Hollyburn Properties has applied for rezoning and a development permit for Hollyburn Gardens (previously known as Bellevue Tower), an existing 16-storey, 126 unit apartment highrise that they own at 195 21st Street in the Ambleside area of West Vancouver. The plan is to add new infill rental apartment units to the 60,632 SF site, including:
- 41 new apartment units (for a total of 167 units on site)
- 2 studios, 12 one-bedrooms, 24 two-bedrooms & 3 three-bedrooms
- 44,280 SF of new building area
- two new lowrise infill buildings (3-storeys and 4-storeys)
- total density of 2.5 FAR
- retention of existing building
- net addition of 23 parking spaces
- a voluntary CAC cash payment of $1,046,155 ($24 per SF)
West Vancouver’s OCP supports the addition of rental housing on such sites through policy H9. There are various other policies which encourage new rental housing and further policy work underway. The existing zoning is RM2 zoning allows 1.75 FAR.
Hollyburn acquired the property in 2010 for $36,500,000 or a 3.8% cap rate. The building was built in 1971.
The staff report on this application notes that West Vancouver has only delivered 20 rental housing units since the late 1970’s, of which 4 are only secured as rental until next year (Dundarave Landing/IGA development). The other 16 are in the Water’s Edge development and were a CAC.