Bob Mackin
Scene from a $70M dog playground in Vancouver (Mackin)
A parking lot smaller than a hockey rink that was converted into a fenced, gravel playground for dogs rose from $46.756 million to $70.032 million last July, according to the Jan. 1-released property assessment.
The canine corner is adjacent to the White Spot restaurant on West Georgia, which saw its value rise from $104.296 million to $156.408 million. The popular eatery’s new assessment is the equivalent of 19.575 million Pirate Paks.
Both parcels were sold for $245 million in 2017 to Champion Rainbow Holdings Ltd., a division of Hong Kong’s Carnival International Holdings. Assessments are based on market value (including size, location and area sales) and highest-and-best-use potential.
The former Chevron station site on the west end of that block is now $98.251 million, up from $65.517 million. Developer Anthem paid $72 million for the land. Add the parking lot west of White Spot ($24.525 million) and the entire block is valued at just below $350 million.
Ex-Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s penthouse near Alexandra Park in the West End has almost doubled in value to $3.273 million since he bought in 2015. The unit rose from $3.125 million in 2017.
Robertson’s successor at 12th and Cambie, Kennedy Stewart, rents in a Concord Pacific-built tower near David Lam Park. That condo unit increased from $1.832 million to $1.919 million year-over-year.
Speaking of Concord, it owns the Molson Brewery ($164.963 million in 2017; $188.007 million in 2018) and Westin Bayshore ($227.913 million in 2017; $283.285 million in 2018).
Oakridge Centre is owned by Quadreal, a division of B.C.’s public sector pension fund. Westbank is selling condos in a forest of towers set to be built there. The property was worth $917.751 million in 2017. Last year, it reached more than $1.062 billion.
In 2015, the shopping centre had been reassessed at $500.54 million after the original $867.75 million had been appealed. Glen Chernen, a twice-failed city council candidate, argued unsuccessfully in 2016 to an assessment appeal panel that Oakridge should have been pegged between $750 million and $1.1 billion after the 2014 rezoning by the Vision Vancouver city council to allow for 11 new towers.
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou’s husband, Liu Xiaozong, is the only person listed on the registrations for Vancouver mansions on Matthews (upper) and West 28th (lower). (Mackin)
One of Oakridge’s tenants is Lululemon. Its founder, Chip Wilson, lives in the province’s most-expensive property on West Point Grey Road. The house that yoga pants built was $73.12 million as of last July 1, down $5.717 million from the previous year’s high of $78.837 million, but more than double its 2013 assessment. Last fall, Wilson authored Little Black Stretchy Pants, a book billed as the unauthorized story of Lululemon. Even at $73.12 million, you could easily afford to buy 746,122 pairs of Lululemon’s Wunder Under Super High-Rise Tight Full-On Luon or 2.93 million copies of Wilson’s paperback.
There is no house that comes close on Lulu Island. Richmond’s most-valuable is the Milan Ilich-built Ivy Manor, now owned by Sun Commercial Real Estate tycoon Kevin Sun and worth $9.89 million. The 18.46 acre property fell from $12.392 million the previous year.
FIFA vice-president Vic Montagliani paid $6.925 million in 2017 for a West Vancouver mansion that is now worth $5.615 million, down more than $300,000. Crooner Michael Buble’s seven-bedroom, 15-bathroom Burnaby mansion zoomed from $11.746 million to $21.666 million in a year after its completion. It is rumoured to include a hockey rink. Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot built a hockey rink in his Whistler chalet in 2002, which rose from $16.652 million to $17.606 million.
Properties in the name of Meng Wanzhou’s husband, Liu Xiaozong, also dropped in value. The Huawei chief financial officer, who was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on a U.S.-issued warrant Dec. 1 and freed on bail Dec. 11, lives in a Dunbar house assessed at $5.017 million, down from $5.609 million. Their under-renovation Shaughnessy mansion, on the same block as the U.S. Consul General’s residence, plummeted $3.033 million from $16.327 million to $13.29 million.
Still, the two properties are worth the equivalent of 13,921 Huawei Mate 20 Pro phones (which Telus sells for $1,315 apiece).
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