whistler.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

Tony Gioventu
Province

Dear Condo Smarts:

Our family is on the hunt for a new condo in Vancouver as an investment and for our kids while they go to university. We don’t need it until fall of 2008, so we thought we would consider a pre-sale that would be ready by next summer.

However, we’ve become very concerned as we hear about all the problems some buyers are having, such as finding out that their costs are significantly higher than expected, or the sale price is different or owners are faced with changes to the condos they thought they were getting.

Could you please explain what type of legislation covers pre-sales and how we can protect ourselves before we make a purchase?

— D.L., Kelowna

Dear DL:

Other than that covering the intended marketing of the units, there’s actually very little legislation related to pre-sales, since no real estate exists yet for conveyance or sale.

Developers have an obligation to disclose to you what they basically intend to sell you. The disclosure includes a description of the units and proposed sizes and estimate of the proposed unit entitlement; proposed agreements for maintenance and operations, leases and contracts; operating budgets and proposed common property, assets and facilities that will become part of the strata.

This is, however, very much a contract agreement. The contracts often reserve the developer’s right to recover additional costs for construction and give him the right to make alterations or amendments to the strata plan that could cause to decide not to proceed with a sale. They may even reserve the right of the developer to cancel the project or the pre-sale agreement.

For every owner dissatisfied with the changes in a pre-sale, there are many people who have successfully made a windfall on the appreciation of property values.

Remember, a pre-sale is also speculative, so along with the benefits of possible increased property values you may also find you’re exposed to the inflationary effects of rising costs for fuel, concrete, window systems and finishing materials.

Before you buy, check out the developer’s history on pre-sales and take the agreement to your lawyer to review the terms and conditions of the contract.

Tony Gioventu is executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association (CHOA). Contact CHOA at 604-584-2462 or toll-free at 1-877-353-2462 or e-mail directly to [email protected].

© The Vancouver Province 2007

Province

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver wants Coquitlam council to reconsider a proposed bylaw banning door-to-door sales.

The group said many realtors go door-to-door “to keep in touch with clients and to meet new clients.”

“We’re presenting council with a petition signed by realtors who live and work in this community and throughout the Lower Mainland and who may go door-to-door as part of their business services,” said real-estate agent and Coquitlam resident Barrie Seaton. The board said the 2,655 homes sold in Coquitlam last year generated $74 million in spin-off sales of renovations and furniture and appliance sales, creating more than 1,000 jobs as a result.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

John Mackie
Sun

The Casa Mia mansion located at 1920 SW Marine Drive is for sale for $12 million. Kim Stallknecht/Vancouver Sun

1920 SW. Marine Drive

View Of Front Of Mansion

Winding Staircase at Entrance

VANCOUVER – Character homes are the hottest item in Vancouver‘s hot housing market. And there may not be a home in Vancouver that has more character than Casa Mia, the legendary mansion at 1920 Southwest Marine Drive.

Generations of Vancouverites have driven by its walled grounds to sneak a peek at the elegant Spanish Revival home through its gates.

Alas, precious few people have ever been able to see the inside. But recently it went up for sale for $12 million, and we got a tour from realtor Manyee Lui.

It’s quite the place, with eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms and so many fireplaces I lost count (I think there are nine). It was built in 1932 for George Reifel, a liquor magnate and rum runner during Prohibition who opened the Commodore Ballroom around the same time. Believe it or not, Casa Mia is actually bigger than the Commodore – it’s got 20,782 square feet of space, as opposed to the Commodore’s 18,000 sq. ft.

Casa Mia has its own ballroom in the basement, complete with a sprung dance floor, men’s and women’s washrooms and a stage. It got a lot of use in the 1940s, when Reifel’s jazz-loving son George Jr. would bring home jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie for late-night parties.

“They played the clubs in Vancouver, but they couldn’t stay in a [high-class] hotel or frequent places because of their colour, so they’d come to our place,” recalls Jane Reifel, 69, one of George Reifel’s three children.

