Don’t ask me how I know but I do. THe deal is still on to redevelop the Little Mountain social housing site near Queen Elizabeth Park. Housing Minister Rich Coleman, BC Housing staff and others had a meeting Friday with the new CEO of Holborn, Joo Kim Tiah, and Tiah confirmed he’s not leaving.
Holborn put down something in the neighbourhood of $20-30 million for the property when it won the bid to redevelop last year. There were questions about whether Holborn wanted to go forward, given a certain lack of activity over the past few months and then the news last week that Holborn’s Ritz-Carlton project on Georgia would not go ahead.
4 responses so far ↓
1 not running for mayor // Mar 2, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Holborn also put the breaks on the Hills development at the site of the Eldorado Hotel in East Van. They are also in the process of liquating the corner lot they own on the NE corner of Hastings and Abbott (old fields site). Hopefully they aren’t packing up, just cleaning up loose ends. I have no doubt they are able to complete LMH if they chose to, they just don’t seem to be able to finish anything they start. Hopefully the change in personnel with help. Best of luck to them and us. If it doesn’t work out I personally favored Westbanks proposal for the site which would’ve been designed by Henriquez and Partners of Woodwards fame.
2 mm // Mar 2, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Right…..that’s what Holborn, and chief Flake, Simon Lim, said when they stopped work on the Ritz.
3 Glissando Remmy // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:07 pm
“Obama will ‘Say Anything to Get Elected”
John McCain, 2008 US Presidential candidate
So why would anything be different here?
The Little Mountain Housing (LMH) buildings are going to be flattened as soon as they (Holborn) will be able to “renovict” the unfortunate remaining tenants.
Then with the help of some high grade top soil to cover the whole thing up, a new community garden/ allotment plots will be all set for urban agriculture.
A new sustainable community ready to embrace the very means of self nourishment by growing their own lettuce, tomatoes on the vine, radishes, onions, herbs and spices …and why not with a bit of luck, pending City approval, the occasional organic chicken.
I am looking forward to watching the local Lulu Lemons ladies doing their morning yoga workout while looking over after their favourite egg chick… run free! Aaah, what a life for the neighbourhood rooster!
As for the developer they will “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar (less a modest property tax subsidy of up to 70% of course), … and Give to God, what belongs to God”.
I am not a betting man but on this one I’ll say God is going to be pissed!
FAST FORWARD TWO YEARS.
The devastating financial blow delivered by the Winter Olympic Racket coupled with the worldwide recession puts Vancouver right about in the Ukrainian borsht zone.
What looked expensive in 2009 seems cheap like a bottle of Dom Perignon now, for some.
The visionary social housing element of the former Olympic Village would’ve been university lecture material on urbanism as model for affordability… if it wasn’t for the sudden sale to an undisclosed pirate investor just after the Games came to town.
Since then the whole place has been fenced and surveillance is on 24 hours a day. The new village lap dog is…if you said Pitt Bull, you guessed correctly! Religion is losing ground, the SEFC nouveau riche are scared shit and making easy money looks good. As a “security expert” would say, the perfect Holy Trinity combination.
That’s why some of them brought in for the Games have decided to stay. After they were paid off for their services, a 1 BR condo @ half a million $ would not look too pricey.
For the rest however the housing forecast looks bad.
Gregor & Council are organizing sleep-outs in different spots of the city simply to “fundraise” awareness of the homeless situation. Thanks God his predictions for eradication of homelessness were for 2015, by then he is out, back on the farm or hidden on some island.
He looks tired and unkempt; word is that he is seriously thinking of moving out in his own lane house. Tim is pushing for rain drinking water.
The House in Victoria is almost split in half, 39 Liberals, 39 NDP with the one Marijuana’s Emery being the wild card. No motion may pass before a friendly joint in the morning. Imagine that. Oh, I almost forgot, Gordo is in Hawaii, he’s catching up on his Martinis after losing to Mel.
As for the Little Mountain Housing chicken, they still run free and a chicken sanctuary is in the cards courtesy of Holborn!
Don’t ask me how I know but I do.
We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.
4 MB // Mar 4, 2009 at 11:51 am
Glissando, you obviously have a lot of time on your hands to make borscht by the bucket.
The Holy Developer Olympic NPA Vision Gordo CIA Credit Conspiracy remains to be exposed.
One glance at Vanmap or Google Earth tells the story: The gods are not making any more land, and what’s left is hemmed in by the sea and mountains.
Add an increasing population to a limited housing supply and a hefty amount of prior speculation (not just by Big Bad Developers, but by Big Bad Families capitalizing on the higher value of the ‘ol house) and unaffordability is one of the results.
Moreover, these sites are either waterfront or have a vast amount of open space next to a premier park, therein the land is more attractive to develop — when the market isn’t tanked. But that’s where their similarities end.
The Little Mountain social housing units will not cost $600 a square foot to build, nor is it steeped in Olympic controversy. Holborn will have a realively easy time with it.
SEFC was planned and started ages after SWFC where five housing co-ops shared the land when housing prices were relatively low. There are plenty of sites on the south side of First Avenue bordering the SEFC that would be ideal for co-op and social housing, a mere 2-minute walk from the waterfront and other public amenities.
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