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B C B U S I N E S S . C A
S E P T E M B E R
2 0 24 i S t o c k /c al v i n d e x t e r
Generosity in B.C. is showing signs of recovery: in the
years after
COVID, philanthropy is helping communities address
unmet needs across several industries.
by
RU S HMIL A
R A HM A N
The Vancouver Chinatown Foundation's latest community housing
project came to life with a little help from its friends—including
$10 million from philanthropists Robert H. Lee and Michael Audain.
Welcome to Bob & Michael's Place
THE LIST OF PEOPLE who played a role
in making Bob & Michael's Place a reality is
so extraordinarily long that Carol Lee can
hardly begin to name names.
"It's kind of a miracle we got it done,"
says the chair of the Vancouver Chinatown
Foundation.
The daughter of the late Robert Lee—the
philanthropist, real estate entrepreneur
and former chancellor of
UBC—has business
in her blood. The younger Lee co-founded
cosmetics company Linacare Cosmether-
apy with Henry Fung in 2002 before mov-
ing on to incorporate
VCF a decade later.
Chinatown, one of Vancouver's oldest
neighbourhoods, was "on the downhill
slide," she says. In trying to figure out how
to revitalize a place where some of her best
childhood memories inextricably reside,
Lee had her first meeting for a social hous-
ing project at 58 West Hastings Street back
in 2011.
"[The site] is not technically in China-
town, but because we're the
VCF for com-
munity revitalization, we thought, 'We
need to help our neighbour first.' It was
going to be hard to help revitalize China-
town if our neighbour was also struggling.
