XPost: alt.true-crime, can.politics, van.general   
   From: gregpcarr@yahoo.ca   
      
   I think you are referring to the Drake not that HA didn't hang out at the   
   Marble Arch in its heyday. Ernest "Ernie" Uno Ozolins a full patch was a   
   regular and his death remains unsolved. Some ppl are complaining about the   
   Drake deal since the Mayor claims not to have known about the HA ownership   
   even though it was reported in the Vancouver Sun and commented about on   
   USENET. The price also appears to be perhaps to high. The Mayor has in the   
   past gone into that part of town and bought drugs for ppl and allowed his   
   van to be used for drug taking. It was claimed the hotel was vacant but   
   there were ppl living in the rooms. Low level gang members would extort   
   money from ppl walking in the alleys adjacent to the property.   
      
   City pays $3.2m for hotel linked to Hells Angels   
   Drake and its stripper bar will be converted to social housing   
      
   Jeff Lee   
   Vancouver Sun   
      
      
   Friday, June 22, 2007   
      
      
   CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun   
   Mayor Sam Sullivan said the city bought the Drake as part of its long-term   
   strategy to reduce homelessness.   
   The City of Vancouver has bought the Drake Hotel, a Downtown Eastside strip   
   club, from a company whose sole director and officer is a high-profile   
   member of the Hells Angels.   
   Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan announced Thursday the city had paid $3.2   
   million for the hotel at 606 Powell St.   
   Assessment, land title and company records show the hotel was owned by a   
   numbered company, 634321 BC Ltd., whose president, secretary and sole   
   director is John Bryce, president of the Angels' East End chapter in   
   Vancouver as recently as April. It also shows the property with an assessed   
   value of $1.14 million this year, just over a third of what the city paid.   
   Bryce confirmed in a telephone interview that he is the director of the   
   company that sold the hotel to the city, but said he was only one of a   
   number of owners. He refused to discuss the matter further. When asked if he   
   was still the president of the chapter, he said "no," then hung up.   
   However, as recently as two months ago, Bryce, 56, was identified as   
   president of the chapter, which police have said is one of the most powerful   
   Hells Angels groups in the province. In April, his son, Jonathan Bryce, was   
   sentenced to six years in prison for cocaine trafficking and extortion.   
   Company records for 634321 BC Ltd. list Bryce's registered address as 3270   
   Parker Ave. in Burnaby, which is the location of his Hi-Way Choppers   
   motorcycle shop.   
   Sullivan's office said the mayor didn't know who owned the hotel and was   
   unaware Bryce was a director of the company.   
   "The mayor was not aware of that, and he would not normally have been aware   
   of who the owners are of a property the city buys," said David Hurford,   
   Sullivan's press officer.   
   (The Drake was well known as a Hell's Angel owned business and Sullivan   
   himself used to go to the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood where it is   
   located and give money to ppl to buy drugs and allow drug users to use his   
   van to do drugs in.)   
   He also said the purchase price reflected the going market and the fact   
   there were multiple bidders.   
   Hurford said the city often uses an agent to purchase properties and   
   wouldn't deal directly with an owner, but in this case he doesn't know if   
   the city was aware of the Hells Angels connection.   
   Sullivan said the city bought the hotel as part of its long-term strategy to   
   reduce homelessness. For more than three years, the hotel's 24 rooms have   
   been vacant. Only the hotel's 220-seat pub, which featured exotic dancers,   
   continued to operate.   
   (As recently as a couple months ago there were some ppl living in the rooms   
   upstairs. Ppl wearing HA support T-shirts would try to extort $20 from ppl   
   walking in the alley behind the hotel.)   
   But the hotel's gritty history changed this week after the city agreed to   
   buy it and refurbish the rooms in the short term for people on assistance.   
   In the process, it decided not to renew the hotel's liquor licence.   
   This isn't the first time the hotel was sought by government. Forests   
   Minister Rich Coleman said he tried to buy the Drake earlier this year as   
   part of the purchase of 10 Downtown Eastside rooming hotels.   
   Calls to Coleman's office later to inquire whether he was aware of the   
   Angels connection were not returned.   
   Julian Sher, an author and expert on outlaw motorcycle gangs, said Bryce is   
   considered to be one of the most influential Hells Angels members,   
   regardless of whether he's still the president of the East End chapter.   
   "He was always seen as one of the godfathers of the B.C. Hells Angels," Sher   
   said.   
   Coleman, who attended the news conference with Sullivan at city hall, said   
   the province wasn't able to conclude a deal with the Drake's owners, so the   
   city agreed to purchase it instead. But the province will help with income   
   and support programs for the residents who will begin to move in sometime in   
   the fall.   
   Sullivan said the hotel could be redeveloped for a combination of assisted   
   and market housing and commercial services. But for now, he said it and the   
   10 single-room occupancy hotels the province bought last spring have more   
   than doubled the target of housing identified in the city's Vancouver   
   Homeless Action Plan.   
   Jill Davidson, the city's homeless policy coordinator, estimated it will   
   spend about $30,000 per unit to refurbish the Drake.   
   At least one Vancouver councillor was concerned after learning of the Hells   
   Angels connection.   
   Raymond Louie said he's heard Bryce's name before but did not know that he   
   was a director of the company that owned the Drake.   
   He said he was surprised and concerned, but also believes the city's   
   purchase of the hotel was appropriate.   
   "In the end I don't think it [the Hells Angels connection] is material to   
   the intent of what we are trying to accomplish because we are trying to   
   provide low income housing and to redevelop the property for a positive   
   outcome of the community."   
   But Louie said the city also needs to know that taxpayers' money doesn't go   
   to fund illegal activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs. He added he didn't   
   know whether the company that owned the Drake was directly connected to the   
   Angels.   
   (It has been printed in the Vancouver Sun previously.)   
   "I think these are good questions. I'll be asking that the process be   
   tightened up slightly, so that perhaps we do look at [the history of an   
   owner]," he said.   
   "But undertaking that work will be substantial, because if it's not the   
   Hells Angels then it could be a group that is offshore."   
      
   © The Vancouver Sun 2007   
      
      
   http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=5cb6be4d-6a05-4efd-8...   
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