Here is an interesting map from 1956 from the City of Vancouver Archives showing land value assessments by $/SF from 1954 assessments in Downtown Vancouver.

Granville Street was the prime area back then at over $24.00 per SF of land! Conversely, Coal Harbour and Yaletown were steals at less than $1.50 per SF. Of course, these areas were still primarily industrial areas and condos were simply an idea that wouldn’t take hold for another decade. Fast forward sixty years and land values in those ‘hoods have increased approximately 2000%.

(click on the map for a zoomed in view)

“Scope and content Item is a map showing land values in dollars per square foot for the downtown area bounded by Burrard Street, Robson Street, and Nicola Street in the west and Main Street in the east.”

Onni has filed rezoning applications with the City of Vancouver for two sites on the same block of West Pender Street, between Richards and Homer in Downtown Vancouver. The sites, which aren’t connected, are currently zoned DD. The plans call for a combined 141 new rental units on two separate sites:

424 West Pender St.

The proposal 11-storey building that includes:

• 72 units of secured market rental housing;
• commercial space on the ground floor;
• total density of 8.08 FSR;
• 4 car-share, 1 disability and 1 standard parking space;
• 90 bicycle parking spaces; and
• a height of 105 ft.

454 West Pender St.

The proposal is for an 11-storey building that includes:

• 69 units of secured market rental housing;
• commercial space on the ground floor;
• total density of 8.48 FSR;
• 4 car-share parking spaces;
• 87 bicycle parking spaces; and
• a height of 105 ft.

Both sites are located in teh Downtown Eastside Plan and would qualify for rezoning under the Rezoning Policy for Downtown Eastside.

I am pleased to announce the sale of 1070 & 1080 Barclay Street. The site represents one of the last remaining opportunities to build a tall residential tower in Downtown Vancouver. Please contact me for further details.

Grosvenor has submitted a much anticipated rezoning application for a prominent “Grosvenor Pacific” site at the Northeast corner Hornby and Pacific; formerly the location of Umberto’s Il Giardino. Grosvenor had acquired the site in 2014 for $33.6MM along with the lot at Pacific & Howe.

The plan for the 15,000 SF site at 1380-1382 Hornby Street is for a 39-storey residential building and includes:

• 212 units
• a total density of 16.25 FSR
• a building height of 375 feet
• 238 underground parking spaces, and
• restoration and relocation of Leslie House, the existing Heritage ‘A’ building that is located on the site (to be relocated to Pacific St on the lane).

Council direction on Potential “Benefit Capacity” in Downtown allows consideration of a rezoning application for this site.

The project, which is being designed by ACDF Architecure in conjunction with IBI Group, describes some of the design elements of the tower, including:

• brushed stainless steel on the facade
• metallic soffit
• white stone cladding
• tinted glass & glass spandrel

The project joins other higher end condo towers at various stages of development, including Vancouver House, which is now under construction, and Reliance’s Burrard Place, the first phase of which is soon to begin construction.

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