| AT THe oregyraiteenee ow eng panties oo vied Terra ie ST een ENS nae BM YOUR COMMUNITY RINGO RIDES high along ‘Seymour Boulevard in the District of North Vancouver valiantly hangs on. After 27 years, the sp LUEWSPAPER SINCE 1963 rited steed still gets a kick out of life. as Allison Cameron Happy fashion preview PAGE 13 100 years PAGE 39 A COURT battle has arisen over the sale of the Park Plaza Country Club after new offers to purchase the club were tendered this week. Representatives for Park Plaza receiver-manager Thorne Riddell (now Thorne, Ernst & Whinney) originally appeared in court Jan. 23 and again Wednesday and Thursday to apply for approval of a deal to sell the 4.38-acre property to United Properties Ltd. for $2.1 million. Under the terms of the offer, United would deposit $30,000 and pay the balance Sept. 15, if, within 30 days of court approval, United is satisfied that the District of North Vancouver would be willing to ‘‘give the necessary approvals for a development.”” But approval of the deal was postponed until Monday after other offers to buy the property were tendered, Thorne, Ernst & Whinney spokesman Robert Cobb declined to comment Friday on any other offers for the property until a court decision has been made say- ing only that ‘‘there is more than one.”’ A $2.2 million offer to buy the property and combine the country clud with a seniors’ co-op has been made on behalf of the non-profit organization BUILD (Building In- dependent Living with the Disabl- ed). BUILD's plan would leave the main $1.4 million Park Plaza building as a country club and health club facility and add to ita 10 to 12-storey social seniors’ housing co-op that would be built on the property’s northeast corner, where the Park Plaza’s four covered tennis courts now stand, A! Pezzente of Coldwell Banker Canada Inc., the company who ar- ranged the deal, said if the offer was accepted, BUILD would con- struct the co-op with the agreement that the club’s main facility would be bought by AACR Enterprises Led. AACR held the original bar and banquet lease for Park Plaza be- fore it went into receivership June 13, 1986. In addition to the BUILD offer, a group of local businessmen, led by publisher Tom Sutherland, had By TIMOTHY RENSHAW | News Reporter offered Thorne Riddell $1 million cash Jan. 15 to take the club over and continue running it as a coun- try club. The offer was rejected by the receiver. United Properties president Vic- tor Setton said Tuesday he could not comment on his company’s plans for the property until its fate had been decided. “*But we would be interested in sitting down with the members of the club to discuss its operation and future prospects of the club,” Setton said. ‘I don’t think they should be ignored.” Park Plaza closed Jan. 16. The closure canie amid com- plaints from members that the receiver had not done enough to maintain Park Plaza as a health club, charging half the market price for memberships and failing to continue advertising for new members, But Cobb has said memberships were priced to attract new members. All attempts to make the club a financially viable operation, he said, had been unsuccessful. A recent letter to club members from the receiver stated that about $32,000 had been invested in club improvements since it went into receivership, but from June 13 to Sept. 30, 1986 only 112 new members joined the club and only 160 of 256 renewable memberships were renewed, leaving a net membership increase of 16 and a net total of 676 members at the end of September. But according to Park Plaza re- cords, the club had close to 1,400 paid up members to the end of December 1986. But Cobb said the figures in the letter represent the real number of paid up memberships. A meeting of former members opposed to any rezoning or redevelopment of the Park Plaza property will be held in the club’s banquet room Feb. 5 7:30 p.m.