In the final week of the year, Business in Vancouver is taking a look back at the most-read online stories of 2016.
Why Vancouver’s BuildDirect is offering employees unlimited vacation days
January 15, 2016
Vancouver tech startup BuildDirect announced it is taking a novel approach to vacation planning by offering its staff unlimited time off. Employees need to negotiate with managers and coworkers to make sure teams aren’t left unstaffed for long periods throughout the year, but otherwise workers are trusted to determine how much time they need to get their work done.
The company has since announced the launch of a new platform and increased product offerings.
H.Y. Louie sells three IGA stores to Overwaitea, closes wholesaling division
January 29, 2016
H.Y. Louie Co. Ltd. announced in January it is shrinking its operations by closing its wholesale division and selling several Marketplace IGA stores to Jim Pattison Group’s Overwaitea Food Group (OFG). H.Y. Louie will continue to operate 28 IGA stores and has plans to increase what is now a three-store Fresh St. Market grocery store chain.
H.Y. Louie was founded in 1903 when Hok Yat (H.Y.) Louie opened his first grocery store in Chinatown.
Billion-dollar gas plant approved for Dawson Creek area
March 10, 2016
In March, a partnership between Veresen Inc. (TSX:VSN) and Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA) announced plans to build an expansion to its gas processing plant, the Saturn 2, at a cost of $930 million. This investment was on top of a $1.5 billion commitment the companies had previously made to two new gas processing plants in the Dawson Creek area.
This was BIV’s most-read story online of 2016.
Gone in 7,200 seconds: the inside story of Vancouver’s wildest property deal
April 26, 2016A South China Morning Post investigation revealed the obscure transactions behind a Vancouver investment frenzy. The deals included a stampede of investors desperate for a deal and shed some light on the rush of Chinese money fuelling Vancouver’s soaring real estate market.
Lululemon founder Chip Wilson loads up on Vancouver properties
May 16, 2016Low Tide Properties (LTP), Lululemon Athletica Founder Chip Wilson’ family real estate company, has been snapping up property across the city, with most of the buying in Gastown, Strathcona and Mount Pleasant.
LTP CEO Andrew Chang said the company is looking to buy into neighbourhoods with significant growth potential. The company plans to have a $1.5 billion portfolio within 10 years.
Warner Bros.’ Supernatural worth over half a billion dollars to B.C. economy: MNP
May 25, 2016
Warner Bros.’ Supernatural, a fantasy horror TV series filmed in British Columbia, has brought in more than $509 million to the provincial economy, according to a report released in May by MNP LLP. More than 1,000 local business have benefited from the production, the report said. As well, the show has supported 9,615 full-time equivalent jobs.
The series, which has been filmed in B.C. since it first aired in 2005, was in its eleventh season as of the time of the report; it is now airing season 12.
Vancouver parents buy property for young children to secure a future foothold
June 6, 2016
The bank of mom and dad has skipped a generation, with parents now buying houses or condos for their school-aged children or grandchildren. Nervous upper-middle-class homeowners are hoping that the strategy will help younger generations gain a foothold in Vancouver.
According to a 2015 survey by private mortgage insurer Genworth Canada, 40% of first-time homebuyers in Vancouver had help from their parents, compared with 22% in the rest of Canada.
Skinner said it’s common for her clients to help their adult children with either a gift or a loan of between $200,000 to $500,000 to help with buying a home, often in the same neighbourhood.
Asian real estate conference ridicules government foreign home buyers estimate
July 8, 2016Participants at a July 7 Asia Real Estate Association of America conference in downtown Vancouver rolled their eyes and laughed at a provincial government statement that said only 3% of B.C. home sales are made to foreign buyers and 2.5% of Metro Vancouver buyers are Chinese nationals.
“I would like to know where the B.C. government is getting their statistics,” said Michael North of the Asia Pacific Network Foundation, who estimated “at least 10%” of Metro Vancouver home buyers are foreign nationals.
Finance Minister Mike De Jong said the information was based on residential sales during a near three-week period in June, which began as the province began tracking the addresses of all buyers for the first time.
According to De Jong, there were 10,148 transactions between June 10 and 29 throughout B.C., half of which were in the Lower Mainland. Only 337 of those sales – 3.3% – involved foreign nationals.
“That is a very small sample,” said Tina Mak, a Vancouver real estate agent and president of AREAA Vancouver. “That is the problem. No one has hard data.”
Mail disruption feared as Canada Post lockout looms
June 20, 2016
Businesses across Canada were warned in June that a Canada Post lockout was a possibility. Postal workers were set to be in a legal strike position July 2, but Canadian Union of Postal Workers national president Mike Palecek said it looked like there may be a lockout before this could happen.
Workers were unhappy with issues surrounding job security, pension plan changes and pay equity between urban and rural carriers. The last issue was said to be a gender pay equity issue, as while 70% of urban postal workers are male, 70% of rural workers are female.
Ultimately, there was no lockout, and workers did not end up going on strike, but tensions remained throughout the summer.
In August, Toronto mediator William Kaplan was appointed to try to resolve the labour dispute. A few days later, Canada Post and the union reached tentative agreements, which have since been ratified.
TransLink mega land deal details revealed
October 11, 2016
TransLink sold its Oakridge Transit Centre to a consortium of investors that includes Vancouver developer Intergulf and Richmond-based Kunyuan International Group. At the time of this story, a third party remained unconfirmed but was thought to be Beijing-based Modern Green Development Co. Ltd.
At the time of sale, the value was estimated to be worth between $425 million and $450 million. In December, TransLink announced the deal was worth $440 million and confirmed Modern Green was part of the consortium.
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