Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder and billionaire Chip Wilson told Business in Vancouver that he wants the City of Vancouver to build a bike and running path that connects Kitsilano Beach and Jericho Beach and that he will contribute “a few chips” to help make it happen.
“Congestion on Point Grey Road is so bad that I guarantee you that, within three years, someone is going to die on that road,” Wilson told BIV last week.
Vancouver Park Board on July 23 deferred chairwoman Sarah Blyth’s motion, which asked for a report on what it would take to complete a Kitsilano-to-Jericho Beach seawall, estimated to cost about $10 million.
More than a dozen Point Grey residents attended the meeting to voice concerns about the environmental impact of such a seawall on the area’s quiet beaches.
Mayor Gregor Robertson, earlier this month, said that an anonymous donor had agreed to put up some of the money for the project.
Wilson, who is building a home at 3085 Point Grey Road assessed at $37.2 million, stressed that he is not willing to put a substantial amount of money into the project.
“In my talks with the mayor, I have said that I would be willing to put in a few chips,” Wilson said. “I said I’d be able to put in something but not a million or millions. I would donate what a normal person of Vancouver would, to just help something that I think is good for Vancouverites.”
Wilson, who jogs and cycles, is concerned about increasing congestion in his future neighbourhood of Point Grey, where he is building a house. He recently sold his longtime home west of Alma Street and spoke to BIV while at his property on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast.
“I’m going to be living in Australia for the next eight months until the house [on Point Grey Road] is closer to completion,” he said.
