City owed $740 million for False Creek development
Cheryl Rossi
Van. Courier
One year after the Winter Olympics began, the Olympic Village remains the focus of uncertainty and speculation.
Ernst and Young, receiver for the troubled development, is poised to provide details about the design and execution of new marketing strategies for the 474 unsold condominiums. The accounting firm is expected to file a report with the Supreme Court of B.C. within the week.
The city is owed $740 million for the development. Bob Rennie of Rennie Marketing Systems expects the new marketing strategy to be made public Feb. 17.
Local media outlets have noted that Francesco Aquilini of Aquilini Investment Group, a development company that owns Rogers Arena and the Canucks, has expressed interest in buying the remaining condos.
Ernst and Young says it has been approached by “several parties” that have indicated their interest in the development, but none of those approaches have resulted in a “definitive proposal.”
Ernst and Young is assessing various alternatives for recouping money on the project.
NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton noted that when it comes to bulk versus individual condo sales, “there’s a philosophical question there, whether to take your losses earlier or to take them later.”
She likely wouldn’t favour a bulk sale. “Because the only way someone would take it at a bulk sale, they would take it at a fairly significant discount,” she says. But, Anton says, the receiver controls the sales strategy. She doesn’t believe Aquilini is in active discussions with Ernst and Young.
Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs says he wants “the best mix of sales that produces value for taxpayers” and he trusts Ernst and Young to sort that strategy out. The city announced in November that the Olympic Village was in receivership and that Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties was to transfer ownership of the condos and commercial spaces at the village to the city.
Of the 737 condos for sale in this Southeast False Creek development, 263 have sold. Of Millennium Water’s 119 market rental units, 104 have tenants.
As of mid-January, only two of the commercial spaces were occupied.
COHO Management Services, an arm of the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C., started handing over keys for the city’s 252 social and market rental and co-op units the week before Christmas. Thirty of these affordable rental units are occupied.
Anton blames the lack of condo sales since the Olympic Games ended on the mayor, for casting a “black cloud” on the development.
Meggs criticizes the NPA for lacking financial transparency and for landing the city in a “financial ditch.”
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