Marcon has submitted a rezoning application for a site at the Southwest corner of Pender and Richards Streets in Downtown Vancouver.

The site consists of three parcels, a 6-storey parkade at the corner, a 2-storey retail/office building, mid-block on West Pender street, and the Lumbermen’s Building, an 8-storey office and heritage building, to be retained in the new development.

The proposal is to allow for the development of a 32-storey hotel that includes:

• 578 hotel rooms;
• 20,000 SF of retail and restaurant space;
• 44,132 sq. ft. of office space;
• A total density of 22.81 FSR;
• A building height of 318 ft.; and
• 146 vehicle parking spaces and 91 bicycle parking spaces.

The application is being considered under the Downtown Official Development Plan) and Rezoning Policy for the Central Business District (CBD) and CBD Shoulder.

The architect for the project is Henriquez Partners.

2022 was an active year for land sales activity in Metro Vancouver; largely a carryover from a return to acquisitions in 2021 after a two-year period of general stagnation in the market.

Continuing a trend since 2019, the bulk of land sales activity is happening in suburban markets, and now predominantly for commercial and industrial properties. The Downtown luxury tower sites that dominated the market between 2015-2018 remain largely absent.

Here’s a look at each of the 10 largest land deals of 2022:

1. The Grove Brentwood, Burnaby

• Price:                  $215 Million
• Site Area:            8.3 acres
• Vendor:               Aoyuan Canada
• Purchaser:          Anthem & Kingsett

The goods:        For the second year in a row, the largest land deal of the year took place in the Brentwood Town Centre area of Burnaby, one of the fastest growing, densest municipal centres in all of Metro Vancouver.

“The Grove” project, originally designed and rezoned by Aoyuan, is an 8-acre multi-tower, 2,400 unit high density residential project. Aoyuan was forced to sell in 2021 amid financial pressures.

Anthem Properties, with partner Kingsett Capital, will now move the project forward, with rezoning for individual parcels to occur in the near term.

2. Coronation Park, Port Moody

• Price:                  $158 Million
• Site Area:           15 Acres
• Vendor:              Land assembly
• Purchaser:          Wesgroup

The goods:          This sale represents the completion of an epic land assembly by Wesgroup; worthy of its own write up. The assembly involved 54 single family lots located in the Coronation Park area at the Eastern edge of Port Moody. The lots had been marketed in multiple assemblies and secured by Wesgroup over three years. The deal faced several twists and turns amid market uncertainty and evolving guidance and support from the City of Port Moody as to the OCP designation for the overall master plan for the site. Wesgroup submitted their formal rezoning application in July 2022.

The sale of the majority of the lots complete in September 2022 and now Wesgroup can turn their attention to execution of the high density master plan project, expected to include over 2,600 units built in several phases.

The land assembly was completed by Grant Gardner & Thomas Trowbridge of London Pacific.

3. 86-168 S.E. Marine Drive, Vancouver

• Price:                   $150 Million
• Site Area:            12.5 acres
• Vendor:               Hungerford Properties
• Purchaser:           Amazon Canada

The goods:        This site was previously owned by Walmart Canada until Hungerford acquired the property in 2018 for $90 Million. Hungerford undertook preliminary design and planning for the development of a mixed commercial/industrial project until an off-market deal came along from Amazon. Preliminary plans call for a new Amazon fulfillment centre on the strategically located South Vancouver site.

4. Coquitlam College Site, Coquitlam

• Price:                   $148 Million
• Site Area:            7.5 acres
• Vendor:               Coquitlam College
• Purchaser:           Onni

The goods:        The Coquitlam College site and 11 adjacent single-family parcels were acquired by Onni in a deal negotiated in 2021. The assembled site presents an opportunity for future rezoning for high density residential under the Burquitlam Lougheed Plan. Preliminary rezoning plans have yet to be filed with the City of Coquitlam.

The sale was facilitated by Alon Shapiro of CBRE.

5. Kingsway & Willingdon, Burnaby

• Price:                   $145 Million
• Site Area:            1.8 acres
• Vendor:               Bosa Properties
• Purchaser:           Keltic Development

The goods:        For the second year in a row, Keltic Development has made a splash with one of the largest land transactions in Metro Vancouver. An off-market sale of the Esso Gas Station site at 4444-4488 Kingsway was negotiated in July 2022 and completed November 30, 2022. Bosa’s preliminary plans included two towers, up to 70-storeys in height with potentially condos, rental, retail and hotel.

