BILLIONAIRE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER VISITS HOLDINGS
UP WITH THE DUKE: Affluent individuals are five a penny in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia’s Reflections Lounge. But they were eclipsed recently by 27-year-old Hugh Grosvenor. Resembling a better-looking Hugh Grant, Grosvenor, who has been the seventh Duke of Westminster since 2016, has a net worth topping $17 billion. His holdings include swaths of London’s ritzy Mayfair and Belgravia districts developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. B.C. interests began in 1953 with Annacis Island. Current projects include the completed Grosvenor Ambleside condo-retail development and the underconstruction Hornby-at-Pacific Grosvenor. The Vancouver-based Grosvenor Americas chief executive, Andrew Bibby, will retire this year and be succeeded by Canada-born Steve O’Connell who has handled corporate investments from San Francisco.
STANDING ON: Threatened by Britain’s 1945-51 Labour government, much of the Grosvenors’ property was saved by the then-duke’s diligent agent, George Ridley. Back then, ousted Conservative prime minister Winston Churchill commented on the new government administration’s confiscatory ways when he entered a House of Commons men’s room already occupied by the Labour prime minister, Clement Attlee. Seeing Churchill move to a distant plumbing fixture, Attlee said: “Feeling standoffish today, are we Winston?” “Not at all, Clem,” Churchill replied. “But when you socialists see something big, you want to nationalize it.”
FAVOURING CURRY: As if its $200,000-plus R8 Spyder model wasn’t hot enough, the OpenRoad Audi dealership recently had restaurateur-chef Vikram Vij cook curry in its Lougheed-at-Boundary showroom. A surrounding audience frequently applauded Vij, whose speaking style blends on-the-stump politician with TV preacher. Unsurprisingly he told of aspiring to be a Bollywood actor until his father forbade it. More practically, the elder Vij aided his son’s restaurant debut by arriving in Canada with an envelope containing far more US$100 bills than were permitted. “They did not ask, I did not tell,” he said. One hundred dollars became ingenue restaurateur Vij’s mantra for daily success. “If there was only $96 in the cash register, I would put in a $4 order for naan,” he said.
Vij’s mother helped out, too. The chicken-based curry he demonstrated for Audi guests was the one “she made in Richmond and kept warm between her legs on the way to the restaurant.” Poohpoohing a popular poultry item, Vij said: “Chicken white meat is the most boring meat there is. Always cook with the bone in.”
AUDI DO TWO: While Vij stirred curry at OpenRoad Audi, a crowd in the Audi Downtown showroom put $22,000 into another pot. That sum benefited the B.C. Cancer Foundation and the 200-km Ride to Conquer Cancer, set for Aug. 25-26. Ride director Lindsay Carswell said the multi-province cycling event’s nine-year fundraising total is $85 million. Fiona Forbes MCed the event, Howard Blank was auctioneer and AllWest Insurance owners Devina and Paul Zalesky were presenting sponsors. While Devina straddled a $4,499 Propel Advanced Disc bicycle destined for the run, Paul recounted some of the 122 vehicles he has owned, including several Ferraris, Porsches and suchlike. His sole Audi was a 1979 Fox that might be the automotive equivalent of white meat from Vij’s henhouse.
REMEMBER WHEN: Rob Macdonald and Gordon Campbell’s earnest chinwag at the Grosvenor reception may have been about the Non-Partisan Association’s municipal election strategy. Developer Macdonald is a multiproperty owner, real-estate developer and former NPA vicepresident who has written those initials on cheques, once for $910,000. Campbell was a threeterm Vancouver mayor (and three-time B.C. premier) from 1986 to 1993, when NPA stood for Never Permit Antagonism, and the non-party supported candidates with less infighting than at Castello Borgia.
TIME SCOOTS: It did for Jaden Bains who graduated recently as Saint George’s school’s valedictorian and head boy. He was last seen in this column in a 2007 photo with his parents and siblings Alina, Chaya and Avani. Mother Monika Deol is the former MuchMusic VJ and father Avtar Bains is the Premise Properties founder and principal.
STILL AFLAME: Donna Spencer’s 38 years as the Firehall Arts Centre’s artistic producer is the cultural-endurance equivalent of the recent rain-extended Edmonton-Winnipeg CFL game. Not that Spencer got to sit out her mid-career, but she has weathered plenty of storms. Plenty of fundraisers, too, including a recent $5,000-andchange one fittingly titled Eat Drink Play. It saw nine nearby restaurants and eight beer, wine and liquor concerns give the Cordova-at-Gore facility’s guests plenty to enjoy in anterooms and patio. Individual performers and cast members from Jasper in Deadland and The Lady Show entertained in the theatre. Spencer herself signed on in 1981 while caring for two young children, one of whom grew up to be two-term New Democrat MLA Chandra Spencer Herbert.
SHAME AGAIN: Firehall Arts Centre will stage The Tashme Project: The Living Architecture April 3-13, 2019. On July 27 this year, the Nikkei National Museum will conduct a $125 bus trip to Tashme, a Second World War Japanese-Canadian internment camp located on the since-built Hope-Princeton Highway.
DOWN PARRYSCOPE: If only Tweeter The Great had been separated from his parents.