City Builders: How Vancouver punished the Maleks for building Olympic Village

Our latest podcast is with Richard Littlemore on his new book, City Builders, a family and corporate history of the Maleks and Millennium Development and a blistering review of the grimy politics and catastrophic political intervention that marred their development of Olympic Village.

Vancouver developers Peter and Shahram Malek have lost two great fortunes, both times at the hands of a hostile government. First, as young men in the flush of success, they were forced from Revolutionary Iran, leaving behind the massive construction and development business built by their father. Second, and more surprisingly, after rebuilding in Vancouver, to the point that they could deliver an internationally admired 25-acre, 1.5 million-square-foot Athletes Village in time for the 2010 Olympics, the City pushed the project into insolvency and seized everything but the Maleks’ own homes.

Either disaster would have ruined less resilient players. The Maleks, however, stand triumphant, and their company, Millenium Development Corporation, continues to enhance their chosen home of Metro Vancouver.

When they found themselves attacked, rather than thanked, they never faltered. They remain—greatly to the benefit of their fellow citizens—city builders.

You won’t want to miss this! Listen to the full conversation on:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcast
• Amazon Music 
• YouTube