The City of Vancouver is recommending changes to the I-1 Zoning as part of the City’s Metropolitan Core Jobs Plan. The changes are intended to enhance the use of sites within the I-1 zone in Mount Pleasant, which was generally limited to light industrial or mixed use at a density of 1.0 to 3.0 FSR. Included in the changes is more flexiblity for office use.

Summary of Proposed Changes:

• A variety of service uses have been proposed for increase in allowable density, while still remaining within the overall 3.0 FSR density limit.
• Several service uses that were previously not permitted are proposed to be allowed as conditional uses, like entertainment.
• A greater variety of office uses are proposed to be permitted. In the existing zoning, several categories of General Office use are not allowed. In the proposed zoning, all of the categories of General Office use will be allowed.
• This means a mixed use building could be comprised of 1.0 FSR of the identified light industrial/service space on the ground floor and 2.0 FSR of General Office space above.
• There will be an opportunity with a potential Parking Payment-in-lieu District in the area for the developer to partner with new developments in the same area in order to provide additional parking over and above specific site requirements. This will be important for smaller sites to get to 3.0 FAR.

Devonshire Properties‘ plan for Beach Towers (1600 Beach Avenue and1651 Harwood Street) goes to council next week. The plan is to rezone from RM-5A to CD-1 to add 133 units on the existing four tower property with new infill development to be added as follows:

• on the Beach Avenue site, 118 new market rental units located within a four-storey building fronting Beach Avenue and a nine-storey building at Harwood and Cardero streets, a one-storey amenity building at Beach and Cardero streets, and enclosure of the bases of the existing towers, thereby increasing the allowable floor area by 89,095 sq. ft.; and
• on the Harwood Street site, 15 new market rental units located within two- and three-storey buildings, thereby increasing the allowable floor area by 10,906 sq. ft.

New building from courtyard

From the City’s rezoning report: “This application helps achieve City housing policies, specifically through the creation of a total of 133 units of new secured market rental housing. Staff have assessed the application and support the uses and form of development….Staff recommend that the application be referred to a Public Hearing, with the recommendation of the General Manager of Planning and Development Services to approve it, subject to the Public Hearing.”

From The Wall Street Journal:

Pension funds north of the border have poured about $9 billion into U.S. commercial real estate in the past three years, after largely steering clear of owning hotels, office buildings and apartments in the U.S. before then.

While there are only a handful of big funds that are active abroad, they are having a disproportionate impact on the U.S. market by funding ambitious plans that domestic investors have been afraid to touch.

Canadians funds see value in the U.S. as they expand beyond their own overheated property market. And, since the Canadian market wasn’t hit as badly as the U.S. during the financial downturn, these pension funds are less gun shy about putting money to work in riskier projects.

Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real-estate investor for Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, in May said it was investing $300 million to build a 45-story office tower in the West Loop of downtown Chicago. When completed, the 900,000-square-foot project will be the largest-size new property development in five years in that city at a time when no other major office projects are underway.

“The majority of institutional investors would say the U.S. is No. 1 on their list today,” says William Tresham, president of global investments for Ivanhoe Cambridge. “….Canadian assets are around an all-time high.”

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323706704578229770064523416.html