Reprinted from Vancouver Sun Business Section, March 23, 2006.

LES ALLEN would dance for joy if his Allen Group's real-estate development activities slowed down. In fact, the keen amateur ballroom dancer - rhumba, tango, chacha, etc. - says he might even open a dance studio.

He'd also play more chess.

Neither outcome seems likely since Allen is about to announce his biggest deal to date. The foxtrotter in him would love to spill the beans on the $200-million project's locale and extent. When pressed for details, though, his Boris Spassky-Gary Kasparov persona repeats: "Nyet. Nyet. Nyet."

These denials occur in a 1,000-square-foot, third-floor section of Pier 32, a Granville Island waterfront structure he bought - along with its 40-year lease - in 1988. The Allen Group has had its office there ever since. But an impending move to 3,500 square feet on the second floor indicates the boss isn't blowing smoke about his secret plan.

The move was a windfall for the Collico Network firm next door, which promptly grabbed Allen's superb space for its own expansion.

Waterfront has been big in Allen's past. Not the 50-unit Fairview apartment building or a nearby commercial strip the New Brunswick native has owned since the late 1980s "and will never sell." Rather, it's a 70-hectare site at Garden Bay, near Pender Harbour, he and a since-deceased partner bought for $1.5 million in 1995.

The four phases of the Daniel Point development have entailed gambits by the Sunshine Coast Regional district and area residents as challenging as any Allen faced on the chessboard. He says he's spent $15 million to build roads, install municipal water and sewer systems, a chlorination plant, sand filters and provide other infrastructure.

"Everything you have to do has six zeroes after it," he says, grimacing. But the coast's sun has shone on Allen, too, and long-in-the-future retirees were happy to lay out $100,000 each on the first batch of 25 half-acre lots he unloaded in two weeks.

Smart buys, it seems, since the lots - at the traditional jumping-off point for Desolation Sound - now trade for $200,000 to $800,000, Allen says.

A second group of 70 took 30 months to move at an average of $125,000 in 1979-98. Five years later, he sold 40 more - all non-waterfront - for around $150,000 each.

He's on the final phases, now, with 40 non-view lots. For the first time, each will come with an 800-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage on a freehold half-acre for $199,000 to $299,000. Sales started in February and will end next month, with occupancy by late summer.

Getting building trades on site - especially upcoast - is the developer's bugaboo, of course, and Allen has recruited many of his from Ontario.

"Here [Vancouver], you can pick up the phone and get three quotes the next day," he says.

"There, they say: 'You have to see Joe.' And Joe will tell you to come back in three years, when he'll have time to talk to you.

"Fortunately, I know Joe."

Very fortunately, it turns out. That's because many of the folk who bought 15 years ago are now ready to retire - and not into 800 square feet.

For them, Allen expects to build 18 custom homes in the 4,000-7,000-square-foot range, "and I know I can get another 18 to 36 with a few phone calls."

As for his buyers' building options, "There aren't any. You could haul lumber up there yourself. But, if you want a backhoe, the guy I use is nine months backlogged. He told me there isn't an excavator left to rent west of Winnipeg."

Sounds like checkmate. No jive.

Reporter Malcolm Parry.