Three Harbour Green | 116m | 32fl | Completed

[easy as pie]

imo, this build is just ugly and tasteless, like a shenzen luxury tower or something. luckily it blends in with the rest of the buildings in vancouver, the forest effect.

[Ricopedra]

Buyers have some choices with landscaping their own grounds. Relax. Breathe in, and wait until next year. But as a developer, what can you get away with? As a buyer, if you don't want it, don't buy it. Life's really complicated.

[Phil McAvity]

Nice to see a green glass tower in Vancouver.

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

Nice to see a green glass tower in Vancouver.

Those are nearly as rare as rain in June.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Those are nearly as rare as rain in June.

[ckkelley]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

Nice to see a green glass tower in Vancouver.

Yeah but this one's really green! lol

[huenthar]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Here's the less-than-private patio of the townhouse closest to Jack Poole Plaza.


Taken by SFUVancouver, June 6th, 2012.

That corner right on the square totally should have been a cafe/retail space...

[officedweller]

They should park a food truck there...

[djh]

I thought this blog had some interesting revelations about the current state of sales at 3HG, and the recent listing of the Penthouse there ($22mil, in case anybody here's interested):

http://whispersfromtheedgeoftherainf...t-another.html


If the allegations are true, I'm interested to know how common the practice is, and beyond that, is anybody bothered, surprised, or indifferent.

TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013

What does "Sold Out" mean? Is it another way the public is being manipulated in the world of real estate sales?



The investment world calls it the pump and dump.

It's a stock selling tactic that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the hype kicks in, the stock is "dumped".

Critics of the real estate industry have often wondered aloud about the term 'Sold Out' when it's applied to condo developments.

Is it sometimes used as a 'pump and dump' tactic?

What does "Sold Out" really mean?

Ask the average Joe/Josephine potential buyer on the street what they think when they read that a 100 unit development is "Sold Out", and she probably believes it means all the units in a development have been sold to like-minded purchasers.

Once "Sold Out", the cachet of the property increases with implied high demand.

But what if that property isn't really "Sold-Out"?

What if a theoretical developer, in the face of lagging sales, holds on to over 40% of the units in a development in order to create scarcity in the marketplace?

Sure... all of the units made available for sale have been sold. But if the public knew a developer was holding on to almost half the units in his building for sale at a later date, would keeping that information from them constitute... deception?

Ponder that while we add another dimension.

What if the aforementioned theoretical developer then begins selling his withheld units, one at at time. and as part of the marketing of those units he advertises that all other units in the development are 'Sold Out'?

Would potential buyers pay more than they would have if they had known almost half the units in a development were still held by the developer waiting to be sold?

Last Saturday the following advertisement appeared on page B4 of the Vancouver Sun.



Three Harbour Green has announced that the Penthouse in their building is available for $22,300,000.

Three Harbour Green is a Coal Harbour neighborhood development with 81 suites on 32 levels.

In this advertisement potential buyers are told - in blue hilight - "Regrets all tower and townhome suites are SOLD OUT"

But is that really the case?

A anonymous reader of this blog sent us what appear to be current tax reports (dated February 26th, 2013) for properties at Three Harbour Green (277 Thurlow Street).

This is a screen shot of an alleged tax report for Unit # 3101. It's the report for the Penthouse suite - supposedly the only unit left available for sale:



As of February 26th, 2013 it says the unit is registered to 1830-1055 Hastings Street, the address of the developer of Three Harbour Green: ASPAC Developments Ltd.

That would make sense since Three Harbour Green is advertising the property for sale.

There's just one problem. Similar reports appear to be on file as of February 26th, 2013 for Unit's #102, 103, 104, 301, 302, 502, 602, 701, 702, 703, 801, 902, 1001, 1003, 1102, 1203, 1301, 1303, 1401, 1403, 1701, 1702, 1801, 1901, 1903, 2003, 2103, 2301, 2402, 2403, 2701, 2801, and 2901.

