Marcon and Kevington Building Corp. have jointly filed an application to consolidate and rezone a group of lots located at 559, 567, 571, 577 and 581 Clarke Road from CS-l Service Commercial and CS-2 Limited Commercial to C-7 Transit Village Commercial to allow a new highrise condo and rental residential development. The combined site is 76,922 SF in size.

The proposal is being made under the policies in the Burquitlam Neighbourhood Plan and envisions development of transit-oriented and supportive residential density in close proximity to the Burquitlam Evergreen Line Station, which is across the street.

The development proposal includes:

• a 49-storey condo tower with 364 units
• a 15-storey rental tower with 101 units
• commercial retail units fronting Clarke Road
• total combined density of 5.43 FSR
• underground parking accessed from the lane
• 620 total parking spaces
• a $576,914 CAC + $6.9 Million in contributions to public amenities

The site will be resubdivided into two fee simple parcels; one for the market tower and the other for the rental building. The application also involves transferring the density from 559 Clarke Road to the market tower portion of the project. Formerly the location of the Burquitlam Animal Hospital, Marcon has acquired this site to help facilitate a full two-way intersection at Clarke Road and the narrow street that runs behind the development. This will increase the extent of full two-way traffic through the narrow street This street will be fully constructed and complete when the adjoining parcel at 565 Clarke Road redevelops.

The architect for the project is GBL Architects.

A development application has been filed with the City of Vancouver for permission to develop a 5,829 SF site at the corner of Kingsway and Welwyn St. in East Vancouver. The site is currently improved with an older single-storey retail building. The proposed project includes:

• a 4-storey, mixed-use development with 11 dwelling units and commercial units at grade;
• total density of 2.48 FSR
• one level of underground parking with 12 stalls.

Under the site’s existing C-2  zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Director of Planning.

The architect for the project is Anyone Architecture. The development application can be viewed here: http://development.vancouver.ca/pc1690kingsway/index.htm

Here’s a look at resales data for condo unit resales in the City of Vancouver. Not only have the last few months shown record sales activity, pricing has risen noticeably, from the low $400k range in 2013, to just under $600k in the spring of 2016.

Source: MLS Data

Here is a brief snapshot of the condo resales market since the start of 2016, shown as average price per SF broken down by sub-area/neighbourhood.

Source: MLS Data

The above chart reflects data on all MLS sales for condo units that were one year old or newer at the time of sale, and only includes neighbourhoods with sales in multiple buildings. Pricing is slightly distorted by product type; for example, all of the downtown condo product is concrete highrise which is more expensive, whereas all of Maple Ridge product is in lowrise or townhouse form that is much cheaper to build and sell. Nevertheless, some may find the average pricing stats interesting.

The market for pre-sales inventory is likely to track above the average resales in a given sub-market.

A development application has been submitted for a land assembly in Mount Pleasant. The plan is for a new 3-storey condo building while preserving and restoring the existing 4-unit building at 547 East 16th Avenue that was built in 1912. The site is 15,117 SF, and is zoned RM-4. Details include:

• Density of 1.45 FSR
• Total of 21 units (17 new units and 4 in existing building)
• 21 underground parking spaces
• Total building height of 35.1 ft