A common refrain among the development industry in Metro Vancouver is that we have no land to build on. This is true in the sense that we don't have much untapped "greenfield" land that can be developed. But walk around cities across the region and you will see plenty of vacant pieces of land that appear ripe for development, but have been mysteriously dormant for years.
One of the biggest such mysteries is the property known as 1608-1616 W Georgia Street, located at the intersection of W Georgia Street and Cardero Street in the West End of Vancouver, a few blocks away from Stanley Park.
The property is a land assembly that consists of 1608 W Georgia Street, 1616 W Georgia Street, a subdivided lot also with an address of 1616 W Georgia Street, and 1670 W Georgia Street. BC Assessment values the sites at $50,515,500, $106,888,000, $4,141,900, and $4,185,300, respectively, for a total valuation of $165,730,700.
The property was formerly occupied by a White Spot that was sold by Shato Holdings in December 2017 for $245 million, according to Vancouver Market, a website run by Colliers Senior Vice President David Taylor. The deal was not only the most-expensive land transaction of 2017, it beat the second-place transaction by almost $100 million.
The Owner
When the property was sold in December 2017, the purchaser was reported as Champion Rainbow Holdings Ltd., which the Vancouver Sunidentified as an entity associated with Carnival International Holdings, a company based in Hong Kong with no relation to the cruise-ship operator.
The sale was not reported until December 22 and a BC Corporate Registry Notice from that month indicates that Champion Rainbow Holdings Ltd. was incorporated on December 13, suggesting it was incorporated for the purchase. However, a different registry notice the next month indicated that Champion Rainbow Holdings Ltd. changed its name to Alberni Street Holdings Ltd. on January 10, less than a month after the incorporation and purchase, suggesting there may have been another change in ownership.
The White Spot that formerly occupied 1608-1616 W Georgia Street, in June 2017. / Google Maps
A rezoning application for the site was then submitted to the City of Vancouver in March 2019 — with plans for 455 strata units across two 38-storey towers — but the applicant was identified as the architect of the project, Arcadis IBI Group, and the owner-developer was only identified as Alberni Street Holdings Ltd.
A building permit allowing the demolition of the White Spot and a tree permit allowing for the removal of several trees were then issued in August 2021, but since then, the project has not progressed and the site is now an unappealing dog park made up of pebbles, sand, and little to no grass or trees. It's been operating as a dog park for so long that the site is now identified on Google Maps as Georgia Dog Park.
A cardboard sign notifying the public about the rezoning application remains on the site and City of Vancouver records as of this week show that the rezoning application is still "in review."
Additionally, in 2023, the original purchaser, Carnival International Holdings, went through a wind-up and liquidation process that ended with the company being delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), according to an HKEX announcement.
The Hong Kong Connection
There remains a connection to Hong Kong, however.
According to the Land Owner Transparency Registry, the current registered owner of 1608, 1616, the subdivided 1616, and 1670 W Georgia Street is still Alberni Street Holdings Ltd. The registry also notes that Alberni Street Holdings Ltd. is controlled by Alberni Street Developments Ltd. and a Hong Kong-based individual named Adam Kai Fai Kwok.
Adam Kwok is listed as an Executive Director on the corporate website of Sun Hung Kai Properties, one of the largest real estate developers in Hong Kong. For the year ending on June 30, 2024, the company reported $21.739 billion HKD — approximately $3.8 billion CAD — in profits, and the company recently sold 204 apartments in a single day.
Kwok is the grandson of Tak-Seng Kwok, who co-founded the company in 1963. Adam Kwok's father — the second son of Tak-Seng-Kwok — is Thomas Ping-Kwong Kwok, who was serving as a Co-Chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties along with his brother Raymond when both were charged with paying bribes to then-Chief Secretary of Hong Kong Rafael Hui in exchange for information on land sales. Raymond Kwok was cleared of all charges while Thomas Kwok and Rafael Hui were both convicted and jailed before being released in 2019.
In Vancouver, the Kwok family is a major stakeholder in Aspac Developments, the developer behind the ongoing multi-phase River Green project near the Olympic Oval in Richmond.
"ASPAC's major shareholder is the Kwok family, who have earned their reputation as one of Asia's finest developers in the ultra-competitive Hong Kong marketplace with Sun Hung Kai Properties," says Aspac Developments on its corporate website, which lists a project with two 38-storey towers at Alberni and Cardero as "coming soon."
A project listed on the corporate website of Aspac Developments.
Renderings from the 2019 rezoning application for 1608-1616 W Georgia Street. / Arcadis IBI Group
STOREYS reached out to Aspac on September 27 inquiring about why the project has not progressed and what the company's plans are for the site, but has not received a response.
The property does not appear to be under foreclosure or facing legal issues of any kind, according to searches of court filings, suggesting the property has been dormant by choice.
A look at the property's surrounding context, however, provides some additional hints.
The Most-Interesting Two Blocks In Vancouver
The Aspac Development land assembly is a corner property that fronts three streets — W Georgia Street, Cardero Street, and Alberni Street — and numerous properties just within these two blocks have been in the news over the past year.
Directly adjacent to Aspac's land assembly (blue, in the map below) is 1698 W Georgia Street (green), which was acquired by Anthem Properties for $72 million in the sixth-largest transaction of 2017. The site was formerly a Chevron gas station and Anthem is currently constructing a 31-storey condo tower named Park, which drew attention last year after Anthem requested a deferral on a $10 million community amenity contribution payment. The Park site is legally known as 1688 W Georgia Street and was originally planned, according to a City referral report, to include the subdivided parcel of 1616 W Georgia Street and 1670 W Georgia Street now owned by Aspac.
Across the street from Park, at the corner of Alberni Street and Bidwell Street, is 1668-1684 Alberni Street (pink, upper left), two aging strata buildings that are now owned by Westbank under 700 Bidwell Property Inc. For the site, Westbank is planning a 40-storey strata tower.
Directly adjacent to this property is 1640-1650 Alberni Street (purple), a 15-storey rental building acquired by Landa Global for $130 million in the fifth-largest transaction of 2018. The property is now owned under 1650 Alberni Residential Ltd. and 1650 Alberni Commercial Ltd. For the site, Landa Global in planning a 43-storey condo tower with replacement rental units and their partner on the project is Asia Standards America, the North American arm of Hong Kong-based developer Asia Standard International Group.
Both of these properties made the news this June after the developers requested extensions on rezoning enactment, citing "strata market conditions" and escalating costs — factors that may also apply to Aspac's project.
Continuing down Alberni Street and kitty-corner to Aspac's land assembly is 1568 Alberni Street (pink, bottom right), the site of the now-complete 43-storey Alberni by Kengo Kuma developed by Westbank and Peterson, which has fascinated many over the years as a result of its sky-high prices. In August, as first reported by STOREYS, it also became the subject of a lawsuit over $2.8 million that has gone unpaid to the general contractor on the project, Graham Construction.
Finally, across the street from this property at the corner of Robson Street and Cardero Street, is 1555 Robson Street (yellow), which was acquired by Vivagrand Developments for $79.5 million in what was the fifth-largest transaction of 2017. Vivagrand Developments later rebranded as Align Properties, the 1555 Robson Street property became the subject of foreclosure proceedings in February, and the property was subsequently sold to GWL Realty Advisors for $58 million, as first reported by STOREYS.
That case, to bring things full circle, also had a connection to Asia: on its Facebook page, Vivagrand Developments identified itself as the North American office of Xiangli Group, a real estate developer based in China.
