Is foreclosure in the future of Pantages?
By Ivan Drury
This month the Carnegie Action Project has found a clue to the Marc Williams mystery. Why has Williams demolished his Pantages Theatre site so slowly and with such a lack of professionalism that it’s more a decay than a demolition? Why has Williams’ condo sales centre in Tinseltown still not opened despite nearly a year of posturing? He’s broke!
On June 12 a bank won a Supreme Court order against Marc Williams, Sequel 138 Development Corp, and Tham Demolition as the owners of the Pantages properties on the 100-block of East Hastings. As of May 31 Williams has defaulted on his $2.5million mortgage for the second time since he took it out in 2008. The bank took him to court for foreclosure in 2010 and won an order that he repay his mortgage at around $27,000 a month. Now if he cannot meet his payments the bank will go back to court to get possession and a court ordered sale of the Pantages lots.
Now is the time, before a court-ordered sale, for the city to step in and buy the Pantages theatre site. The market is unable to demolish the building safely and unable to build anything on the Pantages site. We are sick and tired of looking at a pile of rubble. What’s becoming clear is that the only way anything will be built at the Pantages site is if it is 100% social housing built for low-income people.
i new he wos brok. i joose new it.