Well, they said they were going to close on the building, but I can find no public record of the sale, and as I can tell, it is still owned by AKNO of Vancouver... the plans for the building are public record, they can get access to those to use for planning. However, before construction begins, they will likely need to have an engineer do a structural assessment, inside and out, to determine the exact extent of renovations needed.
When the Book-Cadillac Renovation was announced by Kimberly-Clark, they thought all was a go, until engineers were in the building and found more damage than originally thought. This is when they backed out.
Now the chance of this same case happening is very slim, considering the relative condition of the Tower and Building compared with the Hotel, but they likely have not had engineers go through and thoroughly inspect the building. Once that is done, they will probably have to get final quotes from all of their subcontractors before construction can begin. We are reportedly seeing this with the Broderick Tower right now, even though they have been "planning" that renovation for 5+ years.
So give it till the end of March or so when it is safe and snowless on top of the building, then give them the same 90 days that J.C. Beal has said it will take to start construction [[time to get subcontract quotes), and we are in June. The timeline makes perfect sense to me... they were not going to start the project in the winter, but what I am skeptical about is the whole plan in general, and until we hear more, I will continue to wonder.
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