Developers want recognition
It can’t be easy planning development in a city like Vancouver. On the one hand, the city’s engaged populace mounts vociferous resistance to densification and great love of what’s garnered the city high marks for quality of life (including the warts).
Now the Urban Development Institute is pledging “to challenge any ‘fluffy’ press announcements by municipal officials/Mayors/Councillors regarding public amenities ... which do not properly and fairly reference the development industry” and its financing of those projects through a raft of development cost charges and community amenity contributions. The gauntlet was thrown down via an e-mail from UDI communications manager Adrien Byrne, who included a news report attributing an allocation of $4.3 million to restoration of its historic buildings, including the Britannia Shipyards.
“All of it came from me,” states Dana Westermark, owner of developer Oris Consulting Ltd., in the thread of e-mails Byrne circulated.
Westermark cites his purchase of a city-owned bike park at the foot of No. 2 Road as the source of the funds. He explains that the park was bought after the city backed off building community space in the buildings at London Landing.
UDI president and CEO Anne McMullin said contributions like Westermark’s and other developers need to be recognized.
“Often, a community sees the negative impacts of development, then might see amenity money being spent, and there’s no connection to the development,” McMullin said.
Byrne supplied a handful of announcements Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has made this year touting investments in childcare, community services and housing, which neglected to note the contributions from developers that made them possible.
“Politicians put out these announcements over time saying, ‘We’ve done these great things on daycares, we’ve done parks, we’ve done this, we’ve done that’ – but there’s no connection,” McMullin said. “The public doesn’t understand where that money comes from.”
Come slither
When the Year of the Snake dawned back in February, real estate agents anticipated big sales.
Cameron McNeill of MAC Marketing Solutions voiced his hopes to the media of an upswing in buyer activity, while Ross McCredie, CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada told this columnist, “The week of Chinese New Year is a critical time for [mainland Chinese] to make the important decision to buy a home.”
But self-styled “geomancer and philosopher” Paul Ng of Richmond Hill, Ontario, gave a different reading, warning that Vancouver real estate “may experience further slides.”
Accordingly, the latest survey of market activity from Royal LePage notes that an absence of new immigrants has led to prices for condos and detached bungalows dropping up to 3.3% in the second quarter versus the same quarter of 2012.
Uncertainty regarding the May provincial election helped cool sales, but Chris Simmons, broker and owner of Royal LePage Westside, added: “Tightened immigration policies have also been a factor. Our market is largely fuelled by immigration and reductions quickly show up in prices and activity levels.”
China accounts for approximately a fifth of immigrants to B.C., and mainland Chinese were tagged as driving million-dollar sales on the West Side in 2010 and 2011. However, new restrictions on business investors have been widely expected to dampen activity.
Nevertheless, Royal LePage expects Vancouver home prices will rise by approximately 2% this year. •
