Millennium Water developers name the city of Vancouver as a reason for the projects problems.
Shahram and Peter Malek, the brothers and Principals of Millennium Developments have stated that the City of Vancouver hampered their ability to sell condos and repay their loan by naming themselves as ‘co-developer'. Millennium alleges the city named itself as co-developer shortly after taking over as project financier after New York hedge fund Fortress Investments pulled out during the recession of 2008.
According to the developers, a lot of buyers who purchased in 2009 are now questioning the project's disclosure statement, claiming misrepresentation because the city of Vancouver is co-developer.
To quote Shahram Malek
"At that time [in 2009] we had over $250 million of sales that were anticipated [to close after the Vancouver Olympics]," he said. "A certain number of buyers were associating us with the city, they were saying the city has made references that they are co-developers with us. What that meant was that the original milestones we planned were affected by those allegations."
That last sentence might be remotely meaningful if we knew what those ‘original milestones' actually were.
City Manager Penny Ballem retorted that the real reason buyers were no longer willing to complete their purchases and wanted deposits back was due to a Vancouver condo market slow down, speculators getting edgy and real estate financing harder to come by. She also stated that the City had not promoted itself as co-developer at any stage of the development and their status as lender was unequivocally clear.
I don't think the ‘co-developer' argument has any merit; I don't think buyers care. What buyers do care about is squirming out of a deal that is no longer in the money any which way they can.
Shahram and Peter Malek, the brothers and Principals of Millennium Developments have stated that the City of Vancouver hampered their ability to sell condos and repay their loan by naming themselves as ‘co-developer'. Millennium alleges the city named itself as co-developer shortly after taking over as project financier after New York hedge fund Fortress Investments pulled out during the recession of 2008.
According to the developers, a lot of buyers who purchased in 2009 are now questioning the project's disclosure statement, claiming misrepresentation because the city of Vancouver is co-developer.
To quote Shahram Malek
"At that time [in 2009] we had over $250 million of sales that were anticipated [to close after the Vancouver Olympics]," he said. "A certain number of buyers were associating us with the city, they were saying the city has made references that they are co-developers with us. What that meant was that the original milestones we planned were affected by those allegations."
That last sentence might be remotely meaningful if we knew what those ‘original milestones' actually were.
City Manager Penny Ballem retorted that the real reason buyers were no longer willing to complete their purchases and wanted deposits back was due to a Vancouver condo market slow down, speculators getting edgy and real estate financing harder to come by. She also stated that the City had not promoted itself as co-developer at any stage of the development and their status as lender was unequivocally clear.
I don't think the ‘co-developer' argument has any merit; I don't think buyers care. What buyers do care about is squirming out of a deal that is no longer in the money any which way they can.
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