Former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt, right, with his commercial broker son, Justen, outside of their second housing project on Vancouver's west side.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
Former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt had always been a developer at heart, so it’s not too surprising he’s a shareholder in a boutique family-run development company that builds gentle density housing.
Vancouver is known for its well-established history of family-run development and asset management. The Harcourts are shareholders in Harcourt Asset Management, founded by the former premier’s son, Justen Harcourt. But the Harcourts have been building small-scale housing long before Justen came along.
“We’ve actually been doing it for quite a while,” Mike Harcourt said. “Becky [Mr. Harcourt’s wife] and I did our first development in the Fairview Slopes in the 1970s when we bought an old teardown house at 1130 W. 7th Ave., right by Purdy’s chocolates, the old factory.”
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Son Justen, who is senior vice-president at Colliers International and founder of Harcourt Asset Management, made a career out of real estate and joined his parents in their real estate sideline.
“It’s this rare combination on the left of entrepreneurism,” Justen said. “They’ve always, my parents, been really interesting. Mom was a schoolteacher, right? And Dad was a storefront lawyer and became a politician. And they just did modest development projects throughout their lives,” he said.
That first Fairview Slopes project involved two side-by-side duplexes and a single detached house at the front of the lot. The Harcourts lived in one of the duplex units. They eventually bought a lot in MacKenzie Heights and subdivided it. On one of the resulting lots, they built a 2,500-square-foot townhouse and lived there from 1987 until they sold it in 2011. With their son Justen, they purchased a property at Point Grey Road and West 1st Avenue and built an up-down duplex with an elevator for both families to live in. The Harcourts sold the duplex at the height of the market in 2022. Mr. Harcourt and his wife rented the unit back from the owner while they embarked on their next family project, a six-unit multifamily complex at 4987 Connaught Dr., in Shaughnessy.
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“It’s a tricky, risky business doing developments and construction and all that,” Mr. Harcourt said. “But yeah, we did just fine.”
Mr. Harcourt, now 83, practised law before serving as Vancouver mayor from 1980 to 1986. As leader of the BC New Democratic Party, he was elected premier in 1991 and served until 1996. He has long advocated for more density on single-family lots and sustainable and affordable housing.
The Connaught Court project, the company’s first venture into multifamily residential housing, is intended for people like himself, he said, downsizers who might have mobility issues and don’t want to leave their neighbourhood. The four spacious units in the house will take up an entire floor each, while the three-level townhouses will have private elevators. Unit size ranges from 2,113 to 2,364 square feet, with three bedrooms. The Harcourts will live on the property.
A rendering of Harcourt Asset Management's Connaught Court project. The main building will have four separate units, while the three-level townhouses will have private elevators.Harcourt Asset Management
They’ve only got two units left to sell, with a timeline to start construction this spring and finish in around 18 months. The view property is under the new R1-1 multiplex zoning, which allows up to six strata units on a former single-family lot. Mr. Harcourt estimates the prices are $1,600 to $1,800 a square foot, which is good value, he said, when you consider the location, the technical passive house construction, the architectural and interior design, and the high-end finishes.
“It really works well for somebody like myself that has a physical disability and a walker,” said Mr. Harcourt, who suffered a spinal cord injury after a bad fall in 2002.
After the accident, Justen could see his father’s mobility had been affected, and that influenced the design of their developments.
“We were doing a lot of reading around how to think about aging and what quality of life should look like as you age, and it was pretty clear on the basis of the research that people have the best health outcomes and quality of life if they can age in place,” Justen said.
Justen tours the family-run development company’s second project on the west side in Vancouver on Monday.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
After they sold off their Point Grey duplex, which they’d intended to be their “forever home,” Justen said they looked at duplexes on the market but couldn’t find anything suitable. That’s when they found the Connaught Drive Dutch Colonial Revival-style property in Shaughnessy, owned by the family of lacrosse and soccer promoter Con Jones, a high-profile entrepreneur in Vancouver from 1904 to 1929.
Justen said that, because of land value, it made financial sense to build six units instead of another duplex.
“Lot values on the west side have gone up. I mean, as you know, land values are very expensive.
“And so, we kind of thought about, you know, what does the economics of two units look like versus six?”
The housing also fits with the former premier’s long-standing advocacy for gentle density, such as infill housing on large lots and the current conversion of single-family zoning to multiplex. He said that the multiplex is in its early years and could use some refinement, but it’s a better approach to density than towers in urban settings where they don’t fit.
Mike Harcourt suffered a spinal cord injury after a bad fall in 2002.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
“You had the single-family zoning, which I’ve been trying to change for decades – and finally, the province did it,” Mr. Harcourt said. “It’s a rough justice way, but single-family zoning has evolved throughout the province, which is great.
“But doing well-done, gentle density densification is still an art to be learned by a lot of architects and builders, because some of the stuff is pretty boxy and a little bit too overwhelming.
“And then you’ve got the density fiends that want to put eight, 10-storey apartments in the old single-family neighbourhoods, and that’s over the top, I think.”