By ChangingCity

Here’s another of the projects that are being developed to help solve the very limited housing opportunities for the homeless and hard to house in Vancouver. We haven’t featured the building before on the blog, in part because the render that was available showed a rather unexciting project (and a dematerializing vehicle).

Fortunately the reality is far more attractive. Designed by DYS Architecture, it’s a 16-storey 141 unit building that will be run by The Kettle Friendship Society in conjunction with Family Services of Greater Vancouver. The main floor will house the Directions Youth Services Centre that was on the City-owned site before the redevelopment. BC Housing provided the majority of construction funds, but the project was also financially supported by Streetohome Foundation with contributions from both CIBC and Canadian Western Bank.

Directions provides health, mental health and addiction services, counseling, employment and training opportunities, peer support services, access to community and business partnerships and practicum programs, literacy and life skills training, and recreational, interactive, and artistic (music and art) programs. It will also include a Vancouver School Board Learning Centre. 30 of the units will be committed to youth under the age of 25.

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Source: Changing City

By ChangingCity

The development permit for the Rize Alliance development site at Broadway and Kingsway was submitted back in July last year, and now has a June Development permit Board date. Rize Alliance, the developers, must be confident of approval as they’re already building a sales centre on the site. Here are two updated images on the city website for Acton Ostry’s retail and residential project, where a (now) 21-storey tower is located on the northern end of the block on Kingsway, and the Broadway facade is a mid-rise block which sort of references the Lee Building (across and down the street) in scale and colour. The project has quite a bit of colour in various elements, and an internal courtyard. There have been quite a few minor changes from the 2013 version, and the project is now much closer to the approved rezoning, with a significant commercial component – around 75,000 sq ft – and 258 residential units.

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Source: Changing City

Colliers International recently facilitated the off-market sale of the 1400 Block of Alberni for $83,500,000. The two parcels on the block are improved with a highrise apartment and an office building and have a combined site area of 43,282 SF.

This attractive development opportunity encompasses an entire downtown city block, a rare occurrence in today’s market. Simon Lim represented the Vendor in the transaction.

Read more at Colliers Canada

The part of Downtown South between Burrard and Granville was recently lagging behind the area to the east along Seymour and Richards, where condo projects were developed steadily. Now it’s catching up fast – here’s the first of a couple of projects in the area.

Cressey started marketing Maddox, their IBI/HB designed 34 storey tower under 3 years ago. Now it’s pretty much finished, with a pattern of three colours of terra-cotta panels.

It replaced a ‘meanwhile’ park that was built to ‘provide a community green space’ that coincidentally also avoided a lot of taxes, while the housing market recovered from the 2008 downturn. Before that there was a Travelodge on Howe Street, demolished some years earlier.

The street address is a new one, created to recognise that the Granville loops at this end of the Granville Bridge will one day be removed.

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Source: Changing City

The B.C. government has signed an agreement with three Lower Mainland First Nations that includes the sale of Burnaby’s Willingdon Lands and the Liquor Distribution Branch warehouse site in Vancouver.

The agreement with the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish nations outlines how the proceeds of Crown land sales within the bands’ territories will be shared and how to develop the properties in partnership with the government.

“This agreement is so important for our three communities and we hope it sets a positive example of what can be achieved when we truly work together as one,” Tsleil-Waututh Chief Maureen Thomas said in a news release.

Andrew Wilkinson, the minister of technology, innovation and citizens services, called the agreement “historic” in a written statement.

Under the agreement, the Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh have purchased the Willingdon Lands at Willingdon Avenue and Canada Way, while all three nations have signed a contract to buy the LDB warehouse site on East Broadway. Representatives of the three nations could not be reached for comment on what the lands will be used for.

The sale price for the Willingdon property was $57.9 million, a price that the province says was based on an independent appraisal. The LDB property sale is expected to close by the fall, at which time the price will be publicly available.