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Billionaire Singapore owner of Plaza of Nations property promises housing for locals, art museum, a green development

June 27th, 2017 · No Comments

There’s going to be a lot of conversation in the next year (and more) about Northeast False Creek, the last big piece of False Creek waterfront that’s going to be developed. Every piece of the creek’s development has generated debate, starting in the 1970s when the TEAM council of the day decided to convert former […]

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Vancouver stages good-news presser about Olympic Village debt, but raises a dust storm of questions about numbers

April 29th, 2014 · 30 Comments

As those of you who were on Twitter yesterday know, there was a lot of uproar at Vancouver city hall yesterday as journalists tried to make sense of the numbers swirling around like a meteor shower as the mayor and city manager attempted to make the case that the city had turned the Olympic village […]

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Crawling toward the finish line in paying down the Olympic Village debt: $162 million last year, only $300 million to go

April 23rd, 2013 · 74 Comments

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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Olympic village developers back in the game with new purchase

January 20th, 2012 · 18 Comments

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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Another day, another poll, a jump in disapproval for Mayor Gregor Robertson

November 30th, 2010 · 43 Comments

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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Tags: 2011 Vancouver Civic Election

City-Millennium bargaining went to deadline on how much developer should hand over besides Oly village

November 17th, 2010 · 57 Comments

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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Olympic village goes into receivership

November 17th, 2010 · 20 Comments

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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Olympic village prompts questions about city policy of mixing rich and poor

October 5th, 2010 · 35 Comments

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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Vancouver’s new community centre waits for the neighbourhood to show up

July 28th, 2010 · 28 Comments

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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Olympic village condo buyers want out

June 24th, 2010 · 17 Comments

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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