Four developments go before Vancouver City Council next week seeking approval of form of development, which is the last administrative motion at the Council level required before construction, so these four projects will likely start site clearing for imminent excavation and construction:

501 West 26th Avenue (Parc 26)

Parc 26 is a 75-unit condo project at West 26th and Cambie that was sold by our team in 2011 to Dava Developments and approved for rezoning in 2014. According to twitter, the project is now over 65% sold.

521 West King Edward Avenue

Just across King Edward Street from Parc 26, this site was also assembled by Colliers in 2011, and achieved rezoning in 2014. The developer is Regent International. The plan is for a 70-unit, 6-storey condo building.

333 East 11th Avenue (The Duke)

This site was initially marketed in 2010 and received rezoning approval in 2015 for a rental tower under the City’s Rental 100 program. The 201-unit rental apartment building, now named “The Duke”, will be 14-storeys with a 4,925 SF retail component. Site clearing has already commenced.

984 West Broadway

This site at Broadway and Oak was approved for rezoning for 10-storey office tower way back in 2011, and is just now looking to move forward. The project, by BlueSky Properties, was rezoned under the Metro Core plan to allow a 5.22 FSR density.

• wholesale space with ancillary office use on floors 1, 2, 6 & 7
• mini-storage warehouse on levels 3, 4 & 5
• one level of underground parking
• building height of 100 ft
• total floor area of 112,750 SF (3.0 FSR)

The architect notes that while the site is 37,500 SF in area, there are several factors which make it a challenging site to develop, and they are requesting a relaxation of the height limit to deal with these issues.

“The site is approximately 37,500 sq/ft in area; however , two Statutory Right of Ways (SRW) exist on title (one with Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and another with Metro Vancouver,) which preclude any building on approximately 18,600 sq.ft of the lot. The SRW held by CPR is the more restrictive of the two and prevents its paving, its use as surface parking or any form of access. The two SRW’s represent more that 50% of the site that is unbuildable and approximately 25% of the lot that access is completely denied by CPR.”

I am pleased to have acted on behalf of the Vendor and Purchaser of each of the 4 lots of a land assembly at Cambie Street and West 31st Avenue. The property can be rezoned to allow up to 6-storeys residential. The total purchase price of the combined site was $20,432,000.

Westbank is planning to rezone the Central Steam site at the Southeast corner of West Georgia and Beatty Street that Ian Gillespie acquired in 2013.The site is 73,958 SF in size and zoned DD and BCPED, neither of which allow residential, but the proposed rezoning is seeking residential in exchange for public benefit, at the discretion of the Director of Planning. In this case, the public benefit is proposed to be a reduction in the City’s GHG emissions.

Details of the proposed rezoning include:

• a 300,000-350,000 SF office building on Beatty
• a 300,000-400,000 SF rental apartment building
• 25,000 SF of retail on the lower side plaza next to Expo Blvd.
• Overall non-residential density is proposed to exceed the 7.0 FSR minimum
  commercial requirement.
• The existing Steam Plant (70,000 SF) will either be re-engineered and integrated
  into the development as a back-up function, or relocated off-site.
• In addition, a new low carbon heating plant will be built off-site in the False Creek Flats that will be linked to the distribution network and this will be a public benefit

An application for a unique 3-storey courtyard townhouse project has been made for a site at West 64th Avenue near Columbia Street in Marpole. The site is an assembly of two large and deep single family lots that were assembled in 2014. Recently rezoned to RM-9 under the Marpole Community Plan, the site is allowed to go to 4-storeys, though the applicant is proposing 24 3-storey townhouses with a courtyard and common underground parking.

The architect, Bryce Rositch of Rositch Hemphill Architects summarizes the application by saying: “We believe that this development, its smaller scale of buildings, ground orientation, predominant three storey height, the use of good materials including generous amounts of brick, outdoor patios on both sides of each townhouse plus additional balcony spaces at upper levels will be a model for future development in this area.”