Reliance Properties has acquired a landmark apartment and retail property in the West End for $43,000,000. The building was built in 1958 and includes a 58-unit 16-storey concrete apartment highrise and three retail units including Milestones, and is prominently located at the intersection of Denman and Davie.

The building had been listed for sale by Avison Young without an asking price and sold after receiving multiple offers.

A rezoning application has been made for a 29,102 SF site at 3868 Rupert Street (at East 22nd St) for rezoning to allow rental apartments. The site is currently improved with a grocery store – Chong Lee Market and some retail units along with surface parking.

The proposal calls for rezoning from C-1 to CD-1 to permit the development of 6-storey mixed-use building that includes:

• 112 secured market rental units;
• 78 one-bedrooms, 30 two-bedrooms and 4 three-bedrooms
• 10,856 SF retail uses in six CRUs on the ground floor
• a total density 3.60 FSR
• a building height of six storeys ; and
• 158 underground parking spaces.

The application is being considered under the Affordable Housing Choices Interim Rezoning Policy.

The architect, GBL, describes the application:

“This project will take into account these neighbourhood factors by providing appropriate up to date commercial premises for the existing tenants and providing good quality affordable rental accommodation for the locale. The Renfrew Collingwood area has great community facilities and a number of schools close by. With this in mind, over a quarter of the units will be 2 and 3 bedrooms for families.

Polygon has prepared a proposal including two options for a development at 119 – 131 West Esplanade in North Vancouver, also known as “Site 8”. The site also includes lands owned by City of North Vancouver. The overall rezoning application seeks an amendment to the City’s OCP to increase the allowable building height and to rezone the site to allow the construction of a mixed-use building consisting of a residential tower over a commercial podium. This would be supported by four levels of underground parking.

The site was previously owned by Millenium Properties who proposed a 35-storey tower back in 2007, which was subsequently withdrawn. The site later sold to Polygon.

Two development options are being presented for the City of North Vancouver’s consideration:

Option 1 – with Non-Market Office Space

• 11-storey tower with 107 residential units
• a building height of 122 ft.
• a total density of 3.78 FSR
• sale of City lands, transfer density and density bonus resulting is a cash contribution of $10.3 Million.
• 6,000 SF of office space owned by Polygon and rented at below market rates to non-profits

Option 2 – with Community Amenity Space

• 12-storey tower with 117 residential units
• a building height of 139 ft.
• a total density of 4.07 FSR
• sale of City lands, transfer density and density bonus resulting is a cash contribution of $8.7 Million.
• 16,155 SF of City-owned community space for a museum

In both scenarios, the site has to accommodate almost 100 parking spaces for off-site uses.

View from Esplanade

The architects for the project are DYS Architecture and Nigel Baldwin Architects.