0951705 BC Ltd. has applied to the City of Richmond for permission to rezone 8871, 8891, 8911, 8931, 8951, 8971 and 8960 Douglas Street from the “Light Industrial (IL )” zone and the “Auto-Oriented Commercial (CA)” zone to a new site-specific zone in order to permit a new 6-storey hotel development, entitled “Hyatt Place” in the City Centre’s Bridgeport Village.

The site includes a non-contiguous portion on the south side of Douglas Street. The 6-storey hotel building will be on the north side of Douglas Street and a single-storey
commercial building will be on the south side. The hotel site is 25,920 SF and is currently vacant.

Key components of the proposal include:

• 97 hotel rooms;
• 1,733 of commercial space;
• a building height of 74 ft.;
• A total density of 2.0 FAR;
• 57 total parking stalls across both sites;
• LEED Silver equivalent building design and hotel building designed and constructed to connect to a future district energy utility (DEU) system.

The architect for the project is GBL Architects.

A development application has been filed by Man 6 Holdings Inc., a project company made up of the partners of EKISTICS Architecture. The site is 6,039 SF, zoned I-1 and is located at the corner of West 6th Avenue and Manitoba. The proposed development concept is a new four-storey, mixed industrial and commercial building consisting of ground level Manufacturing use and Office uses on the 2nd to 4th floor. Details include:

• 12,078 SF of office space
• 6,040 SF of light industrial space
• a total density of 3.0 FSR;
• 64 ft. building height;
• two levels of underground parking with 19 spaces.

Ekistics describes the design rationale: “EKISTICS is currently located at 1925 Main Street. We are excited to be designing and building our own studio space within this neighbourhood. We have been actively searching for a new company home for the past four years. We managed to stretch our resources to purchase this land in order to keep our office close to where people live and in a desirable and exciting neighbourhood. We feel passionate about our city, and being part of making it a great place to live and work. Our goal is to redevelop the site to include one floor of light industrial use, and three floors of office use. EKISTICS will occupy 2 of the 3 office floor for its studio. Our intention is to lease the main and second floors to local businesses which will compliment our design work.”

Under the site’s existing I-1 zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Director of Planning.

The architect for the project is Ekistics Architecture Inc.

The site was acquired in Mach 2017 for $5,000,000.

Landa Global has submitted their development application to the City of Vancouver for permission to develop a 17,292 SF site at the Southwest corner of Denman and Alberni Street with a new 21-storey mixed-use building. 

The proposal for 1810 Alberni Street includes the following:

• 60 residential units
• 36 “high end” market residential units & 24 affordable market rental housing units;
• 3,906 SF of ground level retail;
• Building height of approximately 210 ft.;
• A total density of 7.54 FSR;
• 3 levels of underground parking with 109 parking spaces all accessed from the lane.

The architect for the project, Rafii Architects explains the design rationale: “The tower has been designed as an array of “boxes” oriented in different directions which interplay with each other and departs from the more common vertical box of concrete and glass. The project concept is based on a two-lobe floor plan which houses two condominiums per floor, joint only by the elevator core. The series of boxes affords views of the North Shore , Stanley Park and the Lions’ Gate Bridge, and the Downtown core. The careful placement of these “boxes” allows for planting which has been used at different levels adding a “green” feeling to the building.”

Under the site’s existing C5-A zoning, which was altered to allow such development under the West End Community Plan, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Development Permit Board. The affordable market rental is a requirement of the zoning.

Landa acquired the site through Colliers in 2016 for $55,000,000, or $422 per buildable SF based on the total density in the application.

The full development application can be viewed here: http://development.vancouver.ca/1810alberni/index.htm