The Vancouver Business Thread

[Changing City]

Steve Saretsky, on twitter.

"One big developer has gone bust, another big name coming. Yet on the residential side it’s off to the races, multiple offers everywhere you look. "

[jasonpark]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Hmm, why is Coromandel pushing back on WeChat over its documented debts? Surely Twitter or Facebook which reach more of a North American audience.

Vancouver developer Coromandel Properties appears to be pushing back on media reports about debts
A statement circulating on Chinese-language social media app WeChat outlines that some media reports have been spreading rumours and exaggerating details about the company.
Author of the article: Joanne Lee-Young, Dan Fumano
Published Feb 14, 2023

A Vancouver developer that has accumulated more than $700 million in debt, according to court records, appears to be pushing back on media reports about its efforts to seek creditor protection and the potential impact on presale buyers.

Coromandel Properties has been acquiring land and developing multi-family residential towers and townhomes around Vancouver since 2013. But the company is struggling to make payments on its 16 properties — most of which are unfinished — according to a petition filed last week in B.C. Supreme Court that asks for time to sort through a maze of financial problems due to difficulty servicing its debts amid rising interest rates.

But a statement circulating on Chinese-language social media app WeChat outlines that some media reports have been spreading rumours and exaggerating details about the company.

The statement, posted in Chinese, said some reports inaccurately reported the company owed more than $1 billion. The statement said the company’s Frame project, which is located in East Vancouver on Kingsway, is running according to plan.....

https://vancouversun.com/business/real-e...ndel-properties-pushing-back-media-debts

My friend shared this with me. Everyone in his neighbourhood got a letter from Townline, and it looks like they are starting construction on FRAME this spring. Looks like Coromandel may have sold their Frame Development to Peterson/Townline?
Because they are not mentioned anywhere anymore.

To me, it seems like even if a developer goes bust, as long as the development has gotten city hall approval, someone will pay the big bucks to take over the development. We saw this with Anthem purchasing Aoyuan Group's brentwood mall development for 200 million that got final adoption by Burnaby city council. It seems like getting permits and rezoning done have gotten so bad for new developments that developers are willing to pay a premium for already approved developments.

https://ibb.co/NVwTNTg

[madog222]

Thanks for sharing.

Coromandel and Peterson were partnered on Frame, evidently Peterson have gone straight to building once they got full ownership.

[Sheba]

Dozens of contractors unpaid on struggling Coromandel develoment, court filings allege

Dozens of contractors are owed money on a project owned by beleaguered Vancouver developer Coromandel Properties, according to documents filed this week in B.C. Supreme Court.

The documents were filed by a construction company seeking to stop the “fire sale” of the Coromandel property in creditor-protection proceedings.

Coromandel filed for creditor protection last month in B.C. Supreme Court, citing financial problems and $700 million in debt on its portfolio of 16 properties.

A Vancouver company called Rely Construction filed documents in court earlier this week alleging Coromandel had agreed to quickly pay them a reduced amount of $682,500, but failed to do so.

Rely provided construction management services for a Coromandel project on a stretch of Vancouver’s Southwest Marine Drive surrounded by mansions valued in the tens of millions of dollars. The project, described on Coromandel’s website as “Wilmar Estates,” consists of the rehabilitation of a 98-old heritage house, and construction of five infill houses.

...

Rely’s position in the matter “is nuanced, but its bottom line is straightforward,” the filing says. “The infill homes, at a minimum, on the Wilmar Project can be salvaged and it is in the best interests of all parties to to pay out the outstanding contractors, complete the project under the management of the court or a third party (or both), and subsequently sell them at the optimal (as opposed to a “fire sale”) price.”

Coromandel’s initial Feb. 6 application says the Wilmar property, which consists of six lots, was appraised at around $50 million in June 2022 based on its redevelopment potential. Coromandel’s February application also said work on the Wilmar heritage home was 75 per cent complete, and the new homes were 95 per cent complete, but “due to a shortage of funds, construction has stalled,” and Coromandel had been unable to pay trades for months.

...

Ron Rapp, CEO of Homebuilders Association Vancouver, said Rely’s proposal to complete the project so the homes can be sold on the open market seems to “make an awful lot of sense.”

“Being this close to the finish line, it seems to be the only thing that would make sense,” Rapp said. “Leaving the houses in that unfinished state for any period of time, at this point, would be kind of silly.”

...

[Feathered Friend]

Author of the article:Joanne Lee-Young
Published Mar 12, 2023 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 2 minute read

Vancouver developer Coromandel no longer seeking creditor protection
In B.C. Supreme Court on Friday, lawyers for Coromandel said the company was going to discontinue the CCAA proceedings.|

Vancouver developer Cormandel Properties said it is no longer seeking protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act after reaching agreements with its lenders.

