Asia Standard has filed their development application for the 357-room Empire Landmark Hotel Site on Robson Street. The C-6 zoned site is currently improved with a 41-storey hotel and the redevelopment potential arose out of the new guidelines in the West End Community Plan which was adopted in 2014.

Redevelopment plans for the 40,920 SF site include:

• Two towers, one 28-storeys and 30 storeys
• 280 residential units (57 social housing units /223 market units);
• retail use on the ground floor and office use on the second and third floors;
• 393,850 SF of floor area;
• total density of 9.63 FSR
• building height of 300 ft.; and
• four levels of underground parking accessed from the lane.

The social housing is located in the podium of the building.

Interestingly, the existing hotel is 394 feet; taller than the proposed tower replacements, albeit at lower density.

1216-west-10th-avenue-brochure

Wanson Development is planning a new 6-storey residential building in the Lynn Creek area of North Vancouver, just a couple of blocks South of the Seylynn Village project which is half complete. The site is located at 467 Mountain Highway, just South of Hunter Street. This is currently an industrial area, but portions fronting Mountain Highway were redesignated for mixed-use a few years ago.

Plans for the 18,600 SF site include:

• a 6-storey building
• 63 condo units (24% one-bedrooms, 66% two-bedrooms, 10% three-bedrooms)
• 6 ground-floor retail units totaling 5,663 SF
• a building height of 75.5 feet
• a total density of 3.5 FSR
• two levels of underground parking

The rezoning requires a total CAC payment of $705,000, equivalent to $16.50 per SF for density above 1.2 FSR base. Wanson had acquired the site in 2014 for $4,800,000, or $74 per buildable SF.

The building features an interesting central courtyard layout. The architect for the project is Francl Architecture.

Shape Properties is proceeding with a formal rezoning application for the first residential tower in The City of Lougheed, the project name for the 40-acre Lougheed mall site that was approved for redevelopment under a master plan earlier this year to include 23 residential towers.

The application for the first phase of the project is in a prominent part of the site at the Southeast corner (Northwest corner of North Rd and Austin Ave). The plan includes:

• a 55-storey residential tower
• a total building height of 520 ft.
• 566 units
• 517,000 SF of residential area
• a total density of 2.60 FAR
• 590 underground parking spaces

The application describes the design: “The floor plates of the subject Tower 1 are arranged in two massing volumes that offer a different height extrusion of one part against the other. The larger of the two parts extends up to 55 storeys while the smaller part sits at 47-storeys. This arrangement provides for a landscaped terrace and exposed elevator core.”

Next week the City of Vancouver will consider recommendations to revise DCL and CAC rates. This comes following a decision earlier this year to allow increases to CAC (Community Amenity Contribution) target rates that did not have an inflation mechanism similar to Development Cost Levies (DCL’s – which allowed inflation starting back in 2009). The intent of the increase rates is to keep revenues in line with inflation in property values and construction costs.

DCL Rate Adjustments

• $0.60 per SF increase for higher density residential (>1.2 FSR) and commercial developments;
• $0.20 per SF increase for industrial development; and,
• $0.14 per SF increase for lower density residential (≤1.2 FSR) development.
• For residential and commercial development over 1.20 FSR, the DCL rate equates to $13.91 per SF

DCL Target Rate Adjustments

The changes come into effect September 30th, 2016.