Millenium's 'Enviable' SouthEast False Creek/Olympic Village 'Position'

AreWeBeingPlayedForSaps?
PonziVille


Yup.

Millenium, thanks to 100 million dollars of our money, is an 'enviable position' with it's Olympic Village/South East False Creek Condo Development.

And you don't have to take my word for it.

Why?

Because they are actually the words of Millenium's Mr. Shahram Malek as quoted by The Tyee's Monte Paulsen (in a very, very good round-up piece by the way):

Millennium Development Corporation director Shahram Malek told The Tyee Vancouver's taxpayers are not at risk (in the South East False Creek Development).

"Any money that may have been loaned is fully secured by the real estate and by other assets as well," Malek said in a brief telephone interview. "There is absolutely no exposure for the taxpayer. None."

Malek emphasized that the project is on schedule.

"I won't say there haven't been challenges. There have been a lot of challenges. But we've overcome them all," Malek said. "I have complete confidence the Olympic Village will be handed over to VANOC on or before Oct. 31, 2009.".........

{snippety doo-dah}

Malek said Millennium is in an "enviable position" at Southeast False Creek.

"We can take our time," he said. "We have the loans in place for the full project. Those loans are not contingent on pre-sales.... We have two to three years to sell the units. And those are our finest units, closest to the waterfront," he said.

So.......

Have you got all that?

First - it would appear, based not on what a candidate seeking an advantage in a mayoral race is saying, but instead based on what a Director for the Developer is saying, that we the people of Vancouver are laying out $100 million dollars to help keep said Developer in an 'enviable position' to sell luxury Condos that we, the great majority of the people layin' out the large, could never ourselves afford to buy into.

Second - also based on what the Developer is saying, it would appear that this 'enviable position' could actually be achieved without our money, (ie. money that could have instead been used to build affordable housing on that South East False Creek site from the get-go) because the Developer could just go out and raise the money with 'pre-sales' like they usually do.

Which begs the question......

Why haven't they done so?

Raised all the money with pre-sales, I mean.

Could it be that they can't sell them?

****

You want my honest opinion?

I think, based on the available evidence so far, that we, the people of Vancouver, have been forced (without any knowledge of having done so) to pump liquidity into a Ponzi scheme for wealthy speculators that has already collapsed.

Because if had not, those luxury Condos would already be sold.

Which just might explain why the backers of Millenium's money-men, Fortress Investments, have already, apparently, bailed on the scheme.

OK?

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And everybody's favorite not-so crazy Uncle, not to mention Tennis Correspondent par excellence, Mr. David Berner, is hopping mad.....with very good reason. Furthermore, Mr. B., like me, also wonders why it was only Gary Mason, alone amongst local scribes, that jumped on this story.....

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