CHANCELLOR Tower Metrotown - Polygon's strategy averts sidewalk mayhem, but what precedents are being set?

I chose not to attend Polygon's sneak preview of the CHANCELLOR tower. The event hosted Vancouver area Realtors, and was held yesterday in the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in Metrotown, Burnaby. As with the previews of SOVEREIGN and METROPLACE, hundreds of Realtors attended. And as with the Super-tower projects, few of those Realtors will be able to compete with the "In-house" sales force of the developers. But hey, you play the cards you're dealt.

In an earlier Blog article I considered Polygon's problem of how to deal with the place-holders who were squatting on the block in front of the building site. I asked the question "Taping your business card to a plastic kitchen stool, and lining them up in front of a major developer's sales center - ONE WEEK BEFORE SALES DATE. Is that all it takes these days to guarantee the chance of writing a contract with condo sales staff?" I got my answer yesterday from May Kam, Sales Manager at CHANCELLOR.

The answer is YES ! - any licenced Realtor who wants a piece of the action with Polygon, Intracorp, Bosa, et al, better be willing to hire a dozen human traffic cones, and get themselves to the nearest Canadian Tire to invest in a dozen plastic stools. The next tower feeding frenzy is just over the horizon. ... But of course there is far more to flash condo marketing than creating buzz or convincing wealthy Chinese to line up at your sales center. "Inside Sales" is also a thorn in the foot of Jesus. Insider trader is illegal on Wall and Bay Streets, but property developers kiting the value of projects, and then permitting internal sales staff to buy choice units and later flip, is an old Vancouver tradition. I'm not pointing fingers at any particular developer, but I could.

We will witness holes shot in the sky all along Metrotown ridge, as new and higher towers are approved. But there will also come a reckoning. And surely the City of Burnaby must ponder the problem and innovate a solution to a problem the municipality is contributing. Does every highrise tower site have to end up looking like a U.N. Feeding Centre, and every licences realtor have to become a part time labour contractor in order to do their jobs for their clients?

UPDATE April 13, 2011 - Here a bit of good news - the elected government of Burnaby (its Council) has asked city legal staff to "develop a policy" to deal with the current phenomenon of flash marketing, which is creating disruptive lines of place holders in front of developer sales centres in Metrotown. A good start! I'll have a few further suggestions as we get closer to the Municipal election.

CHANCELLOR Tower, Metrotown - the madness begins. Will POLYGON do as good a job with the queue as BOSA SOVEREIGN ?

The CHANCELLOR Tower building site, 4860 Bennett Street, Metrotown. It's April 10th, at 3PM. Realtors have hired these placeholders to stand in line in April showers - for the coming week! The City of Burnaby has deployed plastic barriers to keep passing traffic from hitting pedestrians heading for the Mall or Bonsor Community Centre. The sidewalk is fully covered by real estate squatters.

It was 3PM and I was standing in the pouring rain in Metrotown. My camera didn't like the weather so I had to be fast. Approximately 40 Chinese men and women, many middle aged, covered the sidewalk sheltering under umbrellas or barbecue shelters in front of POLYGON's building site at 4860 Bennett Street, Burnaby Metrotown. An elderly gentleman approached to ask why I was taking photos. He had been here awhile, and was a wealth of information. The line he said, began to form on Saturday. He had counted approximately 100 chairs and stools deployed from the front door of the newly constructed CHANCELLOR Sales Centre to the corner, of which 75 or so have Realtor business cards affixed. He had spoken to several umbrella people in the queue, and all had been promised money by Realtors to stand in line. I photographed a few of the business cards.

These are two of the Realtor business cards taped to chairs at 4860 Bennett Street.

Last month I witnessed the chilled lineup of placeholders in front of SOVEREIGN Tower, Metrotown. BOSA did a superb job with crowd control, before the jostling and angry words could turn uglier. POLYGON will have to hustle because this crowd has assembled much earlier, and so many realtors missed out on selling anything at SOVEREIGN and METROPLACE Towers, that there is a great deal of "face" at stake with exasperated clients.

Taping your business card to a plastic kitchen stool, and lining them up in front of a major developer's sales centre - ONE WEEK BEFORE SALE DATE. Is that all it takes these days to guarantee the chance of writing a contract with condo sales staff?

In my opinion, the extraordinary demand for units in these large tower projects in Metrotown, is encouraging a "feeding frenzy" style of marketing which the City of Burnaby should have foreseen, and which certainly is getting out of hand. (Yesterday's frenzy at METROPLACE was nothing short of bizarre! as were the secret sales the night before.) That left many shaking heads. We are in dire need of municipal Bylaws to govern flash condo sales on this scale. The word of mouth around Burnaby is that Developer Tactics and the Municipal responsibility to manage the boom in Metrotown development, will certainly be an ELECTION ISSUE in 2011.

V for Victory. These happy place-holders are close to the front of the line at the CHANCELLOR building site, in Metrotown.

City of Burnaby employees have deployed plastic barriers to create a space for Metrotown pedestrians to walk around the hundred or so place-holders who have taken the sidewalk. This is a very busy block, and the entrance to Metrotown parking is directly across the street from these ladies.

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