A Zoom lunch with Bob Rennie

Everything Is Going To Be Alright.

For years, the neon sign atop the rennie and associates head office has been a much-loved icon in Vancouver’s Chinatown. The six words epitomize Bob Rennie’s outlook on life — through good times and bad. And when the Condo King addressed members of the Urban Development Institute (UDI) via Zoom, even the realities of COVID-19 couldn’t destroy his fundamental sense of optimism.

Sales, he predicted, will continue to ramp up. The 11,000 Amazon employees scheduled to be transferred from Seattle to Vancouver, will still arrive, most of them working primarily from home. And a two-tower residential project in Surrey is anticipated to launch, as planned, in mid-September.

In fact, Surrey is one of two hot spots Rennie has his eye on, the second is Squamish. He cited Surrey’s existing and upcoming transit, heavy investment in educational infrastructure, and the decision to locate a state-of-the-art City Hall in the Surrey City Centre neighbourhood as the main reasons the municipality is becoming the region’s second downtown.

In Squamish, it’s access to the instant, outdoor lifestyle those 11,000 Amazon employees are looking for. “I think one of the perks at Amazon USA will soon be telling an employee ‘we’ll transfer you to Vancouver.’ This is a very special place on the planet — and I believe the world agrees.”

Overall, Rennie anticipates post pandemic, society will enjoy life more conservatively. “We’ll spend more on the activities we like, but do fewer things. We’ll own few cars, but drive what we want.” Not such a bad idea.

Well known for his outside-the-box problem solving techniques, Rennie also proposed one solution to the notoriously lengthy building approval process, a process he quipped can sometimes take longer than the actual construction.

It’s a simple concept if perhaps controversial: get federal and provincial governments to create incentives for cities who reduce bureaucratic red tape. How? Instigate quotas, then give municipalities $10,000 per door for every rental created, $15,000 per door of every social housing unit, and $7,500 per door for market condos under $1 million in Vancouver and under $750,000 east of Boundary Road. But there’s a condition: unless the time from application to entitlements approval (that establishes what can be built on a specific site) is under 12 months, the city will not only receive nothing, they will have some other funding reduced.

Addressing design, Rennie cautioned against incorporating often expensive COVID-centric features that won’t be needed later —features like two extra elevators that become redundant once capacity is no longer restricted to two people. He also came out strongly against facial recognition systems that eliminate touching elevator doors and panels. “The privacy issues are huge. But for sure we will be using our iPhones and tablets to open, access, and run those elevators.”

In closing, Rennie offered a personal reflection. “History is going to be extremely kind to Bonnie Henry. History will not be kind to Mr. Trump. But we are all going to come out of this. And even though we can’t hug or shake hands, let people know you’d like to, because the most valuable currency we have is still our relationships. Keep those relationships strong.”