Vancouver sees spike in foreclosures of smaller developers

Great-West Life’s real estate division had wanted to purchase the site on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver for some time, so when they heard that it had gone into foreclosure, they didn’t hesitate to act. They officially purchased the site at 1555 Robson St. earlier this year.

The site had been owned by a numbered company that was operated by Vivagrand Developments, sold through a court-ordered sale as part of foreclosure proceedings. Vivagrand had obtained approval to develop a 28-storey condo tower at 1555 Robson St., but GWL will be submitting a new plan for a rental tower. Vivagrand, which is now known as Align Properties, had also defaulted on loan payments at another West End site, a four-storey apartment building at 1485 Davie St. Align Properties is the North American arm of China’s Xiangli Group.