Pacific Crown Management Company Ltd. has applied to the City of Vancouver for permission to develop the Southwest corner of Broadway and Cambie with a new office and retail building.

Most people will know the site as the Original Joe’s building with the Starbucks on the ground floor.

The proposal for the new development is for a 7-storey office building that includes:

• retail, restaurant and financial institution uses on the ground and second floors
• office use on the third to seventh floors;
• 61,381 SF of total floor area;
• a total density of 3.30 FSR;
• a total building height of 93 ft; and
• two levels of underground parking accessed from the lane.

Under the site’s existing C3-A zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Development Permit Board.

The architect for the project is W.T. Leung Architects Inc.

Oxford Properties has changed the design plan for their 1133 Melville Street office building project, originally proposed for rezoning back in July 2015. The previous design was not supported at the Urban Design Panel in 2015, and has since been reworked with a smaller, but taller building.

The new design by James Cheng, features a much more interesting building massing. The revision includes stacked box design with the third box twisted from the street grid. There is a slight increase in height from 33 to 34-storeys. Details include:

• a building height of 550 ft.
• a total floor area of 555,047 SF
• a total density of 18.20 FSR (down from 22.46 FSR)
• four floorplate sizes, multiple decks including a rooftop deck
• floor to ceiling windows
• six levels of underground parking (231 vehicle spaces and 221 bicycle spaces)

The previous rezoning application can be viewed here: http://rezoning.vancouver.ca/applications/1133melville/index.htm

A rezoning application has been submitted for the Gabriola Mansion property at 1523 Davie Street in Vancouver’s West End. The 26,000 SF property, principally occupied by one of the West End’s most notorious heritage buildings, was sold last year for $6.72 Million.

The application includes the preservation and restoration of the Gabriola Mansion building through conversion to rental apartments.

Further details include:

• the conversion of the mansion into 16 market rental units;
• 4 new infill 3-storey rental townhouses to be developed in the northeast corner of the property;
• 4 three-bedrooms, 5 two-bedrooms, 7 one-bedrooms and 4 studios
• an increase in FSR from 0.35 to 0.89; and
• no increase in height from the existing CD-1 (248).

The architect for the project is Ankenman Marchand.

Westbank‘s rezoning application for the Budget Car Rental site at 400 West Georgia Street has been submitted to the City. The site is located at the corner of West Georgia and Homer Street, across from the Central Library Branch. The letter of intent submitted by Westbank, suggests that the building will be built “on spec”.

The plan for the 20,992 SF (175′ x 120′) site calls for rezoning from Downtown (DD) District to Comprehensive Development (CD-1) District to allow for a 24-storey office building. The proposal includes:

• 350,000 SF of office space;
• 5,775 SF of retail space;
• a building height of 301 ft.;
• a total density 17.51 FSR;
• steel construction;
• six levels of underground parking; and
• 125 bicycle parking spaces.

Design features will include triple-paned curtain wall, openable windows, large spans of column free space, glass floors. It will also incorporate a 4-storey high lobby.

The application describes the design rationale:

The architect for the project is Merrick Architecture.

Belaire Apartments Ltd., the owners of an existing 3-storey lowrise apartment building in North Vancouver, are planning a replacement of the building with a new, larger rental apartment building.

The subject site is located in the Central Lonsdale neighbourhood at the south west corner of Chesterfield Avenue and 16th Street. The site currently contains a 13-unit rental apartment building. The 10,400 SF site is located in an area of mainly three storey apartment buildings, with most of them built in the late 1960’s to mid – 1970’s, and are a mix of rental and strata dwellings.

The proposal is for a new 5-storey rental apartment building that includes:

• 34 apartment units
• 18 one-bedrooms, 13 two-bedrooms and 3 three-bedrooms
• a total density of 2.50 FSR
• 17 underground parking stalls
• 51 bicycle stalls

The OCP land use designation of the site is Residential Level 5, which allows for a medium density multi-family up to a maximum density of 1.6 FSR, with the potential of a 1.0 FSR bonus density to be granted at Council’s discretion. The applicant is requesting a bonus be granted to 2.50 FSR with all the proposed units being rental and secured through a rental Housing Agreement.

The architect for the project is Gateway Architecture.