Quick condo sell-off in the heart of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside!

In less than 12 hours after sales began yesterday, April 23rd -- every single one of the 536 condo units at Woodward's had been purchased. Prices started at around $235,000 for the smallest units, at around 590 square feet, and topped out at just over $1 million for 1,100 square feet and a view.

When the Woodward's redevelopment is completed in 2009 -- 16 years after the department store closed its doors -- its residents will be living in one of the, grittiest....poorest and most drug-infested neighbourhoods in Canada. And they will be sharing their building with 200 social housing units on the bottom 12 floors.

However, the condos in Woodward's will feature high-end finishing, such as polished stone countertops. And the building will house recreational facilities, a grocery store, a drugstore and Simon Fraser University's School for Contemporary Arts. AND you are on the frindge of Vancouver's downtown business core, Yaletown, Coal Harbour and more.

Yesterday's condo sale success is apt to be the beginning of similiar developments in Vancouver's Eastside! The Woodward's project may serve as a model for the rest of the Downtown Eastside -- a way of slowly gentrifying the area without kicking out its poorest residents -- showing the less fortunate and the fortunate living together can work.


TOUCH BASE TO INVEST or OWN in VANCOUVER & SURROUNDING AREAS: june@juneconway.com or 604.657.7123

(bits & pieces taken from Chad Skeleton/Vancouver Sun)