Faster than you can say “receivership,” the penthouse pads at Homer + Helmcken are on the market, ready to usurp the maximum of your 40-year mortgage dollars. It was only late last month when the original developer performed condo seppuku, leaving receiver Bowra Group to address the mess. Naturally, this means an ad in the paper and a website punched up with the sounds of condo pop.
The rebranding of H+H, at least for right now, is penthouse-only. Bowra refers to H+H’s target demographic as “Penthouse enthusiasts” — much to my personal amusement. Did somebody say money shot?
March 17, 2008 at 10:40 am
Interesting that they are focused on the penthouses for marketing. According to the receivers report there was a problem with unapproved changes to the penthouses. Digi dug this up from the PDF and posted it on vancouvercondo.info:
“Prior to the receivership, the Company had redesigned the penthouses on floors 15 and 16, from six two storey units to four two storey units. As a result of these changes, the permitted Floor Space Ratio (”FSR”) has been exceeded by 405 square feet and the total number of units reduced from 192 to 190. No application was made to the City of Vancouver to amend the Developments Permit (”DP”) for changes to the penthouses”
I’m assuming they’ve acquired retroactive approval from the City for these changes.
Also haven’t heard the result of the environmental worry that was brought up in that report:
“The South side of the H&H property used to be a gas station. The gas station completed the appropriate environmental remediation work when it shut down and obtained a clearance certificate under commercial zoning requirements. It has been determined that the gas station was leaching hydrocarbons under Helmcken Street. There is a risk that groundwater may flow from Helmcken into the H&H property discharging hydrocarbon fumes.”
March 17, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I expect Bowra Group to be busy the next 18months.
A few of the big projects in town are in the same situation, just haven’t hit the media yet.
March 17, 2008 at 11:21 pm
[...] out our friends over at Condohype with their latest post about the H&H pre-sale [...]
March 28, 2008 at 10:38 am
“Penthouse enthusiasts”? When are they going to discover the internet?