“They wouldn’t sleep there, but they might as well have, because the party lasted all night. I would go down the hall and bump into Dizzy Gillespie. They knew me, I was the little kid. My brother just kept telling me to get lost. Well, there were lots of places to get lost in Casa Mia, I can tell you.”

The down side of having all those parties was that it was hard to sleep.

“The most amusing thing was the vibration of the noise, the drums and trumpets and everything,” Reifel says. “The maids would have to go around the house the following morning and straighten all the pictures, because they were all crooked.”

The Casa Mia ballroom was done in the art deco style, and is virtually unchanged. The walls are golden, and there are subtle deco bas relief sculptures on the walls. The bathrooms are simply dazzling – the walls in the men’s washroom are painted black, and are decorated with a golden Indian chief shooting a golden arrow at a golden stag.

Originally, though, the ballroom was silver, not gold.

“I was always told it was done in silver leaf,” Reifel says. “It came in little blocks, maybe three-inch squares, and each square had to be put in by hand. I guess it turned with age.”

Visitors to the Casa Mia ballroom could get a drink from a small, wood-paneled lounge with a lovely curved bar. It’s completely deco, down to the ceiling fixture and windows, and adjoins a billiards room with a full-size pool table.

On to the outside, which was designed by architect Ross Lort in a Spanish colonial revival style that was popular on the west coast in the 1920s and 30s.

“If you go to Beverly Hills, there’s all sorts of homes that are similar looking,” Reifel says.

The front entrance is covered by a stylish arched porte-cochere. Inside, you’re greeted by a stunning entrance hall with a dramatic vaulted ceiling that enhances the castle-like feel of the house. It seems to go on forever, gently curving from one end of the house to the other. In the middle is the grand staircase, another gently curving marvel that swoops around a two-storey high rotunda.

At the top is a coffered Elizabethan ceiling, which includes small portraits of people, presumably from the Elizabethan era. One seems to be of Queen Elizabeth I, another of Shakespeare, but Reifel admits she has no idea who they are.

“I haven’t a clue,” she says with a laugh. “It’s Dizzy Gillespie, for all I know.”

The rotunda is lit by an amazing five-foot-tall chandelier that blends the art deco and arts and crafts styles. The house is brimming with similar chandeliers: some have a medieval castle look, particularly the circular chandeliers in the family room.

It’s located to the left of the front entrance, and was originally a drawing room or library. It has two-toned wood paneled walls and beautiful arched windows, and like all the main rooms is the size of a condo (almost 700 sq. ft.). The intricately carved fireplace mantel bears the name MacLean, after a doctor who owned the house in the late 1960s. The elaborate carvings in the home were done or overseen by George Laidler, a top-notch local craftsman who also designed furniture for the home.

Off the drawing room is a sun room, featuring large windows that provide a lovely view of the Fraser River and beyond. It’s an incredibly bright space, the better to showcase the beautiful Spanish tiling in the room’s fountain (which is currently filled with plants). A paneled glass ceiling gives it a bit of a greenhouse vibe.

The stately dining room down the hall, on the other hand, is quite dark, the result of floor-to-ceiling rosewood paneling. It’s big enough for a dining table for 10, and comes with a pair of built-in glass cabinets that flank the fireplace.

The living room is done up in cream-coloured walls and carpet, and feels very French and mansion-like. A white piano sits amid a curved alcove with a quintet of arched windows, and the room’s crystal chandelier wouldn’t look out of place at Versailles.

The house has more curves than the Sea to Sky Highway. The breakfast room is circular, and opens on to the backyard pool and finely sculpted grounds, which are perched at the top of a hill to make for a better view. The grounds used to go down all the way to the Fraser River, but the lower part was developed into housing and today’s Casa Mia owner has to settle for a mere 65,592 sq. ft. lot.

