BC Business Magazine cover story - Andrea Eng

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Andrea Eng by Malcolm Parry

 

I never met Andrea Eng during the 1980s, when she was at the epicentre of commercial real-estate sales activity here. But I knew plenty about her. I was editor of Vancouver magazine at the time, and Andrea’s photo appeared regularly in the columns we ran about doings around town. When our reporters and photographers came back from  charitable, political and business events of any magnitude, there she would be, seemingly floating among the assembled heavy hitters.

And always smiling. Not the rivetted-on beam of the national beauty queen we knew she’d been, but the half-surprised smile of someone who might have had just found out that everyone else’s eyes were on her. She was arresting, no question about that, even in black and white flash photographs taken in crowded rooms. But when photographers had the advantages of time and studio lighting, they portrayed her as more than arresting. Hypnotizing may be the word for it.

It’s a cliché to say the camera loved her But it was true. So did the magazine art directors who decided what to do with the photographs they’d commissioned. Their decision, inevitably, was to run them as full pages or double-page spreads and, where possible, on the cover, too.

Andrea had eye appeal. And, again, not just the kind you see on a beauty pageant runway. I can’t recall anyone saying “glass ceiling” then.  But even if they had, the photos of Andrea radiated the impossibility of that term having anything to do with her. You simply knew from her style and expression that here was someone who could set a goal, achieve it and then set a tougher one.

One knock you sometimes heard then, and even occasionally today, was that Andrea promoted herself better than she did her employer, the Collier Macaulay Nicolls s realty. Well, whoopee-do! As if hundreds — thousands — of like-aged ambitious men didn’t do exactly the same as they scaled or sidestepped the challenges of a business world that depends upon the best succeeding.

By the time I met Andrea in 1991, she was surrounded by friends like Stanley and Eva Kwok, developer Ron Shon and Max’s Donuts president Danny Gaw as then-B.C. lieutenant-governor David Lam urged them to continue raising funds for the Dr. Sun Yat-sen classical Chinese garden.  Within months, I found her hobnobbing with then-HSBC president Bill Dalton,  then-Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, 60 Minutes TV reporter Mike Wallace, architect Bing Thom, B.C. finance minister and later premier Glen Clark,  then-premier Mike Harcourt, future mega-developer Ian Gillespie, future mega-chef Rob Feenie, Golden Properties owner Geoffrey Lau, Dexter Properties owner and UBC chancellor Bob Lee, architects Bruce Kuwabara and James Cheng, Gordon Capital founder Jimmy “The Piranha” Connacher,  musicbiz mogul Bruce Allen, and former Stikeman Elliott lawyer Frank Sixt, who rose to be right-hand man to Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Meanwhile, Eng moved to Hong Kong herself to scout and undertake deals for the latter's son, Richard Li.

I would see her sometimes during her visits to Vancouver. Sometimes she would entertain some of the above dignitaries and others in her Shaughnessy home. Always, she would be decorous, but with the friendliness no one can feign. It was impressive to see, and would doubtless have satisfied Emily Post or her teachers at Crofton House private school for girls. What was more impressive was that she was as hospitable and acted just the same in every way when the only visitor was me.

And adaptable? Once, when  a photograph was needed for the newspaper, and the best light conditions pertained beneath the window of her off-kitchen washroom, Eng unconcernedly plunked herself down on the closed toilet seat, smiled at the camera and created the same hypnotic spell she had a decade earlier.

--- Malcolm Parry 2008

 

BC Business - WHO WHAT WEAR

August issue of BC Business magazine

featured on the WHO WHAT WEAR page 23

Real Estate Superstar - Ian Gillespie

I am proud to have been an investor in North America's most successful developer for over a decade now. Nowadays he doesn't need my funding but I maintain a small investment as a private investor in Westbank so that we can continue our longstanding business relationship and friendship.

Photo by Stuart Dee

Changing Vancouver's Skyline

• International interpretations to Vancouver's skyline
• World Architecture Awards - winner
• Toronto: Bloor & Bathurst
• Mount Pleasant in Vancouver with Hootsuite
• Vancouver | Burrard and Nelson JV with church
• Rental in Vancouver's West End
• Custom designed piano for Telus lobby - designed by Gregory Henriquez
• Fairmont Pacific Rim Vancouver - Condé Nast Traveller Magazine Award
• A Shangri-La at Ko Olina?
• 171-unit waterfront condo in Horseshoe Bay with Sewell family
• Strategic investment, Creative Energy   >>  And nice real estate!
• Telus Garden blooms   >>  Telus Building sold for $42 million
• Ko Olina
• Ian's building 1,000 rental units on the Honest Ed's site on Bloor at Bathurst
• Adelaide & Duncan with Allied Properties REIT
• Bloor & Bathurst in Toronto
• Telus Garden Vancouver 
• Vancouver House
• Construction begins on Vancouver House
• Gwerk launch
• Vancouverism 2.0
• Spinning Chandalier
• Honest Ed's site in Toronto on Bloor @ Bathurst
• New projects target urban affordability - The Globe and Mail
• Vancouver architect Gregory Henriquez takes on a post-Woodward's ...
• The Shang in Toronto
• Oakridge, Vancouver  >> Scaled back but still huge
• March 2014 Vancouver Magazine
• Woodward's

