Arts and cultural groups are scrambling to find new venues after being told that a hip evangelical church has bought The Centre for the Performing Arts in downtown Vancouver and plans to take over the 1,800-seat theatre this summer.

Directors of the Vancouver International Film Festival, Goh Ballet and Unique Lives lecture series confirmed they were told last week by the centre’s management that the venue will not be available after the Westside Church takes over ownership in August.

…Diane Heal, the centre’s vice-president of operations, said the centre was for sale but referred all questions to Michael Law of Global Pacific Properties in Denver, Colo., an affiliate of Four Brothers Entertainment, which owns the centre.

Law did not return phone calls or respond to emails from The Vancouver Sun.

According to a March 27 blog on the website of the Westside Church, Pastor Norm Funk said he was “officially” and “publicly” announcing that a purchase sales agreement had been secured with the owners of the centre.

New Westminster News Leader – Small-sized Walmart for RCC: Mayor.

Walmart will be the new anchor tenant at the Royal City Centre according to New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright.

The mayor dropped the tidbit during a state-of-the-city address to a chamber of commerce luncheon at the Columbia Theatre on Wednesday. Wright said it would be one of the chain’s smaller outlets.

Earlier this year, the Royal City Centre applied for a development permit to build an atrium-style entrance off Sixth Avenue to service a new anchor tenant in the space vacated by Zeller’s in 2006.

Wright also revealed he is in discussions with an Indy-style kart racing circuit to run an electric kart race through Downtown New Westminster. The karts, he said, would race up Columbia onto Sixth Street, down Clarkson Street and circle back to Columbia via Begbie Street.

Read more: http://www.newwestnewsleader.com/news/207619701.html

The design for a proposed 32-storey office building at the corner of Granville and Cordova (currently a multi-level parking garage) have been changed in advance of an Urban Design Panel meeting next week. As we reported last year, the project is for an office tower with a density of 25.5 FSR and 380,000 sq. ft.

Here’s a look at the new design:

Photos courtest: Built Form @ SSP

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‘Modello’

Boffo Developments‘ project at 6225-6255 Cassie Avenue has now gone through the first reading stage of rezoning, and has been referred to a rezoning scheduled for May 28, 2013. The plan is for a 170-unit, 37-storey residential tower above a commercial podium with frontages on Beresford and Willingdon Avenue. The commercial component will include retail, office and a liquor primary establishment.

The project is being rezoned under the Metrotown Centre Development Plan, which allows higher density for existing RM-3 and RM-5 zoned properties.

Project stats:

• Site area: 46,166 SF
• Total density: 6.28 FAR
• Total floor area: Residential: 224,323 SF; Retail/Rest: 24,959 SF; Office: 33,600 SF
• Unit Mix: 170 units              (36 one-bedrooms, 87 two-bedrooms, 47 3-bedrooms)

Source: City of Burnaby, Boffo Developments