The upstairs is quite ingeniously split into two sections, one for the parents, one for the kids. There are four large bedrooms, each with its own bath. The master bathroom has the most marble (quarries-full), but the girl’s bathroom is the most striking, with a curved wall, a powder blue ceiling, a melon-coloured wall and a light blue tub that rises in tiers, like an altar.

There is a small but elegant wood-paneled library and office on the second floor with built-in shelving. It isn’t original – in the old days, this was part of the servant’s quarters.

The real showpiece is up in the third floor tower. Originally a storage space, when Jane Reifel was born in 1938 her dad brought some artists up from Walt Disney’s studios in California to remake it into “Dopey’s Room,” a playroom featuring murals of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Bringing artists 1,800 kilometres to paint a child’s playroom shows how George Reifel spared no expense on his home. You could go on forever about all the house’s built-ins and detailing. The rug in the front hall was custom-made and imported from Czechoslovakia, there is a small bar at the end of the front hallway, and there is a walk-in vault in the basement.

Today the vault is a wine cellar, but originally it was where the family would park their valuables, sometimes via a secret compartment upstairs.

“Quite often my parents would come home after a party and my mother had her jewels on,” Reifel relates.

“They didn’t want to go downstairs and open up the vault, which was quite a complicated affair. There was a grille on the wall in the drawing room, and you could take that little grille off and she would put her jewels in a little bag and drop them down and they would go into the vault downstairs.”

Not surprisingly, it took a sizable staff to run Casa Mia.

“There was a cook, an upstairs maid, downstairs maid, two gardeners, and a handyman,” Reifel recounts. “Someone came in once a week to wind the clocks.”

She laughs. “Just normal living.”

One of house’s enduring legends turns out to be a myth. George’s brother Harry built his own Spanish Revival/art deco mansion, Rio Vista, up the street at 2170 Southwest Marine. People have long speculated that there was a secret tunnel between the two homes, where the Reifel brothers would supposedly store the booze they were exporting to the U.S.

But Reifel says it doesn’t exist.

“I’ve heard that rumour all my life, but there was never a tunnel,” she says.

The cost of the house in 1932 is unknown, but given Casa Mia’s size and detailing, it would have been a fortune, even in the Depression. George Reifel evidently could afford it. At one point he pulled up to the house during construction, spotted architect Lort and handed him a $1,000 bill that he peeled off a bankroll. Lort had never seen a $1,000 bill before – he took it home and hid it under the bedroom carpet until he could deposit it in the bank.

George Reifel died in 1958, and his wife sold the house in the late 1960s to Ross MacLean. Nelson Skalbania owned it for a while in the 1980s, and the house has been extensively renovated and updated twice. In 1998, it was put on the market for $20 million, but the house went into foreclosure and sold for $4.2 million in 2000. A year later it was sold again for $5 million.

Now it’s on the market for $12 million. Realtor Lui argues that in Vancouver‘s high-end real estate market, it’s almost a bargain: There are at least 10 houses or condos currently on the market that cost more.

“An $18 million penthouse just sold in Coal Harbour,” Lui said.

“This is a huge mansion with all its history, and has much to offer. This house is a piece of art. You can see the workmanship, and the architectural details. It’s just incredible. I don’t think right now someone could build something like it.”

Well, they might – if they were Bill Gates.

Additional Pictures of Casa Mia

View MLS Listing of Casa Mia

© Vancouver Sun

Michael Sasges
Sun

European brands will dominate Residences kitchens and bathroom: Miele will supply most of the appliances; Dornbracht, the faucets; and Duravit Starck, the toilets. Bulthaup is probably the brand name that best exemplifies the pursuit of brand-name exclusivity at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton.

