CONDOS: Plenty buy into Downtown Eastside revitalization
Elaine O’Connor
Province
Hundreds of ‘bold’ people lined up outside Shaw Tower yesterday to try to buy a Woodward’s condo. Photograph by : Jon Murray, The Province
Deep Sandhu 24 ‘didn’t want to be left out of the market.’ Photograph by : Jon Murray, The Province
There were a lot of “bold” people in Vancouver yesterday ready to share in the dream of Downtown Eastside revitalization — all for the price of a Woodward’s condo.
Outside the Shaw Tower sales centre on the first day of sales, a few hundred potential buyers queued for a piece of the much-marketed development. Many who camped overnight lounged in lawn chairs or tried to sleep over the din of a DJ as staff wearing jackets with the slogan “Be bold or move to suburbia” escorted groups in to sign on the dotted line.
Deep Sandhu — one of the more than 6,300 people who registered interest in the 536-unit project — had camped out since 3 a.m. for a shot at an investment condo.
“I followed the status quo, I guess,” the 24-year-old Burnaby resident said, explaining his interest. “Look at all the people here. I didn’t want to be left out of the market.”
Sandhu said he realized the risk of investing in the Downtown Eastside, but said he was prepared to live there if the market fell by the 2009 completion date or the promised renewal failed to appear.
Supporters insisted Woodward’s would turn around the hard-luck area.
“We will enliven this community,” said Warren Gill, vice-president of university relations for Simon Fraser University, a major tenant of the complex. “We will make it like it used to be.”
Marketer Bob Rennie said the project constituted “an amazing little piece of history in Vancouver.”
Prospective buyer Lorna Spencer-Hall was in line to recapture her own history. Her father used to work in Woodward’s furnishings and she fondly recalled outings to the landmark as a little girl. Now, she and her husband, John, plan to downsize from a home in Burnaby to a Woodward’s condo with a view.
“It’s quite sentimental,” she said. “I remember when Woodward’s — that was the street, that was downtown. I was really excited by the fact that it is coming back to life.”
The price of redevelopment doesn’t come cheap. The 562-to 1,155 square-foot units were listed from $249,000 to $999,000 yesterday.
By 5 p.m., 532 units had been purchased, accounting for more than $200 million in sales. Just hours after sales opened, a Craigslist website flipper was listing a 592 square-foot unit (priced at $295,000 to $359,000) for $374,000.
But well away from the sales centre at the actual Woodward’s site, renewal seemed a long time coming.
A woman in a trench coat stood in front of the boarded-up site flinging a bottle of water on the ground and spraying water from her mouth. A man pushing a shopping cart of possessions walked by, unfazed. On the wall behind them, a “W” Woodward’s promotional poster bore graffiti reading, “Class War Now.”
The reality of the location may worry some, but Gastown resident Joshua Denney, for one, knows what he’s getting into.
“It’s a big test,” said the 25-year-old first-time buyer.
“This is going to help everybody down there. These people [buyers] are going to have a taste of what real life is like down there. It’s gritty.”
© The Vancouver Province 2006