In an interesting move, 10 floors of the Exchange Building are being converted to hotel use instead of office use. This comes as Executive Group has acquired the adjacent Edward Chapman property at 833 West Pender, with soon to be released plans for a hotel on the site.

A development application has been submitted for The Exchange Building to allow:

• conversion of office use to hotel on floors 2 through 11
• 110,000 SF of the building will be converted

Under the site’s existing CD-1 (555) zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Director of Planning.

Urbanics Consultants, on behalf of Andrew Peller Limited have applied to allow a redevelopment of the 5.0 acre Andres Wines site, a collection of lots on the West side of Port Moody’s Town Centre area, fronting both Clarke Street and Barnet Highway.

The proposal calls for an OCP amendment  and rezoning to allow for the development of a new mixed-use residential and commercial development, including:

• one 32-storey tower, one 21-storey tower, one 12-storey tower & multiple lowrises
• 418 residential units
• 132 strata units, 176 rental units, 98 seniors units & 12 artist studios
• a mix of other uses including light industrial, retail, office, 80-room hotel, clinic, athletic club, arts centre (including a daycare) and an arts village (artist work space, galleries, and residences).
• 725,390 SF of gross floor area
• a total density of 3.33 FAR
• open space comprising 25% of the total site area
• 940 parking spaces

The plan is proposed to be built in one phase and at full build-out is estimated to have a resident population of 800 and will support 585 jobs.

The OCP amendment was not originally supported at City Council, but has been deferred to the Community Planning Advisory Committee for further design review to address various issues including geotechnical, traffic and parking, and site servicing, among others.

I4 Property Group has applied to the City of New Westminster for a rezoning and to facilitate the development of a 15,254 SF site at 408-412 East Columbia Street, near Royal Columbian Hospital.

• 60 secured market rental units
• 7,000 SF of retail space at grade
• 12,100 SF of office space on the second storey.
• A total gross building area of 69,430 SF
• a density of 4.53 FSR
• 84 underground parking spaces

The previous OCP designation for the site is CM Commercial Main Street, which allows commercial uses at street level and office or residentail uses above. Densities in this zone are medium to high. Under the new OCP, the site is “Mixed-Use Low Rise”, allowing buildings up to 6-storeys in height.

I4PG attempted to assembled the neighbouring lot at 406 East Columbia Street, but were not successful.

The architect for the project is SUVA Architecture.

A new design has been presented for a previously approved office tower on the site of the current multi-level parkade at Granville and Cordova.

The site was previously approved in 2014 for a 32-storey, 380,000 SF office tower, but was subsequently sold by Greg Kerfoot to Bosa Development in July 2016.

The new design, by Kohn Pedersen Fox and Chris Dikeakos is a more interesting curved building form. The project now requires permission of the development permit board in order to proceed.

Since the project was originally proposed, this block has seen lots of activity, with Morguard proposing a 25-storey office tower at the corner of Hastings and Seymour, and more recently, a 28-storey tower proposed for the mid-block site on Hastings just East of Granville.

If all three projects proceed, this represents a total of 760,000 SF of new office space in this block.

PC Urban  has applied to the City of Vancouver for permission to develop a site at the Northeast corner of West 5th and Alberta in Mount Pleasant for a new 4-storey commercial/light industrial building. The project includes

• 23,590 SF of Wholesale uses on the first storey and mezzanine;
• 47,325 SF of General Office uses on the second through fourth storeys; and
• two levels of underground parking with 95 spaces
• one Class A and two Class B loading spaces

Under the site’s existing I-1 zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Director of Planning.

This proposal continues a trend of mixed industrial and office buildings at higher densities in Mount Pleasant following zoning changes in 2014.