THE RESIDENCES AT THE RITZ-CARLTON

Location: West Georgia Street, Vancouver

Project size: 123 apartments, floors 27 — 60, 60-floor building

Residence size: 1 bed, 1 bath, 926 sq. ft. — 3 bedrooms, 3 bath +powder, 4,145 sq. ft. Penthouse #1

Prices: floors 27 — 41, $1.5 million — $3.2 million; floors 42 — 53, $3 million — $6.2 million; floors 54 — 58, $6.8 million — $9.2 million; penthouses, from $10.3 million

Sales centre: Thurlow at Georgia, Vancouver

Hours: Noon — 5 p.m., Sat — Thu

Telephone: 604-689-8881

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: vancouversturn.com

Developer: Holborn Group

Architecture: Arthur Erickson, with Musson Cattel Mackey and dysarchitecture

Interiors: mcfarlaneGreen&biggar

Occupancy: 2011

To locate the Ritz-Carlton new-home project at 1151 West Georgia is to locate it absolutely, but not relatively and, therefore, not completely.

For example, the homes will be located above a hotel, only the second new Ritz-Carlton in Canada. The other is under construction in Toronto.

For example, homes and suites will be located one block west of the last Georgia Street design from Arthur Erickson, the two-tower MacMillan Bloedel building. It was designed in the 1960s, in collaboration with Geoff Massey, and erected in the ’70s.

Further, homes and suites will be located at a figurative intersection of corporate need and personal want.

“You will not see a five-star hotel built in North America without condos above it,” comments Bob Rennie, organizer of the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton sales and marketing campaign.

“The cost of providing the services and the security and building out those rooms, given today’s room rates, is not sustainable for the hotel. So they build the condos and they take the profit from the condos to buy down the hotel, so that they can have a sustainable five-star climate. It’s just a fact.”

The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton is the fifth homes-over-a-hotel project in downtown Vancouver that Rennie has prepared for market.

The first was One Wall Centre, on Hornby at Nelson. There, the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel occupies 30 lower floors and apartments occupy 18 upper floors. One Wall Centre was completed in 2001.

Living Shangri-La, L’Hermitage En Ville and Estates at The Fairmont Pacific Rim are under construction.

“That’s the business model,” Rennie says of the role of real-estate sales in the construction of grand hotels.

“. . . then you’ve got the lifestyle model and that is, you’ve got high net-worth individuals wanting to go into a condominium, but not just any condominium.

“Everyone of them has said, at the edge of the bed, as they’re picking up their carry-on baggage to leave a five-star hotel, ‘I could live like this the rest of my life.’ And now you can. It’s as simple as that. You’ve got room service; you’ve got housekeeping. You’ve got valet parking; you will never see a parking stall again. It’s all there if you want to use it. For ‘senior wealth’ it just doesn’t get better.”

The introduction of one of the “big brands” to a city can say any number of things to the locals, good and bad. About Vancouver, Rennie says, the brands arriving here are saying: “We’re a big boy now.

“As locals, we’re always going, ‘it’s a bubble, it can’t last, we can’t take it.’

“But foreign eyes look at our city completely differently.

“Think of it this way: the kid’s grown up. He’s moved out of the house. And parents never give their kids full credit for their ‘value’ when they go off and set their lives. That’s what’s happened to Vancouver.”

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. is a Marriott International company and employs 32,000 people at 66 hotels and 12 sales offices around the world.

It is a 25-year-old American-based company that was created to purchase The Ritz-Carlton, Boston and the rights to the name Ritz-Carlton.

The “flags” — like Ritz Carlton — and those able to afford a home above one of their hotels inevitably challenge local architects, engineers, interior designers, builders and developers to re-examine what is acceptable in a new home.

“You have to protect the brand with other brands,” Rennie says.

European brands will dominate Residences kitchens and bathroom: Miele will supply most of the appliances; Dornbracht, the faucets; and Duravit Starck, the toilets.

Bulthaup is probably the brand name that best exemplifies the pursuit of brand-name exclusivity at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton.

Bulthaup is a 50-year-old German company, a manufacturer of kitchens and only kitchens. It has only one Canadian dealer, located in Toronto.

