Royal

For the 3rd time since January this building closed.
A woman I know who lives there came running to my office this morning and told me that some "big Black Hungarians" were in the building, muscling her, her husband and every other tenant onto the street. At her request, I contacted DERA and two of their staff met me at 658 a few minutes later. They hustled up a building meeting and here's what I know:

- On Tuesday, 658 Alexander St, a 19-unit hotel (known by the owners as Star Beach Hotel but the tenants call it the Royal), was sold by Trafalgar Properties to a mystery owner. DERA has been trying to get the owner's name and number but their 'representatives' won't spill the beans

- That same day, the reps showed up at the building and told all tenants that they had 24 hours to vacate the premises because renovations were about to start. This request was combined with threats, about a dozen large men, and nailing the front door shut. People had to come and go from the fire exit afterwards.

- One man had been employed by the former owners - who also owned 566 Powell and the Backpacker's - and was being paid in cash and dope at 566 on a daily basis. The new owners told him on Tuesday that this arrangement would continue (he does basic building maintenance). The nice folks at DERA bribed him with cigarettes to admit to 2 things: (1) the person who paid him was a West Vancouver police officer and (2) new security guards were coming to the premises, as paid for by BC Housing.

- Everyone was pretty freaked out.

Very similar shifty and rapid eviction notices were issued in January and then again in April of this year. Both times I've tried to intervene on this woman's behalf and she has managed to stay, but mostly because of work done by DERA and Pivot.
And again, DERA was able to keep this place open today. The tenants were told that they could stay at least another 2 months, and only then if the owners issues legal eviction notices on paper. When I went home at 5, a DERA staff member was about to go into a hearing about this building.

Earlier this afternoon, a representative from Ipsos-Reid called. She announced herself and said she was conducting a very important survey about British Columbians.
She asked me if I was over 18 and was the member of the household who last had a birthday.
I replied yes.
Then she said, "thank you very much sir, you have answered all my questions for today." And hung up.