Sun

Building transferable equity is a task that entrepreneurs often overlook while they are immersed in the day-to-day fog of managing their business. Unfortunately, this oversight can squash their dreams of profitably selling their enterprise down the road.

“while many entrepreneurs dream of selling their business some day, in reality just one in 100 do so successfully each year,” says John warrillow, author of Built To Sell: Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell.

“One key reason is that their business is too reliant on the owner, and prospective buyers see that customer loyalty and future success depend on the founder’s continued role.”

“It’s natural for entrepreneurs to be their company’s best salesperson or creative force, but this can become a vicious cycle if customers insist on dealing with the owner, or they are the sole decision-maker,” adds Islay McGlynn, managing director and head of small business at Scotiabank.

You can break this cycle — and position your business for future sale — if you begin adapting your service offering early, notes Mr. warrillow, who, himself has successfully exited four companies.

“You need to narrow what you sell, to ensure that it is teachable to employees, valuable to customers — rather than a simple commodity — and repeatable, so that it promises a reliable revenue stream,” he says, adding that it is better to do this in the start-up phase rather than trying to change course years later.

To begin the process, Mr. warrillow recommends forming an advisory board composed of seasoned entrepreneurs who have done what you want to achieve. Then, you can draw upon the support of your banker, accountant and lawyer to advise you on the details.

Concludes Ms. McGlynn: “with a circle of experienced advisors, you can both unlock the potential in your company today, and also ensure that it is in shape for the day when you’re ready to exit the business and direct the proceeds to other goals, like a comfortable retirement.”

For more information visit getgrowingforbusiness.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Many residents opposed to apartment blocks along slice of waterfront

Kent Spencer
Province

“People are very unhappy. We were promised a Granville Islandstyle destination tourist site when the community agreed to this in 2004,” said Doug McFee, a director of the Salmon River Enhancement Society, on Wednesday.

“ParkLane is trying to weasel out of it one step at a time. We want what was promised, the way it was promised. There isn’t another site like this anywhere.”

ParkLane wants to modify its previously approved plan for the site and build two apartment blocks near the Fraser River’s Bedford Channel, cancelling its plans for a 75-room hotel. A riverside plaza would be moved farther away from the water and commercial space limited.

“I call it a stonewall, both for the way the plan obstructs views of the channel and for the way ParkLane has treated this community,” said McFee.

The development site, which is on the Fraser River’s floodplain, was previously approved for 400 residences, many of which have already been built.

McFee claims ParkLane stands to make a “windfall” profit of $20 million to $30 million by up-zoning the entire 32 hectares from rural/industrial to high-density residential.

John Klassen, chair of the Fort Langley Community Association, said “minimal” space is being given to a potential tourist destination that “could be very great.”

“ParkLane’s desire to reduce public access is disquieting. The proposed condominiums will reduce the waterfront space to the point that it could create tensions,” he said.

Coun. Kim Richter told Tuesday’s public hearing that 70 speakers opposed the project and nine spoke in favour.

McFee said residents demonstrated their concern by showing up to council chambers for three full nights and talking for some 11 hours.

“You have to love Fort Langley. It was a great turnout. The room was packed with 90 people,” said McFee.

“Council insisted on having the meetings at city hall, rather than in Fort Langley, where meetings are more convenient for the community,” he said.

Klassen said he hopes council takes the public hearings “seriously” and will turn the proposal down.

“I still want to think I trust councillors enough to make the right decision,” he said.

In a 346-page application, ParkLane proposes to build 77 apartments in the 23200-block Billy Brown Road.

ParkLane, which needs rezoning approval, says the public would get 15 hectares of public space and parks, a dredged channel for rowing, a $100,000 water sports stowage area and $150,000 for parks.

Fort Langley’s Business Improvement Association said it believes, as does ParkLane, that a “large hotel would not be financially viable.”

“Although the massing of the building is large for Fort Langley, we understand that when you give up more than 50 per cent of your land for public spaces, you have to balance this off on another part of your development,” said business chair Stan Duckworth.

Staff are “supportive of the development” because they say it fits with the community’s long-term plans.

Councillors, who are not allowed to offer opinions during the public hearing process, were not available for comment.

The proposal will come back to council on July 5, likely for a vote on whether to grant conditional approval.

© Copyright (c) The Province

USA Today

WINDERMERE, Fla. (AP) — The brochure promises a “monument to unparalleled success.”

The 90,000-square-foot home for sale outside Orlando has 23 bathrooms, 13 bedrooms, 10 kitchens and three pools. All that and more for $75 million “as is.”

The catch? It’s not finished.

Nicknamed “Versailles” by owner and timeshare tycoon David Siegel, the mansion hit the market recently as the largest home for sale in the United States. Construction was halted last year to save money in a recession that proved particularly hard on Siegel’s industry.

The home also has a 20-car garage, a bowling alley, an indoor-roller rink, a movie theater, a video arcade, a fitness center, a baseball field and two tennis courts.

But the mansion’s interior has no carpet, tile or interior walls.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer
USA Today

WASHINGTON — Sales of previously occupied homes dipped 2.2% in May, suggesting that a boost from government home-buying incentives is winding down earlier than expected.

The National Association of Realtors says last month’s sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.66 million. April’s results were revised upward to 5.79 million. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected sales to rise to a rate of 6.12 million.

The federal government had boosted home sales by offering buyers tax credits of up to $8,000. The deadline to get a signed sales contract and still qualify was April 30. Buyers must close their purchases by end of this month.

Still, the tax credits were expected to lift sales in May and June. Lawrence Yun, the Realtors chief economist, said delays in the mortgage-lending process put about 180,000 potential buyers in limbo. He’s unsure if they will qualify by the June 30 deadline.

