Young M'sian builder makes waves in Vancouver

Kuala Lumpur: Key Vancouver development player Joo Kim Tiah, 36, has completed selling the USD360 million 63-storey Trump Tower in West Georgia and is planning rezoning applications for the rest of his family's landholdings in the Canadian city. The family has reportedly invested hundreds of millions in properties in British Columbia.

Ninety per cent of buyers for Trump Towers, according to the Vancouver Sun, were Canadians or permanent residents.

The rest were from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the US.

Joo Kim heads TA Global Bhd, the property arm of TA Enterprise Bhd, started by his father Tony Tiah Thee Kian in Malaysia.

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The younger Tiah, elsewhere, plans to plough USD300 million into developing a 15 acre Little Mountain site bought from the BC Government in 2007. A public hearing is due later this year on his request for an increase in height and density.

The initial approval was for 10 mid-rise towers with 234 social housing units and 1,400 new homes.

The family has lots in a block bounded by West Georgia, Seymour, Dunsmuir and Richards streets. Joo Kim hopes to launch mixed-use developments in 2018 that will see retail, office, hotel and residential units all within easy proximity.

The family owns a large plot, 500 Dunsmuir which houses heritage-designated and social housing, vacant since 2013 when the residents were moved to other places. "We are exploring all options with regards to what's the best use for 500 Dunsmuir building," said Joo Kim.

He complained to Postmedia, in an earlier interview, that it was "hard to get anything done with Vancouver's development consultation process". However, he conceded that the benefits of investing in Canada outweigh the negatives.

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"It's politically stable, and … I think corruption is less here or almost non-existent."

In a 2009 "first and last" interview with The Star, cited by the Vancouver Sun, the elder Tiah said that he doesn't want to be associated with the Chinese saying that wealth does not last beyond the fourth generation. Joo Kim, he added, has to live up to the family's expectations of him in developing the family's landholdings in Vancouver. "I am the visionary one," said Tiah Senior. "Without Tony Tiah, there's no TA."

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