Developer is considering a change in design, condo marketer says
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Construction of the $500-million-plus downtown Vancouver Ritz-Carlton hotel-condo project has been suspended so the developer can consider redesigning it, project condo marketer Bob Rennie said Tuesday.
“[Developer] Simon Lim has notified our office that he has suspended construction pending a redesign of the parkade,” he said in an interview.
Excavation work at the 1133 West Georgia site began about four months ago, but was halted recently as Lim decides whether to excavate another floor or redesign the parkade for hotel and commercial parking.
“Given construction prices today, everybody is looking at everything they can to be prudent,” Rennie said.
He said Lim can’t re-evaluate parking for the project’s 123 luxury condos because they require a set number of parking spaces.
A 127-room Ritz-Carlton hotel is supposed to occupy the first 20 floors of a new 58-storey Arthur Erickson-designed twisting tower that was scheduled for completion by early 2011.
Luxury condos — at prices ranging from $1.4 million to $13 million — will take up the top 38 floors.
Rennie said just over half of the 123 condos have been sold, with the most recent sale taking place about 60 days ago.
He said buyers are understandably nervous now because financial problems have forced delays and uncertainty at some Metro Vancouver condo projects.
The $350-million Infinity project in Surrey, which attracted 560 pre-sale buyers, is on hold because its major U.S.-based investor recently went bankrupt.
“Given what’s happened at Infinity and given what’s happening in financial markets, everybody’s radar is really, really alert so the tougher questions are being asked,” Rennie said.
He noted skeptics often claimed the Shangri-La hotel-condo development in downtown Vancouver would not proceed, but it is nearing completion, with the hotel set to open early next year.
“So we have to let this developer go though his growing pains, too,” Rennie said.
He said Lim still plans to open the new development in 2011.
Lim’s Holborn Group bought the West Georgia property from Cadillac Fairview about four years ago. The site had been a vacant and derelict eyesore for more than a decade following failed attempts to build a private members’ club and a strata-title office building.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
