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The New Landlords
"PEOPLE WHO GET UPSET ABOUT Asian real estate investment in Canada," says Donald Gutstein, author of The New Landlords (Porcepic $26.95), "shouldn't be blaming people like Li Ka-shing."
"You have to realize that all three levels of our government have courted these people to come to Canada."
Li Ka-shing's Concord Pacific has made a profit on paper of approximately $500 million since the sale of the Expo site in 1988, Gutstein claims. "He paid $125 million for 12.2 million square feet of development," says the former appointee to the Vancouver City Planning Commission, "That's roughly $10 a buildable foot." Comparable downtown land is now selling for $50-$60 a buildable foot.
"So why did they make the decision to sell all of the Expo site to one buyer?" asks Gutstein, "Even the local development community in B.C. was outraged. Why didn't the public get the maximum profit?
"I see Grace McCarthy playing as big a role in the Expo land sale as Vander Zalm because she was the one who stopped the planning process."
The Globe & Mail has already reported that four days after the deadline for submitting Expo purchase proposals Grace and Ray McCarthy met with Li Ka-shing in his executive dining room in Hong Kong.
Gutstein, a Simon Fraser lecturer in communication research and urban politics, opens his book by examining the current economic climate East Asia.
He goes on to study Asian-based development of strip malls and apartment buildings in Canada, followed by 'condomania' and flipping, recreational and hotel investments and finally foreign landlords' incursions into the housing market.
Gutstein claims that Canadian bankers, lawyers and realtors involved in offshore investments from Asia have formed a formidable lobby for its continuance. Stanley Hartt, Brian Mulroney's chief-of-staff, is a former law partner in Stikeman- Elliott (the firm which handles Li Ka-shing's investments).
"Business";
"You have to realize that all three levels of our government have courted these people to come to Canada."
Li Ka-shing's Concord Pacific has made a profit on paper of approximately $500 million since the sale of the Expo site in 1988, Gutstein claims. "He paid $125 million for 12.2 million square feet of development," says the former appointee to the Vancouver City Planning Commission, "That's roughly $10 a buildable foot." Comparable downtown land is now selling for $50-$60 a buildable foot.
"So why did they make the decision to sell all of the Expo site to one buyer?" asks Gutstein, "Even the local development community in B.C. was outraged. Why didn't the public get the maximum profit?
"I see Grace McCarthy playing as big a role in the Expo land sale as Vander Zalm because she was the one who stopped the planning process."
The Globe & Mail has already reported that four days after the deadline for submitting Expo purchase proposals Grace and Ray McCarthy met with Li Ka-shing in his executive dining room in Hong Kong.
Gutstein, a Simon Fraser lecturer in communication research and urban politics, opens his book by examining the current economic climate East Asia.
He goes on to study Asian-based development of strip malls and apartment buildings in Canada, followed by 'condomania' and flipping, recreational and hotel investments and finally foreign landlords' incursions into the housing market.
Gutstein claims that Canadian bankers, lawyers and realtors involved in offshore investments from Asia have formed a formidable lobby for its continuance. Stanley Hartt, Brian Mulroney's chief-of-staff, is a former law partner in Stikeman- Elliott (the firm which handles Li Ka-shing's investments).
"Business";
Submitted on July 26, 2004 in By David.
