I am pleased to have acted on behalf of the Vendor and Purchaser of each of the 4 lots of a land assembly at Cambie Street and West 31st Avenue. The property can be rezoned to allow up to 6-storeys residential. The total purchase price of the combined site was $20,432,000.

A 45-unit Richmond apartment complex known as Cook Place Apartments has sold for $11,700,000 to a local investor. The price represents $260,000 per unit and a cap rate of 3.3%. The property is ideally situated near the City Centre area of Richmond, just one and half blocks East of Richmond Centre Mall and a short walk to the Canada Line.

The building itself is a 3-storey woodframe building built in 1979, with underground parking. There are 30 Two-Bedroom units and 15 One-Bedroom units. Rents were approximately 10% under market. The property was listed with an asking price of $11,888,000.

Here’s a building that had sold in 2012 that recently resold for a substantial gain. The 43 unit, 8-storey concrete building located at West 5th Ave and Alma sold for $14,495,000 or $337,093 per unit, representing a 12% price appreciation from 2012 when the building sold for $12,800,000.

Westbank is planning to rezone the Central Steam site at the Southeast corner of West Georgia and Beatty Street that Ian Gillespie acquired in 2013.The site is 73,958 SF in size and zoned DD and BCPED, neither of which allow residential, but the proposed rezoning is seeking residential in exchange for public benefit, at the discretion of the Director of Planning. In this case, the public benefit is proposed to be a reduction in the City’s GHG emissions.

Details of the proposed rezoning include:

• a 300,000-350,000 SF office building on Beatty
• a 300,000-400,000 SF rental apartment building
• 25,000 SF of retail on the lower side plaza next to Expo Blvd.
• Overall non-residential density is proposed to exceed the 7.0 FSR minimum
  commercial requirement.
• The existing Steam Plant (70,000 SF) will either be re-engineered and integrated
  into the development as a back-up function, or relocated off-site.
• In addition, a new low carbon heating plant will be built off-site in the False Creek Flats that will be linked to the distribution network and this will be a public benefit

An application for a unique 3-storey courtyard townhouse project has been made for a site at West 64th Avenue near Columbia Street in Marpole. The site is an assembly of two large and deep single family lots that were assembled in 2014. Recently rezoned to RM-9 under the Marpole Community Plan, the site is allowed to go to 4-storeys, though the applicant is proposing 24 3-storey townhouses with a courtyard and common underground parking.

The architect, Bryce Rositch of Rositch Hemphill Architects summarizes the application by saying: “We believe that this development, its smaller scale of buildings, ground orientation, predominant three storey height, the use of good materials including generous amounts of brick, outdoor patios on both sides of each townhouse plus additional balcony spaces at upper levels will be a model for future development in this area.”