Today Vancouver city council passed a motion to rezone 800 Griffiths Way, a North False Creek property adjacent to the Rogers Arena. The property is owned by Aquilini Investment Group and will be used for three market rental towers totaling 614 units of market housing on top of commercial and office space.

According to Connor Donegan of the Vancouver Renters’ Union, the housing will be “severely unaffordable for working people in Vancouver.” Units will be priced at $2,000 per month for 900 sq. ft. units. During public hearings for the project, renters pushed the city for rent caps on a large number of units.

Opponents to the project were joined by COPE in criticizing the city’s decision to forego normal development fees and taxes, amounting to a $35 million loss for the city. According to page 16 of the city staff’s policy report for the project, the exemptions were approved because the developer decided to build rental instead of condos. Condo marketer Bob Rennie estimates that in Vancouver up to 60% of market condo units currently rent and are not owner-occupied.


On Tuesday morning, the tenants of the 1850 Adanac held a press conference with the Vancouver Renters’ Union to draw attention to their landlord’s flagrant disregard for tenants’ health, safety and residential tenure.

Ashurwin Holdings (Lorenzo Aquilini, CEO) purchased the three story, 78-unit building last year, at which point renovictions began taking place one unit at a time. Amazingly, all renovations in the building have been conducted without permits, rendering all recent evictions illegal. Worse, the landlord did not hire a qualified expert to safely remove pre-existing asbestos from the drywall, thereby releasing asbestos throughout the building via these unpermitted renovations. As a result, last week Worksafe BC ordered all renovations be stopped.

Maureen Bourke, a tenant at 1850 Adanac, stated, “I’m very concerned about the manner in which tenants have been treated in this building. The landlords have no regard for our health and safety, both physically and emotionally. We could be facing health issues down the road having been exposed to asbestos. People in the building have been receiving illegal rent increases and a number of tenants have already been renovicted.”


The Mainlander is featured in the civic politics segment every Tuesday morning between 7am-8am on Vancouver Co-op Radio 102.7

This Tuesday Dec 20 2011, The Mainlander’s Sean Antrim interviewed Ivan Drury of Carnegie Community Action Project.

The two discussed the report The Downside of Gentrification – Upscale, written and researched by Jean Swanson and Ivan Drury, about the upscaling and gentrification of the Downtown Eastside.

Click here to listen


The Mainlander is featured in the civic politics segment every Tuesday morning between 7am-8am on Vancouver Co-op Radio 102.7

This Tuesday Dec 13 2011, The Mainlander’s Tristan Markle spoke about:
a) Holborn Group’s recent plans for the redevelopment of Little Mountain
b) Mayor Robertson’s appointment of multimillionaire developer Olga Ilich as co-chair of the city’s affordable housing task force

Click here to listen