We never used to pay much attention to the city’s financial statements, except for a cursory brief on what the total budget was or some quirky expenditure. Now, it’s an annual event to see where the city is with the Olympic Village and the $750-million construction loan it took out to pay for it. My [...]

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There’s been much buzz in the development world about the news that Peter and Shahram Malek recently bought the property at 1550 East Hastings for almost $5 million, with what would appear to be a plan to develop it for condos. As my Globe story notes, this is just a little more than a year [...]

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This year promises to be the most-polled ever in advance of a civic election, as various polling companies pile on to what promises to be a hard-fought battle for Vancouver city council in 2011. The latest out, another Justason Market Intelligence poll, showing that some noticeable fraction of people are moving from undecided to disapproving [...]

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Here’s my more complete story in the Globe on what transpired today (and the days leading up to it) related to the Olympic village moving into receivership. But these 700 words have a hard time capturing everything that has been happening in this incredibly complex deal. (A sample of how badly it’s going to be [...]

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This story has been brewing for weeks. Okay, years. Here it is, the start anyway, of the city’s news release. More to come. The City of Vancouver and Millennium agree to receiver The City of Vancouver and Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties, the company that owns the Millennium Water development, have today negotiated an agreement [...]

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There is social housing all over the city, but most people don’t realize it. Coal Harbour, the nice section of Kitsilano next to Jericho Beach, north False Creek, the West End, south Granville — there are unobtrusive apartment buildings everywhere. For a long time, that’s gone unquestioned. But in the past week, the issue has [...]

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Here’s my story on the new $36-million community centre in the Olympic village, which is spectacular and mostly empty so far. It was always going to be facing a ramp-up period, during the 10 years for the build-out of that whole area. But the first chapters are even slower than anyone expected, because of how [...]

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Well, this had to happen at some point and now it has. Here’s the story, which the CBC got first.

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I fear that Michael Geller is starving to death on his visit in China, due to a lack of internet connectivity. Here is compilation of a couple messages he has sent out this week and I’m adding a link to his blog post at the Vancouver Sun. This is quite the popular place for Vancouverites [...]

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The big push to sell the remaining 500 Olympic village condos starts this Saturday. As I noted previously, the city’s financial statement for last year says the city is hoping to see $200 million in deposits come in from these condo sales. In the meantime, CBC has a story about one disgruntled condo buyer there [...]

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