Granville Island business owners feel vulnerable and frustrated at “disrespectful” treatment from landlord Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), which sought no input about potentially transferring to Port Metro Vancouver (PMV) management of the 38-acre peninsula.
Correspondence shows that the issue has been around for more than a year, but business owners told Business in Vancouver that the first they heard about potentially having a new landlord was from news reports in early July.
“I’ve put my life into this place,” said New Leaf Creative Solutions print shop owner Peter Braune, who bought his business 28 years ago. “To hear that someone will be a new manager of the Granville Island and there’s been no public input at all is disrespectful.”
Braune once helped get a book published about tenants of Granville Island. He also helped establish a newspaper for the area years ago.
Despite Braune’s obvious long-term commitment to the area, he said CMHC hasn’t been showing reciprocal commitment and has continually shortened his lease terms.
His lease used to be for five years with a three-year option. That dropped to three years with a two-year option. In December CMHC offered Braune only a one-year lease.
“People [at CMHC] are not being honest or open,” he said. “There are all these terror stories going on and people are freaking out. Then you find out how many people have one-year leases and you think, ‘Oh, so that’s why that’s happening.’”
Seven-year tenant Eric Pateman, who has three leases on the peninsula, told BIV that he is frustrated by “zero” consultation about having a potential new landlord.
Pateman’s fast-growing Edible Canada spawned a restaurant three years ago and a Sea to Sky Seasonings flavoured sea-salt manufacturing plant two years ago. His third site on Granville Island is his corporate office.
“I’ve spent the last year discussing with CMHC my expansion plans and what we want to do on the island,” Pateman said. “Will there be a completely new management team? Do all those discussions go out the window?”
CMHC spokeswoman Teresa Amoroso confirmed to BIV that her organization asked PMV to discuss potentially taking over responsibility for managing Granville Island.
This request was “part of our long-term planning,” said Amoroso, who declined to reveal whether CMHC had also approached other organizations or the City of Vancouver, which was in the loop more than a year ago.
In a May 2013 letter to Industry Minister James Moore, Mayor Gregor Robertson wrote, “The city was told that if we were not supportive of this change [of Granville Island stewardship to PMV], it would not proceed.”
Robertson wrote a followup letter to Moore later that month to outline two preferred options: to create an authority similar to the non-profit Vancouver International Airport Authority, but accountable to Heritage Canada, or to have the city manage the peninsula.
Robertson opposes CMHC transferring stewardship for the peninsula to PMV, which reports to Transport Minister Lisa Raitt, largely because it lacks experience and community rapport.
Port CEO Robin Silvester said in a statement that it’s “too soon to speculate” on whether his organization will agree to manage Granville Island.
But Robertson said Silvester’s organization had indicated that it is an “obvious” choice to run the peninsula because it is legally able to borrow money and CMHC is not.
The MLA for the area, former mayor Sam Sullivan, told BIV that he opposes the City of Vancouver managing Granville Island because the city has a history of opposing all that is good about the area.
“The only reason Granville Island is as wonderful as it is is because it is not run by the City of Vancouver.” •
