Seafield Apartments

Business in Vancouver November 11-17, 2008; issue 994
Real Estate Roundup: Peter Mitham
Affordable accommodation in Vancouver remains a key challenge in the city’s efforts to draw new residents
An exceptional year
B.C. real estate is shaping up for an exceptional year, but the exception isn’t on the upside.
Speaking to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s annual housing outlook [...]

CÉCILE LEPAGE
L’Express du Pacifique
Au crépuscule du 31 octobre, zombies, sorcières et squelettes hantaient pour rire le perron et le hall d’entrée de l’immeuble Seafield à Vancouver. Le 1436 de la rue Pendrell, décoré avec soin par ses occupants pour toutes les grandes occasions, est un passage obligé pour les enfants du quartier lors de leur [...]

Spencer Herbert, newly elected NDP MLA, discussed the Seafield in his debut speech in the Provincial legislature, further adding emphasis to the grave issues West End residents face due to loopholes in the Residential Tenancy Act.
By Charlie Smith
The Georgia Straight
Veteran Liberal MLAs must have wondered, “Who is the hell is this kid? And where the [...]

Great ideas are often the product of enormous stress, lack of sleep and the absence of a meal or three.

This was the exact circumstance that Seafield Apartments tenant Heather Pawsey found herself in when she combined two seemingly unrelated words that had been on her mind since early September — renovation and eviction — in front of her students.

And so it happened: the word “renoviction” was born.

Posted By: Jackie Wong
11/20/2008 12:00 AM
When it was announced last Saturday night (November 15) that Gregor Robertson would be Vancouver’s next mayor, a group of West End residents jumped for joy, joining hundreds of victorious supporters that packed a ballroom in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, where Vision Vancouver held its election party. “I feel fantastic!” [...]

CKNW 980 AM
Renters at Seafield Apartments in the west end say they are thrilled Gregor Robertson is their new
Mayor. The renters say they’re facing evictions for renovations, after which their rents are hiked way up.
Mayor-elect Gregor Robertson says he vows to fight the practice by requiring renovations to be scrutinized by City staff.
Seafield renter Melissa [...]

The landslide victory by Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver team is cause for celebration for the residents of the Seafield Apartments in Vancouver’s West End. The residents, who have been threatened with eviction by their new landlords, Jason Gordon and Chris Nelson (Gordon Nelson Investments Inc.), have a powerful ally in Robertson who promised, in a press conference on the Seafield’s front steps November 9th, that he would safeguard renters’ rights and address the increasing city-wide crisis of renovation driven evictions.

Sandra Thomas, Vancouver Courier
Published: Saturday, November 15, 2008
When early results of Saturday night’s municipal election showed Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson with a strong lead, the huge crowd gathered at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver broke into thunderous cheers and applause.
It was the first indication that the close, and sometimes bitter, political race could finally [...]

Friday, November 14, 2008
By: Mary Frances Hill
Vancouver Sun
Tenants of a Fraser Street apartment complex are looking for answers — and homes — after their landlord announced plans to demolish the building and replace it with condominiums and townhouses.
The 78 affordable rental units at 4550 Fraser sit above a block-long retail strip at 29th Avenue and [...]

JANE ARMSTRONG
FROM WEDNESDAY’S GLOBE AND MAIL
NOVEMBER 12, 2008 AT 4:33 AM EST
VANCOUVER — It’s the last thing Roland McFall thinks of when he falls asleep at night and it’s the first thought that pops into his head when he awakens: At 83, Mr. McFall faces eviction from his grand and sprawling two-bedroom apartment in Vancouver’s [...]

By DHARM MAKWANA, 24 HOURS
The ruling NPA have failed Vancouver renters, according to Vision Vancouver’s mayoral candidate.
Gregor Robertson made his case yesterday on the steps of Seafield Apartments at 1436 Pendrell Street, where tenants claim to be facing eviction because their landlord, Gordon Nelson Investments, is applying part of the Residential Tenancy Act.
“We now have [...]

Kent Spencer
The Province
Monday, November 10, 2008
Tenants of a West End apartment have been told they must vacate their suites by Dec. 1 so the building can undergo renovations.
But the tenants are vowing to use every legal means to fight the evictions.
“This is extremely stressful. All the tenants want to stay in their homes,” said Christine [...]

CKNW 980 AM
Residents of the Seafield Apartments in the west end are pledging a long, hard fight over what they say are
evictions for renovations that are only taking place in order to jack up their rents.
The building has been around since the 1930s and is home to two dozen tenants who range in age from
newborns [...]

Mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson promised renters that, if elected, the city will scrutinize permits issued to landlords to determine whether renovations are necessary to maintain a building, or whether they are being used to justify evictions and massive rent increases.

KRISTEN THOMPSON, MÉTRO
November 09, 2008 06:17
While many Vancouverites watch Dec. 1 draw near with thoughts of the approaching holidays, 24 tenants of Seafield apartment are bracing for eviction notices that day.
Yesterday, they gathered on the steps of their West End heritage building, joined by Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson, demanding the right to stay [...]

Sunday, November 09 - 04:26:52 PM
By: Erin Loxam
VANCOUVER NEWS1130 - More people are facing eviction in the West End as another property owner says his building needs renovations.
The people living in the Seafield building on Pendrell near Nicola are outraged that they are being given the choice to accept rent increases of double what they [...]

Sun Nov. 09 2008 16:05:17
ctvbc.ca
Vision Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson took a stand on renters’ rights in the city’s West End.
He paid a visit to the Seafield Apartments Sunday to support tenants who say they’re being evicted so the landlord can make minor renovations and raise the rent.
Robertson says he’d put a stop to that.
“Vision Vancouver council [...]

Sandra Thomas, Vancouver Courier
Published: Friday, November 07, 2008
A West End resident says proposed renovations to the rental suites in the apartment building where she lives with her husband are good news.
The bad news, said Heather Pawsey, is that tenants of the Seafield Apartments on Pendrell Street have been told their rents will increase by between [...]

By: Jackie Wong
The West Ender
A brother-in-law duo of former internet gaming executives have been making waves in the West End, most notably with the acquisition of four apartment buildings over the last 15 months. Tenants of the Seafield Apartments at 1436 Pendrell St., bought by Jason Gordon and Chris Nelson of Gordon Nelson Investments in [...]

Traditionally a fun event for the neighbourhood kids, this year’s Seafield Halloween was slightly different as Seafielders took the opportunity to discuss their recent mass eviction threat from new building owners Gordon Nelson Investments with members of the community and the media.

CKNW AM 980
Residents of the Seafield Apartment building in the West End say they’re becoming part of a disturbing trend: tenants being evicted for renovations and their rent skyrocketing afterward.
Renters like Brian Broster are calling on the province to step in and fix loopholes in the Residential
Tenancy Act which have allowed the evictions to take [...]