BCBusiness

18 BCBusiness march 2015 director of cultural services at the City of Vancouver, gallery director Kathleen Bartels will have to write a letter to the city— by the end of March—requesting that council revisit its dead- lines. At some point after that, he adds, city manager Penny Ballem would submit a revised memorandum of understand- ing for council to vote on. As for the fast-approaching fundrais- ing deadline, "those internal conversations and the conver- sations with the VAG have not occurred." The idea of moving the VAG to Larwill Park was first floated in 2007, garnering council approval in late April 2013. The catch, however, was that it had to secure a $100-million contri- bution from the federal govern- ment and a further $50 million from the provincial government by the end of April 2015. (The provincial government, under Gordon Campbell, had already committed $50 million to the project.) Reading the tea leaves of recent missives from ministry flacks, that seems unlikely. "This project is simply too expensive," a spokesperson for Canadian Heritage minister Shelly Glover said in an email to BCBusiness. "At this point there is no new capital funding," wrote a spokes- person for B.C.'s minister for community, sport and cultural development, Coralee Oakes. Sensing that government funding would be an obstacle, the VAG and its leadership have, in the past year, been burning up the phone lines approaching major private donors, as well as promoting (near and far) their new "starchitect" for the project, Swiss-based Herzog & de Meuron. But that appeal to private donors was dealt a seri- ous blow when last June Michael Audain, founder of developer Polygon Group and the gal- lery's foremost private backer, departed from the VAG board. Audain has decided to shift his focus to his private collection—a blue-chip mix of Canadian mod- ernists, such as Lawren Harris and E.J. Hughes, and works by acclaimed contemporary photo- based artists—to be housed in a $30-million museum in Whis- tler, set to open this fall. It's difficult to overestimate Audain's role in building sup- port for the VAG's Larwill Park plan. At the peak of his involve- ment, Audain had drawn $40 million in commitments from the private sector for the capital campaign and became the public face of the fundraising effort. With Audain out, there is no prominent voice in the business community rallying for the move to Larwill Park—only carping from the sidelines from oft-quoted VAG critic, realtor Bob Rennie. When the VAG begins its pub- lic pitch to donors this spring, with concept sketches in hand, theirs will be the largest arts- related private fundraising initiative in B.C. history. Part of the VAG's evolving pitch has been intersecting its programming with areas of interest to donors; last year's blockbuster Forbidden City exhibit, which received $1 million in funding from the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, a major inves- tor in Canada's oil sands, and $500,000 from Vancouver donor Robert Ho, is a prime example. Indeed, the VAG has promised a permanent space for Asian art in its new building, with Bartels promising "signifi- cant funding from donors who live part of the year in China and part in Vancouver." But with over $300 million in total fundraising to go, and the clock quickly ticking down on 2015, it's an open question as to whether that space will ever get built—or if the bulk of the VAG's collection will continue to gather dust deep below the passing crowds on West Georgia. • I f anybody knows the ins, outs, opportunities and pitfalls of franchising, it's Peter Thomas. Thomas, 76, brought Century 21 to Canada in the 1970s and turned it into a business that in its peak year sold $9 billion, with more than 8,000 licensed brokers across the country and 400 offices. Now he hopes to apply what he learned in real estate to other businesses—in particular, the booming pet market. After founding Thomas Franchise Solutions in 2011 to invest in and support franchis- ing businesses, Thomas began looking into the pet business, a $60-billion industry in the U.S. and almost $7 billion in Canada. That's when he discovered Dogtopia, a Washington, D.C.- based franchise, started by Amy Nichols in 2002, that provides short- and long-term boarding, grooming and retail products for dogs. "I thought, boy, this is the perfect, perfect window of opportunity," he says. "She had created a nice little franchise company with about 20 stores and had developed the systems and the controls necessary to run a franchise, which I had a lot of experience in." Dogtopia was his first multimillion-dollar invest- ment through TFS. He not only became a partner and bought 50 per cent of the company on his birthday, September 14, 2012, but also purchased franchise rights to Canada with a group of investors. The first international Dogtopia opened in Coquitlam money for some The Harper government isn't keen to give the VAG any money for its pro- posed new building. But that doesn't mean it hasn't been willing to spend on select cul- tural institu- tions. Below, some recent largesse: Canadian museum for Human rigHts Winnipeg $121 million status: completed in 2014 national arts Centre renovation ottaWa $110 million status: underway Canada sCienCe and teCHnology museum ottaWa $80 million status: underway royal ontario museum renovation toronto $42 million status: underway art gallery of ontario renovation toronto $24 million status: completed in 2008 Going to the Dogs a burgeoning dog daycare business gets a boost from a b.c. real estate icon by Felicity Stone R e t a i l

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