Bob Mackin
You have probably heard of the Georgie Awards, the annual Canadian Home Builders’ Association gala for the residential construction and renovation industry, named for Capt. George Vancouver.
Notorious Marine Crescent empty mansion (Judy Rudin)
theBreaker.news is planning an alternative called the Gregor Awards, to recognize outstanding achievement in dilapidated and empty housing.
The Gregors will be to the Georgies what the Razzies are to the Oscars. The namesake is the man who spent more consecutive years in the mayor’s office than anyone else, Gregor Robertson.
Remember him? Vision Vancouver’s cycling juice huckster who sold out the city to China.
The first nominee in the category of best sign on the gate on the gate of a $7.05 million, 1937-built tudor-style mansion is the Judy Rudin-discovered “Disgraceful maintenance. This owner has no respect for his neighbours and even less for the neighbourhood.”
City hall most recently issued an “untidy premises order” in July of this year for the boarded-up 6570 Marine Crescent house and garden-gone-wild that is registered to absentee landlord Su Qun Mao.
Less than a kilometre away, two more Gregor Awards nominees.
In the category of most-expensive pile of year-old charred debris behind a fence, the nominee is 2250 Southwest Marine Drive.
The incident report from the July 29, 2018 fire, released by the Office of the Fire Commissioner after a freedom of information request by theBreaker.news, said the vacant, two-storey wood-framed house collapsed onto itself after heavy fire and smoke poured from all openings.
Robertson and the Mayor of Shanghai, Ying Yong (PRC)
“Due to the intensity and progression of this fire it is determined to be an incendiary fire and suspicious in nature,” the report said.
As firefighters put-out hot spots, a city demolition company and building inspector were called. It was listed for $4.66 million by Sutton Group West Coast Realty’s Naomi Wang at the time of the fire. The property value dropped to $4.193 million, but Wang is now listing it for $4.388 million. Bargain!
Richmond is the home of the property’s registered owner Sihan Guo, whose No. 4 Road house is in the name of Yu Kuan Wang.
2250 SW Marine (Mackin)
More than a year later, according to a statement from Neal Wells of the city’s communications department, the city issued an order for the property owners to apply for a demolition permit to remove the debris and the building foundation.
“The city is in the process of reviewing the application and issuing the permit,” Wells said.
The house two doors down at 2230 Southwest Marine Dr. is a Gregor Awards dual nominee for most-expensive graffiti decoration and most-expensive wild urban blackberry farm.
The $5.47 million property is registered to Cheng Yu Li and Jian Ying Zhang, who are connected to an $8.2 million property on White Rock’s Marine Drive.
2230 SW Marine (Mackin)
“In August 2018 the city issued a 10-day notice to clean-up the property and remove debris from the yard,” Wells said. “With no response received from the owner, the city hired a contractor to board-up and clean the vacant property, which was completed on Sept. 12, 2018. In July 2019, the city issued an untidy premises order due to an overgrowth of vegetation and accumulation of debris in the yard. With no response received from the owner, the city has hired a contractor to clean the vacant property, which was completed on Aug. 27, 2019.”
Last month, the city also sent a letter to the property owner, requiring repair of a broken construction fence within a month.
“Should the property owner not comply, the city will hire a contractor to complete the work.” Contractor costs, Wells said, are billed back to the property owner.
Due to privacy concerns, the city doesn’t comment on individual Empty Homes Tax files, he said.
Do you have a nominee for the Gregor Awards? Click here and send photographs, descriptions and street addresses to theBreaker.news.
(Date and venue for the Gregor Awards ceremony is to be announced.)
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