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If it bothers Ian Gillespie that he’s the most vilified developer in Vancouver — a city with a particular disdain for real estate moguls — it’s not apparent. In fact, he has critiques of his own for his hometown.

“We’ve risen to a high level of mediocrity,” Gillespie declares as he gestures toward the window of his office at Westbank Corp., the company he founded 27 years ago. Outside, a slew of glass towers are crammed along a cobalt harbour, set across picturesque mountains.

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“Three-quarters of the buildings in this city look like a piece of s—,” Gillespie says. “We’ve been sitting on our laurels because we got lucky, right?”

By luck or not, Vancouver’s pristine backdrop has made it a magnet for global wealth, particularly from Asia, transforming a once-sleepy town into an increasingly unaffordable cosmopolis. And no developer has capitalized on the phenomenon more so than Gillespie, whose opulent buildings designed by star architects have become a symbol of the city’s extreme wealth and deep divides.