太太 Bamboo Network | Real Estate Fund Manager.com

BC Business - August 2006

WHOWHATWEAR p. 23 August issue of BC Business magazine

















Photo by Peter Holst

Shek-O is Hong Kong's 'Tycoon Village'

The location of this spectacular residence is what really earned Andrea's respect amongst the top level land developers and tycoons in Hong Kong. No one else had ever been able to secure agreement amongst feuding heirs over the proceeds of sale of this waterfront adjoining one of Hong Kong's best private golf courses.

Andrea Eng did this transaction for the heirs of the Bank of China head in Hong Kong.
















So its Andrea's range in being able to develop profitable investments in both East and West which make her highly sought. Especially amongst Billionaires! One of the world's top CFO's says Andrea has more experience than most CEO's in North America.

Photo by Robert Carpa

Pavilions on Queen's Quay in Downtown Toronto

One of my proudest professional achievements having developed 500,000 sq ft on the waterfront of Downtown Toronto.

The penthouse of this project was featured on the cover of Canadian Interior magazine in 2001 as "CANADA's BEST".


>>  Cover Story, CANADIAN INTERIOR MAGAZINE 

The team achieved 80% sell-out on the first day of pre-sale in a difficult market.

>> Details

Filminute UK

Photographed here in Fall 2005 at the Tate Modern in London celebrating their collaberation on Filminute.com

Moses Znaimner

Women Who Make It Happen -
Carmen Ruiz y Laza, Patricia Dunn and Andrea Eng














Media guru MOSES ZNAIMNER caught up with Andrea in ~June 2006 to promote his IdeaCity06.























Hosted by Eric Savics pictured here with Nancy Parry (aka Mrs. Malcolm Parry Vancouver Sun)

Best of Canada

>>  CANADIAN INTERIORS MAGAZINE Cover Story     July| August 2001

Dotcom 1.0

Once again she demonstrated her out-of-box dealmaking skills when Andrea Eng became actively involved and brought one of the world's first Domain Registrars in San Francisco and inked deals in Asia with Asia's leading media entities.

Furthermore in 2006 she worked with in London with one of the UK's top three mobile phone networks bringing content from Filminute.

Andrea Eng firmly established her deal making skills on the global stage for more than two decades in variety of asset classes.

The Broker to Billionaires

 >>  FINANCIAL POST Cover Story

Global Ambassador

Global Outreach

On Both Sides of the Pacific

Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada in Hong Kong

Feature Speaker

Capital Magazine

>>  CAPITAL MAGAZINE, Hong Kong

Philanthropy

The FUNDRAISERS 
by VALERIE GIBSON
VANCOUVER MAGAZINE
1990 December

Canadian Business Magazine

>>  CANADIAN BUSINESS MAGAZINE cover story

BC Business Cover Story 88

>>   BC BUSINESS MAGAZINE Cover Story    1988 March 

Province Newspaper

>> Read the full article PROVINCE NEWSPAPER Outlook

Early Days

Vancouver, Canada was ahead of the curve at having fostered Asian investment into North America since the 1980's and Andrea Eng had a leading role in facilitating that.

>> Full article  1985 May 12,  NEW YORK TIMES

Andrea Eng was the first woman to broker commercial real estate to Asians in North America.   Although paltry in value by today's standards, she set the benchmark for Asian women in western corporate environment and has since moved on to become global deal maker associated with Asia's richest billionaire, Li Ka-Shing.  

Not Easy

    In Canada's stalwart company established since 1898, they did not make it easy 

    but she persisted.

--  Paul Yee,  Salt Water City : Story of Vancouver's Chinese Community

• Outlook 1988
• Subsequently, a global ambassador

Hong Kong's Home Away From Home - Noted Worldwide

• Chicago Tribune 1989
• Hong Kong Business Magazine, 1994
• Equity Magazine, 1988

Canada's representative

    AT THE MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT IN ACAPULCO

Translation:   Cold?  Canada surprised by sending an authentic eskimo that has also distinguished herself for her kindness and good manners.   Her name:  Andrea Leslie Eng  --  EL SOL DE MEXICO  1978 July 4