A preliminary rezoning application has been submitted by Chard Development in order to add much needed rental apartment density to an existing apartment property in the Central Lonsdale area of North Vancouver.

1441 St. George’s Avenue is a rental apartment building at St. Georges and East 15th Street. The existing building is 14-storeys with a 2-storey commercial podium. The building contains 80 rental residential units and 52 commercial units.

The rezoning application is proposing to rezone the property to allow for the construction of a new rental tower on the West side of the site, including:

• a 23-storey rental tower
• 175 new rental units
• 10 studios, 111 one-bedrooms, 114 two-bedrooms, 20 three-bedrooms (combined)
• a total combined density of 6.29 FSR
• purchase of 85,156 SF of density at $115 per SF

The site is currently zoned Central Lonsdale Mixed Use ‘C-1B’, which allows for a density of 2.60 FSR. The site is designated Mixed Use Level 4B land use in the Official Community Plan (OCR), which allows for an FSR of up to 3.0 with the potential for a density bonus of an additional 1.0 FSR.

The architect for the project is MCM Partnership Architects.

The property sold in September 2016 for $37,500,000, or $310,000 per existing unit.

Westbank Corp. has filed their rezoning application for the 23,234 SF site at the Northwest corner of Broadway and Alma Street. The site at 3701-3743 West Broadway is currently zoned C-2 and is currently improved with an old strip retail property.

The rezoning proposal is for a 6-storey mixed-use project, which includes:

• 94 secured market rental units;
• 59 studios, 1 one-bedroom, 33 two-bedrooms, 1 three-bedroom
• 7,190 SF of retail space
• A total density of 3.15 FSR;
• A building height of 64 ft.; and
• 99 parking spaces.

This application is being considered under the Affordable Housing Choices Interim Rezoning Policy. The architect for this project is Henriquez Partners.

The site was acquired by Westbank in 2011 for $9,443,000 or $121 per buildable SF based upon the current rezoning application.

A rezoning application has been submitted for a site on Cambie at West 48th Avenue that includes a vacant lot that was left over after the Canada Line was completed. The plan for the two lot assembly is an interesting one and a slight departure for Cambie in that it proposes a 10-storey building that includes:

• 59 residential units;
• 12 one-bedrooms, 41 two bedrooms, 6 three-bedrooms
• 1,069 SF of retail at grade;
• a building height of 108 ft.;
• a total density of 3.87 FSR; and
• 44 underground vehicle parking spaces and 74 bicycle parking spaces.

The application is being considered under the Cambie Corridor Plan.

The architect is Hotson Architecture.

The two lots were assembled for a combined price of $11,800,000, or $198 per buildable SF.

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.