Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is disappointed with sales at the Millennium Water development, but he’s sticking by marketer Bob Rennie, whose Rennie Marketing Systems is in charge of selling units at the $1.1 billion city-financed project.
“Sales have not been as brisk as we’d all like,” Robertson told Business in Vancouver on September 3, the day before he left on a 12-day trip to China.
“It’s really a question of when the market will pick up again. I’m more focused on letting the professionals do their job and trusting that the merits of the Olympic Village mean that it will sell. Hopefully, that’s in time to keep our financing deals rock solid.”
Robertson said Rennie is considering new incentives to boost sales.
More than 400 of the development’s 737 homes remain unsold.
And while many of those units’ owners are now on-site, none of the site’s 126 subsidized social housing units or its 126 market rental units are occupied.
Rennie told media last week that he would likely announce in mid-September that the developer will pay the HST for new buyers or that new buyers will not have to pay strata fees for one or two years.
“We’re relying on Rennie and associates, the marketer, and Millennium to sell the units,” Robertson said.