Those who know the company’s work could be impressed with it for any number of reasons.

These might range from its start in a country shattered by war and occupation by foreign armies to its more recent domination of international design competitions.

Those who know local new-home-project design will be impressed by the Bulthaup cabinet doors the Residences developer and interior designer have specified. Two of them will be faced with wood veneers and the third finished in lacquer.

Laminates that approximate real woods are the usual facing applied to new-home-project cabinet doors locally.

“It may be unusual in multi-family locally, but it’s an expectation at four million dollars,” Rennie comments.

An Italian cabinet-maker, Poliform, will supply the bedroom storage. Poliform is probably better known than Bulthaup in these parts because it has a dealer here: Inform Interiors in Gastown.

The ultimate brand name associated with the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton is local — Arthur Erickson. Is there a more exclusive declaration locally than “I live in an Arthur Erickson”?

As the Residences developer, Simon Lim said, when asked why he commissioned the storied architect: “Why Arthur? Who else is there?”

Exclusivity, actual or apprehended, is never cheap. A Residences home will be a home in the most expensive address in Canada, Rennie says, a superlative enjoyed by the Estates at The Fairmont alone until now.

All of the Residences homes have seven-figure asking prices associated with them. “Go ahead, ask me, what does a million dollars get you?” Rennie jokes in acknowledgement of the listing prices. ” . . . a deposit on something cute.”

HOW A TALL BUILDING DOWNTOWN IS A TALL ORDER AT CITY HALL

So, you want to put up a tall building in downtown Vancouver? Here are some things for you to consider, from the 1151, formerly 1133, West Georgia file on city hall’s website.

First, you will want to develop a working knowledge of germane “council policy” or hire those poor souls whose life work is consumed by reading and analysing texts where important references are flagged by an irritating reliance on capitalization.

Last year, these policy documents included, and at least: “Downtown District Official Development Plan (DODP) as amended to November, 2003;” “Central Area Plan: Goals and Land Use Policy, adopted Dec. 3, 1991;” “Central Business District Policies as amended to Feb. 7, 1997;” “General Policy for Higher Buildings, approved May 6, 1997 . . .;” “View Protection Guidelines, approved in December, 1989 and last amended Dec. 11, 1990;” “Downtown (Except Downtown South) Design Guidelines as amended to Dec. 14, 1993;” “DD (Except Downtown South), C-5, C-6, HA-1 and HA-2 Character Area Descriptions, as amended to Dec. 4, 2003 . . . ;” “West Georgia Street Tree and Sidewalk Design Guidelines . . . ;” “Public Art Policies and Guidelines as amended to Nov. 22, 1994;” and “Financing Growth (Community Amenity Contribution) Policy as amended to June 24, 2003.”

Second, you will want to demonstrate purity of goals and means. The “Higher Buildings” policy alone expects your building . . .

– “should respect all view corridors adopted by council;

– “should be on one of the downtown’s three primary streets;

– “should exhibit the highest order of architectural excellence;

– “should achieve community benefits such as . . . a significant cultural or social facility or low-cost housing,

– “should include activities and uses of community significance [like] a public observation deck . . . ;

– “should provide on-site open space which significantly adds to downtown green and plaza spaces, and

– “should not contribute to adverse microclimate effects.”

The three primary streets downtown are Burrard, Granville and Georgia.

Other “facts” about downtown Vancouver that only a planners or architects would know, from the 1151, formerly 1133, West Georgia file:

– Downtown blocks are long: (” . . . a mid-block space on Vancouver‘s long blocks is important . . . .”)

– Downtown buses are only selectively imposing:

(” . . . five-star hotels typically would not have transit buses idling out front . . . .”)

A “fact of life,” all vocations, all avocations, is also found in the file:

” . . . thanked the panel for the thoughtful inspirations, and acknowledged varying comments presented; the importance of details . . . .”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007