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.

Bentall Kennedy has submitted their formal application for rezoning of the Downtown Canada Post site. The 2.98 acre site comprises a full city block at 349 West Georgia Street formerly occupied by Canada Post and bought by bcIMC in 2013 for $159 Million.

The proposed redevelopment is interesting in that it contemplates retaining the existing Post Office building and adding two residential towers and one office tower above with parking uses above grade in the podium.

Details include:

• Retention of heritage building and its conversion into a seven-storey podium containing retail along all street frontages, rental housing, office, and parking
• Adding three towers above podium, including 17 storeys of office, and 18 and 20 storeys of residential
• 427 rental apartments, 372 condo units
• 512,000 SF of office space
• 274,000 SF of retail space
• An overall density of 12.9 FSR
• Tower heights of 150 – 222 feet
• Six levels of parking with 1,474 parking spaces & 1,168 bicycle spaces
• A 49-space childcare facility

The site’s primary constraint is the view cones which limit the building heights.

Port Living has applied to the City of Vancouver for permission to develop a Coal Harbour site at 1255 West Pender Street that they acquired in 2014.

The 8,250 SF site has had various development plans for close to 10 years. The most recent iteration included a 14-storey building consisting of 25 condo units and 3,500 SF of office space with a total density of 5.7 FSR. That project, called “The Views” was launched in 2013 for pre-sales but never proceeded and the site was subsequently sold.

The site is unique not only due to its small size, but its adjacency to the nearby Coal Harbour Park, Evergreen Building and neighbouring Palladio condo building. Preserving existing views and privacy from adjacent buildings results in a unique building massing.

The revised plan, by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, calls for a 19-storey mixed use building that pays homage to the Evergreen Building on the lower portion and incorporates a unique mass timber structure above. Plans include the following:

• 20 residential units (incl. 8 two-bedrooms, ten 3-bedrooms and 8 four-bedrooms)
• Unit sizes of 1,258 SF to 3,657 SF
• One unit per floor on tower floors
• Wood composite construction above concrete podium
• Retail on the ground floor;
• Building height of approximately 224 feet
• Total floor area of 54,503 SF;
• Total Density of 6.6 FSR
• 3 levels of underground parking accessed from West Hastings St.

North Elevation

East Elevation

Under the site’s existing DD zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Development Permit Board. The local architect for the project is Francl Architecture.

Details on the development application can be found here: http://development.vancouver.ca/1255wpender/index.htm

I am pleased to announce the sale of 1166 West Pender Street, a 140,000 SF office building located in Downtown Vancouver.  This off-market transaction closed earlier this month.

The 15-storey building was built in the early 1970’s and is located on an 18,700 SF site that may permit a higher density and height in the future.

Transaction details:

Buyer: Reliance Properties

Seller: Triovest Realty Advisors, on behalf of Greystone

Please contact me for further information regarding this sale.

Here’s a quick look at the recent uptick in resales values and activity for Downtown Vancouver condos, which have reported to have taken quite an upturn over the last few months after having been relatively flat over the past few years.

Here is data derived from all Downtown Vancouver condo resales from 2011 to April 2016. A couple of observations:

• the average price YTD 2016 is $908 per SF (up from $761 for the same period 2015)
• Average sold price/list price ratio 2016 YTD is 1.03

The above data contains all downtown Vancouver condo resales. For simplicity, all luxury  condo sales above $2,000 per SF were removed (approx. 40 sales).

Data source: MLS/REBGV data