Cressey Development Group has acquired a 14,922 SF site at 1880 Main Street, at the Southeast corner of Main and 2nd, for $17,000,000. The triangular block, currently improved with lowrise retail buildings, is zoned IC-2. No development applications have yet been filed with the City of Vancouver.

Bonnis Properties has acquired 929 Granville Street in deal for $38,250,000. The property, officially named the Wilson Block, but more widely recognized as the “Tom Lee Music” Building on the Granville Strip is a 5-storey heritage building originally built in 1927.

The 41,000 SF building sits on a 14,985 SF site just South of the prime retail area of Granville and Robson. It is on the heritage register as a “C”.

The building was taken over by Tom Lee in 1989 and the interior substantially redesigned for the music store and head office for the company.

Here’s a quick look at the recent uptick in resales values and activity for Downtown Vancouver condos, which have reported to have taken quite an upturn over the last few months after having been relatively flat over the past few years.

Here is data derived from all Downtown Vancouver condo resales from 2011 to April 2016. A couple of observations:

• the average price YTD 2016 is $908 per SF (up from $761 for the same period 2015)
• Average sold price/list price ratio 2016 YTD is 1.03

The above data contains all downtown Vancouver condo resales. For simplicity, all luxury  condo sales above $2,000 per SF were removed (approx. 40 sales).

Data source: MLS/REBGV data

The Airey Group has submitted a rezoning application for a site at 618 West 32nd Avenue, at 32nd and Cambie. The plan for the 9,983 SF site is to rezone from RS-1 District to a CD-1 per the Cambie Corridor Plan. The proposal, entitled “Quarry” is for a 6-storey building that includes:

• 15 residential units;
• a building height of 71 ft.;
• a total density of 2.46 FSR;
• 25,367 gross buildable SF;
• 29 vehicle parking spaces and 20 bicycle spaces.

The application describes the project as follows:

Onni is proposing a mixed-use development in the North Road area of Burnaby. The preliminary rezoning plan for the 3.47 acre site at 3355-3429 North Road calls for rezoning the site from CD and R2 to RM4s and C2 per the Lougheed Town Centre Plan guidelines. The proposed plan includes:

• two concrete residential towers
• an office tower at the corner of Cameron and North Road
• a total density of 3.6 FAR
• 1.3 FAR commercial density
• total residential density of 544,044 SF

The site is currently improved with a 2-storey strip mall built in the 1980’s, and a vacant lot.