News and Features
The Legacy of Peter Wall
By Frances Bula published Jun 1, 2012
Developer Peter Wall charted his own course to riches and influence, and will leave a legacy that goes well beyond Vancouver's built environment
The Ballroom at the Sheraton Wall Centre is already grad-prom loud when the Holsteins arrive. But even a parade of cows does not produce, except for a few squeals, the shock that might naturally accompany the introduction of livestock into a four-star hotel. There are just too many other distractions. Soon-to-be premier Christy Clark, in an Academy Awards-worthy gown, is working the crowd, selling party memberships and testing her message that "It's all about families." Servers circulate with trays offering exquisite glass ornaments. Overhead, a Santa scampers across the glass roof.
Amid the hubbub of his annual Christmas event, Peter Wall, whose notion it was to bring cows to the party, is almost unnoticeable. His welcoming speech, urging his 400 guests earnestly to enjoy themselves, is brief. Judging only by appearances, you'd be forgiven for missing the fact that this man-developer, philanthropist, political poker player, opera lover-has been a major financial force behind both Clark and Mayor Gregor Robertson, that his company's expansion through the region continues inexorably, and that he remains a terrifying presence to many who still jump at his every idiosyncratic command. Instead, while partygoers ricochet around him, Wall, who has perfected the art of being there and not there, flamboyant and reticent, powerful and dismissive of power, stays put. And the world comes to him.
Wall has all the hallmarks of a city power broker: he's rich, connected, opinionated, passionate about causes beyond just making money, crazy in love with Vancouver. His name is splashed-Trump style-across his distinctive Wall Centre, along with a newer hotel in Richmond and his latest housing project in False Creek. Those who resent his giant property-development and management company see him as an overly influential Dr. Evil. They mutter about the ease with which Wall Financial's land deals clear political hurdles: the rezoning of agricultural land for development in Langley; the city's lightning-fast rezoning of the Shannon Mews property at Granville and 57th. They eye his contributions to the B.C. Liberals and his ties to Vision Vancouver. His reputation as Big Rich Developer was also burnished over a couple of decades with a parade of stories about his Rat Pack lifestyle-his racehorses and Aston-Martins and Rolls Royces.
His name has certainly been attached to some problematic moments over the years. The fracas over the Wall Centre, for sure, where he put up the darker glass he wanted instead of the clear glass city planners had approved. He only recanted when the city threatened to sue. Or his 2004 move to buy a 40-percent interest in Hastings Racecourse for $5.4 million, hold it just long enough for the fledgling COPE council (along with the NPA's Sam Sullivan, until then an adamant anti-gambler) to vote in 600 slot machines, then sell it at a profit of $17 million. Rumours persist that after that vote, Wall helped fund Sullivan's anti-wards campaign. Having been a staunch supporter of the NPA and then-mayor Philip Owen (his generosity was so lavish in the NPA days that the party instituted a $10,000 donation limit), Wall also became the initial and generous backer of the COPE councillors who broke away to form Vision-the same group that voted for the slots.
