Millennium is active again.

(Update: It turns out this project was and possibly is still being marketed in Hong Kong. See tweet at bottom.)

Was Millennium truly broke after the 2010 Winter Olympics? The Millennium name and logo appear prominently on the site of a new highrise tower currently under construction at Gilmore and Halifax Street in Burnaby, just north of the Lougheed highway.

Our Metro Vancouver region is like a stage with actors appearing and disappearing and appearing again, in a complex weave of connections. This one involves the developer, the lead up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2008 global financial meltdown, a regime-changing election in 2008 from NPA to Vision Vancouver (triggered by confidential documents someone on City Council “left” on a table for media), property seizures, a very quiet billion dollar debt writeoff funded by taxpayers, and more. Some of the key actors have already departed from the stage.

While some of the key politicians are still in power until the October 20 election in 2018, it may be the last chance for the media to fill in some blanks in the script and have some more light shone on decisions and actions by the Vision Vancouver regime, while it still has a majority on City Council.

As readers may recall, Millennium defaulted on Olympic Village debts and left the City of Vancouver to pick up the $1 billion tab. At the time, the City put claims against 32 properties owned by Millennium, which was hardly enough to recover the costs (according to the City, gross value was $82 million, net value $45). A status report by staff appears to be no longer accessible on the City’s website. Fortunately, we saved a copy of it (Southeast False Creek Development, Update on Negotiation with Millennium, City of Vancouver Technical Briefing, April 8, 2011): SEFCPresentationApril82011. This shows the complexities of the deals.

Former City Manager Penny Ballem later released a $1 billion claim against Millennium and thus relinquished all future claims to any right to seize their assets.

Investigative report Bob Mackin covered the story on October 10, 2011, and posed the question:

“Could the City of Vancouver have negotiated for or seized more of Millennium’s assets, so as to avoid leaving taxpayers with a loss on the Olympic Village?”

Ballem was abruptly fired on September 15, 2015. Residents are still waiting for complete answers on how much the Olympic Village default cost the City.

Our story in 2013 provides more details and links for the whole story. Millennium’s Boheme approved – 101 units at 1588 East Hastings. Olympic Village developer expects construction soon. MANY questions. (CityHallWatch, 20-Aug-2013)

An side note is that the Alexandra at 1215 Bidwell, on the former site of Maxine’s in the West End, was a Millennium project, and the very first of the Short Term Incentives for Rental (STIR) program. The rezoning was approved by a public hearing in December 2009, setting off a development frenzy in the West End. The Alexandra is a 21-storey luxury condo tower with two floors of rental units at the bottom. Due to flaws and legal challenges, the program was replaced by Rental 100 a few years later.

References

The Olympic Village Developer Is Bankrupt (Bob Mackin, The Tyee, 5-April-2014)

Millennium’s Boheme approved – 101 units at 1588 East Hastings. Olympic Village developer expects construction soon. MANY questions. (CityHallWatch, 20-Aug-2013)

Billion dollar boondoggle? City manager lets Millennium off the hook for $1 billion mortgage (CityHallWatch, 7-Oct-2011)

Release of $1 billion Millennium mortgage by City Manager paves way for STIR/condo tower construction, HSBC financing (CityHallWatch, 16-Nov-2011)

Three years later, more questions than answers (Bob Mackin, Gold Rush blog, 10-Oct-2011)

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Notes

Rezoning process of the 46-storey Millennium Triomphe tower:

Click to access 3779706142018090834468.PDF

Note page 2, point e: $6,987,225 cash in-lieu contribution

Click to access 3779806142018090836702.PDF

https://eagenda.burnaby.ca/sirepub/cache/2/d4umtty2kpkofacepzkoxiap/6454706092018115602783.PDF

(Search for “1846, 1876, and 1904 Gilmore Avenue” on burnaby.ca for more documents).





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Marketing in Hong Kong

Potential Unlimited: Vancouver take property property sales.

Royal Home purchase will be held on this Friday, Saturday.

Date: February 17-19- 2017

Time: 12 -7 PM

Venue: 1901th floor, 19 Gloucester road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Enquiry: 852 22301001#Slap pic.twitter.com/4uESxbBVit — FIVRE604 (@FIVRE604) June 17, 2018