With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1508543
T o live in contemporary B.C. is to swim beneath a steady waterfall of words crafted ever so carefully to seduce us with visions of a dream life. Also known as the perfect pre-sale condo unit. The enticements prolifer- ate everywhere. Giant ads in the exit halls of Vancouver International Airport. Mes- sages and pithy sayings on hoardings at construction sites. Billboards, every kind of print material from giveaway flyers to mainstream media, websites and advertisements that pop up whenever you pick up your scrolling device of choice. In Vancouver, where pre- sales play an unusually large part in the real estate market compared to other cities, the word strings and slogans prom- ise a utopian life—but not the same one for every building. Instead, each is geared to its own demographic cluster, the marketers writing love sonnets to different sets of imaginary customers, a literary genre popularized in the city by uber-marketer Bob Rennie and expanded on ever since. In Mount Pleasant, where Relic Entertainment, Hootsuite, AbCellera, Image Engine and the like are headquartered, Habitat on Broadway (not quite finished) is a "modern com- munity designed for creators." Also "efficient," which I pre- sume is code for "small, but we did our best with design." So, younger, urban, tech kids. In Downtown Vancouver, there's a different message, executed in an elegant font. "1818 Alberni is a multilayered experience in elevated luxury living. The boutique collec- tion seamlessly weaves iconic contemporary architecture, interior finishes of the highest quality and ingenious design details for harmonious living in perfect balance." Yes, for wealthy people wanting to camp in a downtown resort. Surrey's Parkway promises an "energizing day-to-night neighbourhood" that "puts you close to everything." Transla- tion: sure, it's not Vancouver, but we're putting in lots of extras, like restaurants and a community centre, plus it's close to a SkyTrain stop. In Burnaby, Greenhouse is a festival of lavish language: "Conceptualized as a modern- day facsimile of the French orangeries of old, this one-of- a-kind project was created in harmony with nature down to the last detail." The missing element in many of these messages? Anything about the developer behind the building. For those wondering, the four projects above are being developed, respectively, by Fabric, Landa Global, Bosa Properties Inc. ( BPI) and Concord Pacific, in case you hadn't guessed. Oh, occasionally, there will be a reference like "we've been building in Vancouver forev- er." A sort of reassurance that they're not about to skip town, leaving new buyers to deal with flooding underground garages and deficient counter- tops on their own. But there's a new trend I'm seeing developer companies turning to: a kind of branding that isn't just about the indi- vidual building but the builder behind it. Veteran Vancouver development companies like BPI, Reliance, PCI Group and others are looking at ways to create public recognition for those names—maybe not quite at the level of Nike or Apple, but something more than a company logo on a website that's focused mainly on the latest tower. At BPI, there's a whole brand and communications depart- ment headed by Jen Riley, who came over from Electronic Arts, while most of the rest of her team has come from outside the real estate world as well. They're changing the way Value Ad Real estate branding is growing in popularity, and the customer isn't the only target by Frances Bula L A N D VA LU E S ISTOCK ( the informer ) 14 BCBUSINESS.CA OCTOBER 2023