Oxford Properties has formally applied to rezone their property at 1133 Melville Street; a 30,510 SF site currently occupied by a 7-storey parkade and office building topped with two floors of vacant multi-residential.

The project, rumoured for the last couple of years, calls for a 33-storey office building with retail at grade, including:

• a building height of 524 ft.;
• 658,687 SF of office and retail space;
• a density of 22.65 FSR; and
• 287 underground parking spaces.

This rezoning application is being considered under the Rezoning Policy for the Central Business District (CBD) and CBD Shoulder, General Policy for Higher Buildings and Rezoning Policy for Sustainable Large Developments.

Once completed, it will be one of the tallest and largest office buildings in Vancouver. Comparable nearby shorter towers include Bentall 5, which contains 583,000 SF of office space; Park Place at 596,000 SF; and Bentall IV at 548,000 SF.

The architect team of KPF and Kasian, describes the project in the application:

The project stands at 33 storeys. Typical floor plates are approximately 20,000 SF with a five storey bustle on the west side of the tower separating the tower volume from the adjacent Loden Hotel and providing 5 floors with a 23,000 SF floor plate. The ground floor is programmed with both lobby and active retail space.”

Oxford acquired the property in 2010 for $27,650,000. The property was previously owned by Amacon who developed the Loden Hotel next door. Amacon had originally planned a hotel and office tower project on the property, but later elected to sell it.

A highly coveted office building and adjacent development site has sold to Peterson Group for $41,000,000. The property, located at the corner of Granville and West 10th Avenue, was owned by BMO and offered for sale by BMO through Form Retail in the spring of 2015.

The offering included the 5-storey, 45,000 SF office building built in 1973 on the corner anchored by BMO, and the adjacent 16,000 SF parking lot, which can be developed under the current RM-3 zoning. It was anticipated that BMO would enter into a 10-year leaseback as part of the deal.

Continuing the trend of strong demand for Mount Pleasant industrial properties with redevelopment potential, 34-54 West 7th Avenue has sold for $8,510,000, or $157 per buildable SF. The buyer was Chard Development.

The existing building is an aging two-level industrial building originally a meat packing plant and now a food manufacturing facility.

The 18,117 SF site is zoned I-1. Traditionally, I-1 zoning was a mixed light-industrial office zone, but in 2013 the City of Vancouver amended the zone to allow 100% general office. This amendment has set off a two year long flurry of speculative sale and development activity, with a few office projects already in the works. With few opportunities to build smaller office buildings downtown, and with soaring land prices everywhere where residential or mixed-use is allowed, Mount Pleasant has been a target for many developers and users.

The building had been listed for sale by Casey Weeks, Matt Smith and James Starke of Colliers and received multiple offers.

A rezoning application has been made for a site at 225 Smithe Street, at the Northwest corner of Smithe and Cambie in Downtown Vancouver. The plan calls for rezoning from the existing DD (Downtown) District to CD-1 to allow a 26-storey residential above office mixed-use building that includes:

• four levels of commercial space totaling 27,000 SF;
• a  building height of 286.8 ft;
• a density of 11.85 FSR;
• 114 residential units; and
• 178 underground parking space

This rezoning application is being considered under the Rezoning Policy for the Central Business District (CBD) and CBD Shoulder.

The site was previously owned by James Schouw and envisioned for a luxury 28-unit condo building called ‘Thalia‘, but was later sold under foreclosure to Boffo Developments in 2011. The purchase price at that time was $11,600,000.

An older 2-storey downtown building has sold in a $9,880,000 deal to Reliance Properties. Beatty Place, located at 837 Beatty Street between Robson and Smithe Streets, is a somewhat non-descript 15,000 SF building that most locals would know from the ticket broker on the bottom floor, or more recently the Bar Method, which is located on the second floor. The building is located on a 6,990 SF site. The building was sold by TPMG Capital.

There is no word yet on any renovation or redevelopment plans for the building. The zoning for the property is DD-C3, which permits a density of 5.0 FSR. Non-residential uses must not be less than 2.0 FSR.

The acquisition is just three blocks South of Reliance’s award-winning redevelopment of 564 Beatty Street, which saw redevelopment for office space above an older brick and beam heritage building.