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.

Larco has applied to the City of Vancouver for permission to develop the first phase of Arbutus Village. The plan calls for development of the Northeast corner (“Block A”) of the 7-acre site with one mixed-use building comprising office space, a below-grade self-storage facility, a grocery store, and residential rental apartments. The proposal includes the following:

• a mixed-use building comprising office space and a grocery store on the ground floor, and seven floors with 215 apartments units above;
• total floor area of 395,000 SF (including 120,000 SF below-grade self-storage facility and a 54,000 SF new Safeway grocery store);
• four levels of underground parking (374 spaces) and self-storage facility, accessed off of a proposed Yew Street extension.
• First step will be demolition of the Northeast portion of the existing mall, followed by new internal streets and eventual relocation of Safeway

The rezoning for the site was approved back in July 2011, but no further development approval activity has taken place since. The whole plan calls for 508 residential units. The development application effectively quiets any previous rumours that the site may have been for sale.

The Development Permit Board meeting is scheduled for this application on September 8, 2015. Subsequent phases of the project will require additional development permits.

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.

The City of Vancouver will present their third annual Housing and Homelessness Strategy Report Card to council next week. The purpose of the annual report is to track progress of the City’s various initiatives under the Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2012-2021.

The report is an excellent source of some key housing indicators compiled from CMHC and REBGV, of which several are summarized here:

• the City of Vancouver had 4,648 dwellings commence construction in 2014 (approximately 25% single family and 75% multi-family units). This rate is close to the 5-year annual average of 4,824.
• Vacancy rates continued to decrease between 2013 and 2014, both in the city of
  Vancouver (from 1.0% to 0.5%) and regionally (from 1.7% to 1.0%) reflecting
  ongoing population growth and demand for housing
• Between March 2014 and March 2015, the benchmark  price for a single family

  house increased by 14% on the eastside and 12% on the westside, while the

  benchmark price for condos fell by 1% on the eastside and increased by 5% on

  the westside.
• 409 units of interim supportive housing were created in 2014 (395 Kingsway, 3475 E. Hastings, 1335 Howe and 1060 Howe)
• 439 units of permanent supportive housing were created (1134 Burrard, 111 Princess, 2465 Fraser and 951 Boundary)
• 3,783 secured market rental units have been approved during 2012-2014 (only 407 were actually completed in 2014)

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.