VANCOUVER — A court-appointed receiver has sold the city-owned commercial properties that ring the Olympic Village’s main plaza for $45 million, and the head marketer expects the remaining residential units of the once-maligned neighbourhood to be fully sold by next September.

The city will receive a “significant distribution” from the sale of the properties — which house every business in the Village except the CRAFT Beer Market and Tap & Barrel bars — according to receiver Ernst & Young.

Tenants like London Drugs, Urban Fare, Legacy liquor store and Terra Breads will remain in place.

The city’s take from the sale to prominent mall owner First Capital Realty — which marketer Bob Rennie estimates is about 85 per cent after taxes and various fees for mortgages, maintenance, Ernst & Young’s work and his company’s marketing — will go toward paying down the rest of the $572-million loan it gave to Millennium Developments, which built the village on southeastern False Creek but then went into voluntary receivership in 2010.

Coun. Raymond Louie heralded the sale as “whittling” down the city’s debt. On Tuesday, neither he nor staff could provide the exact amount still owing, which was estimated to be around $300 million at the end of last year.

IMG_0059, a photo by blazzzinred [vancityhotshots] on Flickr.

New Nordstrom building under construction.

The so-called International Trade Centre at Versante could bring 214,008 square feet of new commercial, hotel and office space to North Richmond, according to a report presented Tuesday at city hall.

Marketed as “Richmond’s next epicentre of business,” the proposed development consists of three towers—nine, 12 and 14 storeys—and a common five-storey podium. Included in the project is a 110-room hotel.

The proposal comes from Hotel Versante Ltd., which is seeking to rezone a 0.7-hectare (1.6-acre) triangular site at 8451 Bridgeport Rd. to build it. City council’s planning committee considered the project this week, 14 years after council approved a previous rezoning application that’s now being abandoned.

The site is located in Bridgeport Village, near the Airport Connector Bridge and next to Duck Island, where a multi-phase development of retail, entertainment, office, hotel and conference uses is in the early planning stages.

Read more: http://www.richmondreview.com/business/230718231.html

3108 Highland Boulevard, a 2-storey retail building in Edgemont Village has sold for $2,475,000. The building is at a prime corner in the village and is located on a 2,700 SF lot.