Almost one year after the downtown Skye development site shut down as the bank backing the project pulled its support, construction is slowly resuming under receivership.
The Bowra Group has taken over the construction of phases two and three, which includes townhomes and a condo tower, and company representatives said they intend to hire back most of the subcontractors that had previously worked on the Coastal Village project.
"Virtually all of the existing trades are going back on the job," said company president David Bowra. "Some already have started. There's still a bit of planning work to be done, but there is work going on the site right now and the rest of the trades should be back there in the next week or two."
The subcontractors were owed untold amounts of money when Pointe of View Developments was pulled off the project, and the rehiring involves a payment of a fraction of what's owed.
"These people were owed a lot of money," said Bowra. "Under the court order, we're not obliged to pay them anything, but we realize that we have to pay them a certain amount of their arrears to entice them back. With one or two exceptions, we were able to reach an agreement with all of the trades to come back to work."
The scope of the project has changed slightly - where plans once called for two high-end penthouse suites, there will now be smaller-sized units, said Bowra.
"Quite frankly the penthouses were very high ticket items, and we concluded that they just wouldn't sell in Squamish."
The site will first need significant work to fix damage caused by being exposed to the elements for 11 months, he said.
"You can only leave the building exposed to the elements for so long. But we think most of the stuff is fine, but we're having it inspected by the appropriate people to make sure that if it has to be replaced, it will be replaced."
In a few months' time, the landscaping and roads should be completed, he said.
"Unfortunately it's been a mess."
Bowra vice president Mario Mainella said the trades are "raring to go back to work."
"I didn't deal with them directly, our developer consultant did, and he said they were all very pleased to come back to work," said Mainella.
"They knew that their previous money was a risk and they may not ever see it, so getting some kind of payment worked for them. Obviously they want all their money back, but we couldn't just pay all of it, unfortunately, we didn't have all the funding for it."
Orval Barnes is just one of the subcontractors owed an outstanding amount for his company's drywall work, and although he didn't want to comment on the details of his return since a contract has yet to be finalized, he did say he's pleased to resume the work.
"When I sign that contract, obviously it'll be a very good thing," he said. "I hope it'll do well for the town instead of sitting there rusting away."
Alpine Exterior Solutions owner Darren Pelling said he too is still waiting for a final agreement, which is expected once the new project engineer presents a final report on their scope of work. Meanwhile he said he's received a "sweetener" of 30 cents on the dollar of what he's owed.
"There's a big chunk of money outstanding for sure," said Pelling. "There's very little opportunity that we're going to be able to see that."
However, he said, he's happy to return.
"I hate to leave anything unfinished regardless of the circumstances."
Pelling said he's concerned, however, that once the Coastal Village project is complete, the influx of lower priced housing units will have a detrimental effect on the local economy since new developers will not want to invest in a Squamish project until the competitive inventory is sold out.
"It could kill development here for two years," he said.
"It's also going to affect the market value of anyone else in the community who owns a townhouse, duplex or condo because no one's going to buy their place until these ones on the waterfront are being sold below market value, so there's going to be a big ripple effect in our real estate market."
Although the contracting construction business always includes the risk of not being fully paid, Pelling, who recently took out a lien against the Renaissance project, said his 10 years of experience, he's never experienced a time when so many local projects have withheld payment.
"It's the worst I've seen it," said Pelling. "I think it's a byproduct of the current market conditions and ultimately the subtrades are the end of the money train, and they're the ones that usually get hung because they're the last people to know there's a problem and the money's usually dried up, gone or misappropriated before we have an opportunity to take action. It's tough right now."
