$18-MILLION PENTHOUSE
Seller seeks Vancouver buyer only
Five hundred feet above sea level, way up here in this rarefied air, the view goes on forever, past the rival Shangri-La Hotel tower and the freighters in English Bay, beyond the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver Island’s mountains. Watching the sunset from this vantage point is like meeting with God.
The 360-degree view comes with a 6,830-square-foot penthouse, and solo occupancy on the 48th floor of the Private Residences at the Hotel Georgia. Half the interior is unfinished, a blank canvas. The rest is temporarily staged. The developer who built it, Bruce Langereis, gives a tour and names his price: $18 million.
There’s a caveat. Only a local Vancouverite — or an aspiring one — should apply.
Call it exclusionary, or tapping into the zeitgeist, or just a clever promotional scheme. Langereis says he wants a purchaser who will “commit” to this space and the city, and who will actually live here. If not year-round, then at least most of the time.
He wants to look up from streetlevel and see the lights on. “I want someone fun, someone who will connect with the rest of residents,” says Langereis. “Not someone who treats this place like some hidden chamber and then leaves.”
The downtown Vancouver penthouse is now three years old. It remains unsold. No qualified buyer has met the developer’s terms. Overpriced? Not at all, insists Langereis. He says $18 million is “spare change” for certain moneyed folks in this town. Several of whom, he adds, have kicked the tires.
Langereis caused a minor a fuss this week when he outlined his “sell local” condition for Business in Vancouver, a local newspaper.
“Langereis’ strategy contrasts with that of other luxury condo developments in the city, such as the under-construction Trump International Hotel and Tower Vancouver, which is being marketed in Asia to buyers there,” the story read. “(Langereis) clarified that what he means by local is someone who has lived in Vancouver for at least five years and has a commitment to making this city his or her home.”
“That is not realistic at all,” a Vancouver-based realtor commented. “Many of the buyers that I see in the high-end luxury real estate market reside in Vancouver two to six months a year and have international business.”
That’s precisely the problem, some people feel. Saudis, Chinese and Russians, Europeans and Americans: They get knocked for juicing Vancouver’s real estate prices, buying on impulse the city’s most prestigious properties. The penthouse atop the newest Fairmont hotel, downtown? Apparently, it belongs to some Middle Eastern royals. Or, as Langereis puts it, “that guy from Dubai.” The name? No one seems to have any idea.
For those who do call it a permanent home, Vancouver is quite wonderful, one of the best places to live in the world. But there’s a problem, and it’s top of mind these days.
The Angus Reid Institute (ARI) grasped the issue in a recent poll, asking residents to indicate their level of happiness. The results were published Thursday, in a report titled Lotusland Blues.
Eight in 10 of those polled said that “high housing costs are hurting Metro Vancouver,” according to the ARI report. The capper: Almost one in five respondents identified themselves as “miserable.” And another third said they felt “uncomfortable” living here.
Bruce Langereis is neither miserable nor uncomfortable nor sad. “I’ve been lucky,” he says. But with two of his own adult children priced out of the local housing market, he’s also worried. Like the rest of us, he’s concerned for a city that becomes more unfamiliar — and more transitory — with time.