Last week over at VancouverPeak Skook posted about the bankruptcy filing of Wakefield Construction.

We missed that posting here at VancouverCondo.info, but it’s got some interesting details about the impact to the economy and a number of subcontractors on the sunshine coast, Vancouver, Whistler and Bowen Island.

There are no winners in this situation – not the employees, not the subcontractors, not the local businesses nor suppliers, not the community and not Lance Sparling. As the list of “Unsecured” creditors shows, he borrowed from himself, too, to keep the ball rolling. His waterfront home was put on the market a year ago and remains unsold despite a -25% drop in the list price; but, as we know those million dollar plus properties have been slow to move on the Sunshine Coast – only 17 sold in 2014 out of a total of 123 listed – that’s barely 14%.

Skook also relates a personal memory:

Like so many others living in and north of Sechelt I wondered what would replace the old “Wake-in-the-Field” Inn and then was fascinated by those uniquely curved roofs of that replacement – the Wakefield Beach development. When I moved down to Sechelt, I had the opportunity to walk through the project and it is a very special and attractive development. The company, Wakefield Construction, was born from that development and at least in this instance the company name lives on.

While Skooks posting is almost nostalgic in tone, the first major media to pick up this story is Business in Vancouver. In their story the Realtor is surprised:

“They ruled the world up here,” said Sechelt realtor Susanne Jorgenson,” “I don’t know how they could have failed.”

..The chamber of commerce is shocked:

“I was shocked,” said Kim Darwin, president of the Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce. “[The Coast] has a number of new construction projects coming up, so I hope our smaller contractors can step up.”

And the customer is angry:

“They screwed a lot of people,” said Brad Copping, general manager of South Coast Ford Sales Ltd., which had hired Wakefield Construction to complete a 9,000-square-foot addition to its Sechelt dealership. Copping is now paying three of the former Wakefield employees to continue work that is now half complete.

“This will cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars,” said Copping, whose company is not on the creditor list. “They [Wakefield Construction] over billed us and then didn’t pay their sub-contractors. So we are paying twice for the same work.”

Read the full article over at Business In Vancouver.