By Frances Bula

This comment is buried far down in a post on Gord Price’s blog, Pricetags, (the one about the death of residential real estate) but of course it’s attracting a lot of interest. For those who don’t know, Scot Hein ran the urban-design department inside the city’s planning division. It was a position that had been created by former planner Larry Beasley, as a way of driving home the point that planning wasn’t just about the buildings or the traffic flow or the other mechanical parts, but about how communities used space. Scot was a big part of the planning for Olympic village. The European feel of the plaza, which has become a hive of activity, is part of his work. He left earlier this year to work at UBC, a surprise to many who knew him and how dedicated he was to the city.

Scot permalink

November 10, 2014 4:28 pm

Here is what really happened speaking as the city’s Senior Urban Designer at the time the GW process was tabling built form.

We put together what we believed was a reasoned overall plan for GW towards increased residential and employment opportunity. We fully appreciated the development economics of the Safeway site …read more

Source:: Frances Bula

A development application has been submitted for a 9,600 SF site near the Southeast corner of West 4th Avenue and Alma Street. The plan calls for a 4-storey building with 22 residential units above retail. The site is currently occupied by two lowrise houses and a 3-storey mixed use building. The zoning is C-2 which generally allows for 4-storeys in height and 2.5 FSR.

The adjacent condo building on the corner is called The Locarno, and was developed in 2009 by Jericho West Developments.

The site was  listed for sale earlier this year for $9,000,000, which is equivalent to $375 per buildable SF.

Existing Alma St. Frontage

A 3.4 acre site known as Keybridge Centre has sold at 6851-6871 Elmbridge Way in Richmond, near the Olympic Oval. The sale price was $31,300,000. The purchaser was Bene Development Ltd.

The site sits next to Onni’s Ora project, and is also identified under the City of Richmond’s City Centre Area Plan as General Urban T5.