Aquattro

With pre-sales ground to a halt, Aquattro’s developer is changing the way he does business.

The days of buyers laying down money for homes they haven’t seen are over, said Peter Daniel with Woodburn Management, developer of the $350-million Aquattro project next to Esquimalt Lagoon.

The plan now is to sell the stock that’s built and refinance the project based on that equity, Daniel said. From there, it will go building by building, instead of mass construction. The site is pegged for 28 structures, ranging from single- to 12-storey, which initially were to take seven years to build-out. The final completion date is anybody’s guess now, he said.

“I don’t know whether this is going to take a year or two years or six (for the economy to rebound),” he said. “I know the landscape has changed dramatically.

“Frankly I think it’s healthy that we are going back to the days when you built something and then you sell,” he continued. “Eight years ago there was no such thing as pre-sales.”

The build-out may be extended, but the site is by no means quiet. Completed in March, the 22-unit Adriatic is now home to the site’s first residents. The 30-unit Baltic 2 is scheduled to be completed at the end of June. Six townhomes, all sold, are expected to be completed in June as well. Baltic 1, also with 30 units, is set to be finished by October or November of this year. Roughly 80 per cent of the available units have been sold. That work has upward of 200 people working at the site.

The Biscayne, another four-storey condo block, is on hold after there weren’t enough pre-sales to kick-start construction. For the time being, that part of the property will be seeded for grass and wildflowers, Daniel said, until it can be marketed again.

Instead, Daniel will next focus on up to 12 townhomes, a start to more than 30 on the property. Work on those will hopefully start as Baltic 1 work wraps up, he said. There has been a lot of interest in townhomes, especially single-level homes, which can be offered at a lower price than condos, he added.

“You can offer better values in townhomes than you can in condos because (there is no underground parking),” he said. “They seem to be what people are asking for.”

Outside, a natural creek has been rerouted to form a future salmon spawning creek that winds between the buildings. Ponds used to collect silt on site will eventually be filled in. All of the irrigation comes from two 18-foot deep ponds, fed from the aquifer beneath, Daniel explained.

All of the water on the site makes it perfect for geothermal heating and cooling, which has been incorporated into every building. That means fixed utility rates for the next 25 years, regardless of the price of oil or gas, Daniel said.

Interest hasn’t waned either, he said, with more than 50 people visiting the info centre one weekend. That number is fairly consistent, with visitors from overseas, the United States and locals, he added. And where the company has cut back on paid advertising, word of mouth keeps bringing people in, he said.

“Hundreds of people have told me they are going to live there,” Daniel said, noting it’s just a matter of when the market picks up. “People want to retire here in droves.”

reporter@goldstreamgazette.com

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