The two foreclosure petitions that have been adjourned to later in the month are between Richmond-based Accountable Mortgage Investment Corp. and Coromandel’s Nanaimo 22 project and its Wilmar Estates project. Accountable MIC is a company that allows individual investors to pool their funds and invest in residential or commercial mortgages.

More details at
https://vancouversun.com/business/real-e...el-no-longer-seeking-creditor-protection

[svlt]

So, does that mean all of the projects they had on tap are still going ahead?

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by svlt

So, does that mean all of the projects they had on tap are still going ahead?

I think it's probably on a case-by-case basis depending on their partners and how far along they are with the project. I mean any contractor is probably going to be weary of doing anything with them new at this point.

[officedweller]

Downtown Vancouver private school closes, more than 130 students affected


https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news...l-closes-more-than-130-students-affected

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Downtown Vancouver private school closes, more than 130 students affected

Every Canadian should be embarrassed by that industry, SAF.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Every Canadian should be embarrassed by that industry, SAF.

What industry?

[Migrant_Coconut]

I believe they mean for-profit education; St George's is somewhat credible, but schools like these smell like diploma factories.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

I believe they mean for-profit education; St George's is somewhat credible, but schools like these smell like diploma factories.

It was a non-profit K-12 private school founded in 2004.

[jollyburger]

More like citizenship factories.

The society has been named in lawsuits accusing Jin of failing to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans and promising Chinese investors he would get them permanent resident status in exchange for investment in the school.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/westside-school-lawsuits-payroll-1.5556864

Just because it's a non-profit doesn't mean people can't take out huge salaries/management fees from the organization.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Good rule of thumb: if a private school is operating out of somebody else's building, it's automatically suspicious.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

More like citizenship factories.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/westside-school-lawsuits-payroll-1.5556864

Just because it's a non-profit doesn't mean people can't take out huge salaries/management fees from the organization.

It would seem that one of the former directors of the school was accused of obtaining funds from investors in the school which he used to buy a house for himself, as well as his non-existant immigration consultancy. The bankrupcy report from the company that he ran that loaned the money to keep the school in operation suggests the school was spending more than it raised in government payments and school fees for some time.

I think there's an important difference between how the school ran, and the quality of the teaching, (which doesn't seem to have been an issue), and the way some (former) directors managed aspects of financing.

Whatnext's rather vague 'Every Canadian should be embarrassed by that industry' might have implied that Canadians should be embarrassed by the existance of all private schools, but I suspect a more specific aspect to their statement.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Sound a little like University Canada West: the teachers themselves haven't been controversial, but the organization as a whole is.

[madog222]

Vacancy tax for commercial properties proposed in New West

New Westminster city council believes a vacant property tax on commercial properties could help local business districts.

Council unanimously approved a motion submitted by Coun. Ruby Campbell which will go to the Lower Mainland Local Government Association for its consideration at the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting. The motion asks the Province of BC to provide local governments with an option to introduce a vacant property tax that would be applicable to commercial properties.

The motion states that the province has adopted a vacancy tax on vacant residential properties as one tool to assure land speculation does not result in property standing fallow to the detriment of community livability and other goals. It also says commercial property values are inflating provincewide, and increasingly facing investment speculation that results in similar underutilization of commercial properties in many B.C. municipalities.

https://www.newwestrecord.ca/local-busin...-properties-proposed-in-new-west-6719687

[jollyburger]

Another 9000 layoff from Amazon

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/20/amazon-layoffs-company-to-cut-off-9000-more-workers.html

[SpongeG]

JD Sports Canada in hiring boom, opens Vancouver head office

Footwear, fashion company rapidly expanding two of its three store banners
By Glen Korstrom | March 30, 2023

The fast-growing Canadian arm of global footwear and fashion retailing giant JD Sports (LSE:JD) is set to open a new headquarters in Vancouver next week.

The 12,000-sq.-ft. space on the fifth floor of 22 East 5th Ave. in Mount Pleasant is set to have 140 workstations, with about 65 filled on Day 1.

The company will keep its 6,000-sq.-ft. office in Toronto, but JD Sports Canada CEO Gary Ochi told BIV that the Vancouver office will be the company's headquarters because it is larger, and it is where he will be based.

Ochi plans to hire more than 300 people by the end of the year, bringing JD Sports Canada's workforce to more than 1,000.
"A large focus will be on career-oriented people to be hired into the Vancouver office," he said.


"Everything from property, accounting, human resources, buying, planning, marketing – basically every single part of the company will be there."

...

https://biv.com/article/2023/03/jd-sports-canada-hiring-boom-opens-vancouver-head-office

[C3YVR]

An interesting article from Jeff Bezos paper to compare how Seattle is doing: Seattle, hit by tech cuts and pandemic, tries to reboot
The city, which has sustained rapid tech growth, is looking for its next act https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/08/seattle-tech-downturn-amazon/