Multifamily broker Mark Goodman’s 2016 started strong, with several new listings and deals closed. But he's most jazzed about his rekindled love of fencing and sponsorship of swordsman Laurie Shong’s Olympics comeback bid.
Here’s Mark with Laurie last month during the Peter Bakonyi Men’s Epee World Cup at the Richmond Olympic Oval, the final team competition qualifying event for the Rio Summer Olympics. The two go way back. Mark met the fencing champ—a two-time Olympian who competed in Barcelona and Sydney—in 1990, when Mark was 12 and starting out fencing, and Laurie, 18, had just won the cadet world championship. Mark eventually lost interest in the sport, but a year ago decided to put his son and daughter into a beginner program at Dynamo Fencing Club. Here he re-encountered Laurie, who'd been brought in to train up-and-coming BC athletes.
The two embraced, then “fenced a little bit,” recalls Mark, who'd picked the sport back up alongside his kids. Parrying and lunging with his old acquaintance was a humbling experience. “He’s lethal; he can demolish you.” When Mark found out Laurie was seeking to return to the Olympics, he offered to back him. (That's Laurie competing against Israel at the World Cup in Richmond, bearing Goodman Report badges.) The Canadian government doesn’t support fencing like it does hockey, Mark points out. “Laurie’s got to travel throughout Europe to compete, so we sponsored him to help out with his plane tickets.”
Alas, Laurie’s Olympic bid was not to be; he failed to qualify in both individual and team competitions. “But we’ve been proud to have this Olympian wearing the Goodman logo,” Mark says, noting his own resumption of fencing has made him a better real estate broker. “It helps me physically and mentally. It’s a noble, honourable sport and it offers me balance in what I do all day.” Whether or not fencing can be credited for it, Mark’s start to 2016 has been fruitful. He's closed on $70M in deals and just listed Southview Gardens, a 140-unit, 16-building townhouse complex at 3240 East 58th Ave (below) It's currently under contract.
Mark also just sold 2105 W 47th Ave, a 22-suite co-op complex in Kerrisdale, for over $500 per foot buildable (asking price $14.1M). The Vancouver market is frothy, he says. There’s continual overseas interest in multifamily investments, and “lots of money floating around.” Super-low interest rates are “putting fuel on the fire.” Investors recognize Vancouver multifamily is far cheaper than in bigger centres such as Manhattan or San Francisco. “Rental and affordability are buzzwords here, and we’re in the middle of that storm selling rental housing," says Mark. And demand is like Laurie Shong with an epee: "ferocious and unrelenting."
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