Downtown Vancouver Updates II

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The Bramalea project (early 1990s) was to be an indoor mall to be anchored by Woodwards at the north end and The Bay on the south end (this was when Woodward's was moving upscale and wanted out of the DTES for its flagship store, but it may not have even been completed before Woodward's closed up in 1993).
Bramalea had bought all of the buildings between Granville and Seymour from The Bay to Pender St, except the former CIBC Building (where Shoppers is currently located).
The City refused to approve the application, then all of the buildings were sold off piecemeal.

The City never had a chance to refuse (or approve) the project - the market wasn't ready, and the developer went belly up. From The Sun, March 24, 1993 "Trilea Centres Inc. has listed nearly a full city block of prime downtown Vancouver property for sale at a price of $29 million. Trilea once envisioned a $400 million retail, office and hotel development on the site bounded by Granville, Seymour, Dunsmuir and Pender but market conditions deteriorated and the project never got off the
ground.

"I feel bad that we won't see our project developed," said Trilea's vice-president, George Stewart. "I think it's one of the premier sites in Vancouver, possibly North America, because there are very few sites of this size assembled right in the middle of a city core."

He said Trilea is selling the property as part of a court-approved plan of arrangement for Trilea's financially troubled parent company Bramalea Ltd., which is trying torestructure about $4.9 million in debt. Bramalea has set a target of selling $2.2 billion worth of assets by1997.

Trilea assembled the downtown Vancouver site in 1987 and 1988 and planned to develop an office tower, a hotel and huge retail complex that was to be anchored by a major department store. Woodward's Ltd. once considered the site for a new flagship Vancouver store. "But the market was just not receptive to that type of project, given the difficulties that arose with office leasing and retail leasing,"Stewart said.

Trilea owns 10 of the 14 properties located within the block and they have been offered for sale at prices ranging from $2.1million to $5million. The total asking price for all 10properties is $29.04million and the sale is being handled by Colliers Macaulay Nicolls Inc. Stewart said several parties have already expressed a strong interest in the site but he doubts that any single buyer will purchase all 10 properties."