The trade group is pushing Congress to extend the deadline for closing a sale until Sept. 30.

April’s results were revised upward to 5.79 million.

The drop in May sales was led by a more than 18% decline in the Northeast. Sales were unchanged in the Midwest, but rose nearly 5% in the West and 0.5% in the South.

The inventory of unsold homes on the market was down 3.4% to 3.9 million. That’s an 8.3 month supply at the current sales pace, compared with a healthy level of about six months. The median sales price in May was $179,600, up 2.7% from a year earlier.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press

Stephanie Armour
USA Today

Thousands of pending home sales may be in jeopardy unless Congress extends the June 30 deadline for buyers to close on their deals and claim a tax credit.

The Senate on Wednesday approved a three-month extension, giving buyers until Sept. 30 to close, but it’s attached to another bill that still has to be passed by the House.

The extension would apply only to buyers that met the April 30 deadline to have signed purchase contracts in hand.

The tax credit is worth up to $6,500 for repeat buyers and up to $8,000 for first-time buyers.

Many pending deals are in danger of not closing by June 30 because of delays that aren’t the buyers’ fault. Some appraisals are taking longer to complete, and some lenders have been overwhelmed by a crush of mortgage applications that landed before the tax credit expired April 30.

Up to 180,000 buyers who were hoping to close by June 30 and get the tax credit are likely to miss the deadline, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

“We are hopeful,” says Paul Bishop, vice president of research with NAR. “We’ve heard a lot of concern from Realtors out there. There seems to be a sense of fairness. The tax credit was essentially promised” to those buyers.

But some Realtors say even if a three-month extension is granted, that still won’t be enough time for buyers pursuing houses through short sales, which can take many months to close.

“How are you going to close a short sale in two months?” says Edward Goldfarb, a Realtor with Keller Williams in Fort Lauderdale. “Hundreds of people are not going to close and are going to lose their tax credit. September is not any better. A short sale can take a year and a half.”

Another concern is that buyers who face losing the tax credit could pull out of pending deals altogether. Any extension must be passed this week, or buyers will start canceling deals next week, before the deadline hits, says Richard Smith, president and CEO of Realogy, parent company of Century 21, ERA, Coldwell Banker and Sotheby’s International Realty.

“We’re concerned, as many people are, that this will force people to cancel their contracts,” Smith says.

Brian Bonime, 33, has a contract on a home in Margate, Fla., but is worried the short sale won’t close in time to get the $8,000 tax credit he was counting on.

“It’ll put a dent in things financially,” says Bonime, who works in management at a supermarket. The sellers “had brand new appliances they’re taking with them, and we were going to get the money now so we can get appliances.”

Copyright 2010 USA TODAY

$9-million sales centre is tucked behind Olympic Oval

Province

THE FACTS

PROJECT NAME: River Green

WHAT: Six buildings with 458 units in Phase 1
WHERE: Hollybridge Way and River Road, Richmond
DEVELOPER: ASPAC Developments

SIZE: 1-bed 700 sq. ft.; 1 bed + den 800 sq. ft.; 2-bed + den 1,280 sq. ft.; 3-bed + den 1,950 sq. ft.; town houses 1,470 sq. ft.; 4-bed + den villas 3,640 sq. ft.

OPEN: Sales centre: 5111 Hollybridge Way; hours 10 a.m. -6 p.m., daily

This weekend marks the formal launch of sales for the massive River Green master-planned community in Richmond, but that doesn’t mean prospective buyers have waited until now to signal their interest.

More than 2,700 people registered online to receive advance information about the project, reports marketer George Wong of Magnum Projects, who predicted that purchase contracts worth more than $90 million would be signed by the end of the day Friday.

“The buyers are VIPs from Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, and the North Shore,” says Wong. “They’re looking for an exclusive, high-end lifestyle.”

This is the first push for the 2,600-unit master-planned community on 11.2 acres of waterfront between the No. 2 Road and Dinsmore bridges. Developer ASPAC is expecting completion of the entire project to take between 10 and 15 years.

The River Green sales centre — the $9-million structure, designed by River Green Phase 1 architect James Cheng, has actually been called a “story centre” — is a 19,000-square-foot building tucked away behind the Richmond Olympic Oval.

The story centre contains three show suites, all designed to demonstrate the sumptuous lifestyle into which River Green purchasers are buying.

Wong says the goal of River Green, styled as a waterfront “village”, is to be an enclave of convenience and comfort. Residents will have easy access to extensive health and wellness facilities in the former Olympic speedskating oval, as well as trails and park land throughout the development.

Architect James Cheng says he and ASPAC learned some lessons from their previous experience building up Coal Harbour.

“At the beginning, it was a little isolated (in Coal Harbour),” Cheng admits. “The grocery stores were a few blocks away, there wasn’t much in the immediate area. We know people want to work and play in the same area. They want a complete community.”

Residents will be able to connect with the area by having

access to a community shuttle that can take them to destinations like Vancouver International Airport, or the Canada Line transit station, which is a 20-minute walk away. A pedestrian promenade links the community together, allowing for easy access from across the neighbourhood to the oval.

Both Cheng and Wong believe River Green will fill a void in the market: a demand for high-end multi-family housing in Richmond.

“We have people working at YVR (Vancouver International Airport), the London Drugs warehouse, BCIT professors [who work at the Richmond aerospace campus],” says Wong. “They want to live closer to where they work, but they haven’t had this option up until now.”

Cheng says the goal was to make the community sustainable over the long term, capable of evolving to fit the changing needs of residents. That’s why they incorporated everything from one-bedroom units to villas of more than 3,500 square feet in place of single-family homes.

“This is the point of a complete community,” Cheng says with a smile. “This will be here for 100 years or more, for many, many cycles and generations.”

© Copyright (c) The Province