Everything Must Go

En route to the Sun Wah Centre I noticed Tosi Italian Food Importers had some items for clearance in its window. A nice display, though Fred Herzog (Salvage Ass'n, 1958, below) might have done a better job of framing it.

"Lady Developer"

A block east of the Beedie Group's parking lot is a 17-storey mixed-use commercial and residential tower built by Westbank Projects a couple years ago on the site of the former Mandarin Shopping Centre built in 1972 by developers Dean and Faye Leung.

Beedie's Latest (and Last?) Proposal for 105 Keefer Street

The proposal based on the above model was turned down Wednesday by the City of Vancouver's development permit board. It is the first time since 2006 that the development permit board has turned down a proposal.

In response to complaints by an incredulous development industry, urban planner and director of the City Program at SFU Andy Yan had this to say to the Vancouver Sun:

"Design is no longer the only criteria for the permit board. Now the context must also be included."

Which brings to mind another recent article, this one by Pasha Malla writing in the New Yorker on creative writing programs and the "larger social reality" that impacts the stories that many of these programs were designed to workshop.

Saving Face > Saving the Facade

Unable to maintain its earthquake-unfriendly May Wah Hotel (home to over 100 elderly residents, most of them women), the Shon Yee Benevolent Association had no choice but to put the building up for sale. Asking price: 11.5 million dollars.

The Vancouver Chinatown Association was interested, and secured a loan from the provincial government to purchase the building towards its preservation as housing and as a cultural artifact. However, when the VCA learned that 5 million dollars in structural upgrades was required (I assume this is what the provincial loan was to offset), it reduced its offer to 8 million and the Shon Yee Benevolent Association said no.

For more on the story it might help to look back in time to comments made by Shon Yee Benevolent Association past president Mike Jang and realtor Erik Kwok in this June 20, 2016 CBC report.

Shon Yee Benevolent Association

Among the many histories that contribute to that afghan known as Canada, it is our country's Chinese benevolent societies that I would like to hear more about.

One such society -- the Shon Yee Benevolent Association -- is in the news today. Not it, per se, but one of its buildings -- the 120-unit Royal Building at 262 East Pender Street, which was put up for sale this week. Price tag: $9,999, 000.

One of the many questions being asked is, What will the building's seniors do if evicted by the new owners? Another is, What is a benevolent society doing selling a building when housing is at a premium?

So I will ask it again. What is a benevolent association doing selling a building when housing is at a premium? Are the taxes too high? Does the society want to reinvest the money in something more sustainable? Is someone putting pressure on them to sell? Do they foresee a burst in the seemingly unburstable real estate bubble?

There is more to this story. And I would like to hear it.

[UPDATE: As of 10PM CKNW is reporting that City of Vancouver officials have no knowledge that the Royal Building (home to the May Wah Hotel) was ever put up for sale. For more, click here.)