These alleged tax reports appear to indicate that the above listed 34 suites (of the total 81 suites at Three Harbour Green) continue to be registered to the address of the developer, ASPAC Developments Ltd.

Here is one of those tax reports, allegedly for Unit #102:



For Unit #302:



For Unit #701:



And Unit #2301:



They all appear to be registered to 1830-1055 Hastings Street - the address of the developer of Three Harbour Green: ASPAC Developments Ltd.

How can this be if "all tower and townhome suites are SOLD OUT"?

I guess it's possible that these tax reports we've anonymously received are fake.

Or, perhaps, Chinese New Year (CNY) did produced a wave of sales and all 33 remaining units (everything except the Penthouse) were sold; the February 26th tax reports merely waiting to be updated with the new registered owners.

But didn't we cover the whole disappointing CNY sales season after the MAC Marketing fiasco?

So here's our question.

Does Three Harbour Green and ASPAC Developments Ltd still own all of these suites?

If these tax reports are genuine (and CNY didn't produce a wave of sales that swept away all the inventory at Three Harbour Green), is advertising the development as "Sold Out" with "regrets all tower and townhome suites are SOLD OUT" misleading?

Surely there are some kind of standards in the real estate industry for this sort of thing?

==================

[TwoFace]

Originally Posted by djh

If the allegations are true, I'm interested to know how common the practice is, and beyond that, is anybody bothered, surprised, or indifferent.

Been going on forever.
It's called creative marketing. See also... sold out to "family and friends".

[Klazu]

Walking by the building today one can estimate that at least half of the building is currently vacant. I guess that's then better than lowering the prices...

[punface]

Originally Posted by djh

I thought this blog had some interesting revelations about the current state of sales at 3HG, and the recent listing of the Penthouse there ($22mil, in case anybody here's interested):

The same blogger posted an update today, with comments from the project's marketer:

http://whispersfromtheedgeoftherainf...firm_2549.html

Dear Village Whisperer,

Your recent blog post titled “What does "Sold Out" mean? Is it another way the public is being manipulated in the world of real estate sales?” has been brought to our attention, and we wanted to provide you with the most updated information in regards to Three Harbour Green.

As the marketing and sales firm for this project, we would like to confirm that all of the homes at Three Harbour Green have been sold, with the exception of the penthouse, as the Vancouver Sun ad states.

“Sold” means a firm and binding contract with received deposit.

The majority of the Three Harbour Green homes have already closed. The remaining units are in the process of closing, which means we've received firm contracts and deposits. Units which are sold, but not yet closed, have not yet registered with the Land Title Office, which is why the tax records posted reflect the current owner, Aspac Development.

We would hope you can make an addition to your story that includes our statement and clarifies the issues. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

George Wong, Magnum Projects

Looks like "nothing to see here" in this case, though I am still glad this blogger is raising these questions and getting answers.

[s211]

Yeah, but any monkey can blog his opinion until the end of time. Anyone worth their salt would contact all referenced parties directly, instead of referring to blind research (e.g. LTO registrations, tax rolls). I guess this is where the loss of real reporters and reporting is coming back to bite us in this day and age.

[phesto]

Apparently ASPAC discounted the remaining inventory heavily (ie. 20-30%) which is why they were able to sell out so quickly after having taken quite a while to sell the project...

[Klazu]

Say what you want about these condos, but the tower itself looks great to me.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Say what you want about these condos, but the tower itself looks great to me.

whats wrong with 3 Harbour Green condos? i was looking into that building.

[officedweller]

Aesthetically, it has some odd spandrel placement (but it's not that bad).

Worse is the absence of streetfront retail, since it fronts onto Jack Poole Plaza.

[Klazu]

Isn't this tower an epitome of the "empty investment condos of Coal Harbour"? It's a nice tower, but very few lights in the windows after dark.

I do like the dark stone they have used in this building. Very elegant and takes your attention away from the green spandrel (which is not that bad as it is different).

[Vanelevatorman]

I like this tower...But I agree, it's empty...