Real-estate investment company Sun Commercial Real Estate has just closed a share-sale deal to purchase two low-rise apartments in Vancouver’s West End. Found at 1075 Nelson and 1059 Nelson, they are assessed at $16 million and sold for about $60 million, according to real estate sources.
The deal is the latest by Sun, a hostile new speculator in the Greater Vancouver market that has been buying and selling properties it says in promotional materials is worth within the hundreds of millions of dollars.
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The company is under review by the B.C. Securities Commission because of its alleged crowdfunding activities – soliciting investors to pool their money and buy into expensive commercial, industrial and recreational property. Sun Commercial has issued media statements insisting it “complies with all laws governing its activities.”
The market continues to be rife with rumours as to whether or not Sun will also soon close a deal to purchase the Molson brewery site in Kitsilano. It’s assessed at approximately $44 million, but real estate insiders say it has been sold for $190 million.
Sun, that has run Chinese-language ads on buses and transit stops, appeared weeks ago to become promoting the Molson site to potential investors.
An online post billed it as a “high return, zero risk” property with development possibility of “330,000 sq ft of great sea view apartments.”
The city has said repeatedly that the Molson brewery is zoned for industrial only use.
Sun has said that the ad, which appeared on Chinese-language website “vansky.com,” was placed without its knowledge by an individual agent using her own telephone number.
For some time, the apartment buildings on Nelson Street appeared around the Facebook site of a former realtor, Julia Lau, whose card named her like a vice-president of Sun Commercial. Her post said she wanted investors for a 58-storey tower development at that location.
The previous owners of the Nelson Street apartments are companies directed by developers Bruno and Peter Wall. They had previously started the rezoning process and presented plans for any 60-storey residential skyscraper, however the application didn’t go through so there is no rezoning in place that will allow for a tall tower at the site of the two apartment buildings.
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Calls seeking comment made to Sun president David Guo’s cellphone weren’t returned by deadline. The organization has previously declined to discuss its reference to Lau.
Crowdfunding is permitted in B.C. as a way to raise money, but there’s a limit of $500,000 per year that companies or individuals can raise with no one investor can contribute a lot more than $1,500.
In the run-up to the Lunar New Year celebration, Sun ran advertising in some local Chinese-language newspapers with Guo wishing clients a festive season.
According to land title documents, the organization bought one of their first properties in July 2008 at 5440 Hollybridge Means by Richmond for $26 million and sold it for $36 million in September 2012.
Since then, it has bought and sold commercial properties in Burnaby, free airline End, as well as on free airline side, sometimes with a quick profit in a few months.
They incorporate a commercial block around the 5800-block of Cambie, so it bought in July 2013 for $19 million and sold for $26 million 3 months later. It bought two buildings at 1332 Thurlow Street and 1065 Harwood Street in April 2015 for $25 million and sold them seven months later for any profit of $5 million.
jlee-young@postmedia.com
With research by Carolyn Soltau, staff librarian
