Twelve-storey proposal will go to public hearing.

A 12-storey building proposal for Vidal Street in White Rock was moved forward at council Monday, paving the way for the public to have its say.

The proposed development would see 12 townhouses and 97 apartment units go up between 1467 and 1519 Vidal St., the site where the Mariners Reach townhouse complex currently stands.

Coun. Larry Robinson said he expects a fair bit of community discussion surrounding the proposal, which could set the mood for future developments.

Another Westbank project is heading to public hearing, this time at 2200 Kingsway which was formerly a Canadian Tire.  The proposal features three towers that total 404 residential units over 350,000 square feet of gross floor area and 597 parking spaces. 

An interesting article on some of the pioneers of the REIT world.  REITs have become like daytime talk shows, new ones pop up every week and for any sort of real estate asset class. 

Cohen & Steers Looking Beyond REITs and Real Estate.

Proposed 46-storey tower in limbo.

A proposal for what could potentially be one of Burnaby’s tallest towers – standing at 46-storeys – was withdrawn at a recent public hearing held in council’s chambers.

On March 19, three rezonings were up for public input, except for the highrise proposed for Gilmore Ave. with a three-storey townhouse podium facing Halifax Street and a two-storey residential amenity podium that included a rooftop swimming pool.

Coun. Colleen Jordan, who attended the public hearing, said she could not comment on why the proposed tower was withdrawn.

Now the proposal is in limbo – it will either go to a future public hearing with changes or not go ahead at all. The site’s developer is Millenium Development, which has also developed 10 other highrises in the city, including Mayfair Place, Belvedere and One University Crescent in the SFU community.

From the Wall Street Journal (Big Players Cash Out of Hong Kong Property), note some of the similarities between the commercial price increases in Vancouver’s market and Hong Kong’s market.

HONG KONG — With the government growing confident that it has halted the meteoric rise in property prices, some of this city’s biggest real-estate investors are getting out.

Several of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families are planning initial public offerings of hotels, offices and other real-estate assets in coming months, while others are lowering prices on luxury apartments to entice buyers.

Fueled by low interest rates and a flood of money from wealthy Chinese, Hong Kong’s real-estate market has boomed, with residential prices up 120% and commercial real-estate prices up 90% since the start of 2008, according to government data.

Among the sellers is New World Development Co. Ltd., a conglomerate run by the Cheng family with interests ranging from hotels to offices to jewelry stores. The family hopes to raise up to $1 billion in an offering of some of its hotel properties, people familiar with the matter said. The company owns the city’s Grand Hyatt and other well-known hotels, but it’s not clear which properties would be included in the offering.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324789504578384220036108516.html