The sale was negotiated by Goran Bucan of Sutton Group West Coast Realty.

6. Tricity Central, Coquitlam

• Price:                  $130 Million
• Site Area:           5 acres
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:          Marcon & Quadreal

The goods:          In the works for well over two years, this deal closed representing one of the largest master plan communities in Coquitlam. Marcon and Quadreal have passed through the initial rezoning phase for the site at the southeastern corner of Lougheed and Barnet highways for “TriCity Central”.  The multi-tower development will see approximately 2,000 residential units in addition to office, hotel and retail space.

7. 7590-7688 80^th Street, Delta

• Price:                  $117 Million
• Site Area:           23 acres
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:          Beedie

The goods:         Beedie outbid 13 other buyers for this site, the largest industrial land deal of the year. The former Delco Container site is vacant pending redevelopment plans by Beedie.

This sale was brokered by Steve Brooke and Joel Barnett of CBRE.

8. 19469-19511 92^nd Avenue, Surrey

• Price:                 $111 Million
• Site Area:          14 acres
• Vendor:             Private Investor
• Purchaser:         Conwest

The goods:         Conwest closed on this 14 acre industrial sale in October 2022. The total sale price represents $7.8 Million per acre.

9. 900-990 West 12^th Avenue, Vancouver

• Price:                  $100 Million
• Site Area:           1.5 acres
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:          VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation

The goods:        The VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation closed on this full city block property across from Vancouver General in March 2022 with a long term vision for potential redevelopment. For now, the existing Windermere Lodge long term care facility and adjacent apartment building will be retained pending future redevelopment of the sites.

10. 5910-5998 Cambie Street, Vancouver

• Price:                 $76 Million
• Site Area:           0.74 acres
• Vendor:              Wall Financial
• Purchaser:         Coromandel Properties & Peterson Group

The goods:       This full city block at Cambie & 43^rd was sold by myself, Simon Lim, James Lang and Jessica Hathaway in an off market transaction negotiated in late 2021 and closed in February 2022. The site has rezoning approval for a two-tower development including condo and hotel.

Some notes from the above list:

• 3 of the 10 largest land deals in Metro Vancouver took place in the City of Vancouver (down from 5 of 10 last year, and 9 out of 10 at the “peak” of the market in 2017)
• 6 of 10 are residential land deals, down from 8 of 10 in 2021
• 3 of 10 were sold by open market bid process (the other 7 were ‘off-market’ or not openly offered)
• All 10 were bought by well-established ‘local’ development groups, a shift from 2016-2018 when many “new” buyers were making a splash

Please contact me for further information on any of the above transactions, or if any questions, comments, or corrections to the article.

Happy Holidays!

Marcon has submitted a rezoning and development permit application to the City of Coquitlam for a site at the Northwest corner of Clarke Road and Como Lake Avenue in the Burquitlam area.

The site comprises 5 parcels totaling 1.20 acres. Two of the lots are owned by Marcon and three of the lots are currently owned by the City.

The development proposal, entitled ‘Elmwood‘ is a 38-storey condo tower that includes:

• 333 condo units;
• 63 studios, 176 one-bedrooms, 97 two-bedrooms & 37 three-bedrooms;
• 11,356 sq ft of retail space;
• 25,779 sq ft of office space;
• a density of 5.38 FAR;
• a total building height of 416 ft.;
• 449 underground parking spaces.

The architect for the project is Shift Architecture.

Marcon have submitted a rezoning application for a site at 277-291 West 42nd Avenue, directly adjacent their approved project at 325-341 West 42nd Avenue, which was recently approved at City Council in April 2021.

The proposal is to allow for the development of an 18-storey residential building that will become the ‘East Tower’ phase of the larger overall project and includes:

• 211 rental units (including 42 below market rental units);
• 78 studios, 59 one-bedrooms & 74 two-bedrooms.
• A total density of 6.73 FSR;
• A building height of 201 ft. with an additional partial storey for a rooftop amenity space;
• Three levels of underground parking with 98 vehicle parking spaces.

The application is being considered under the Cambie Corridor Plan.

When completed, the two towers will have a combined 426 rental units.

The architect for the project is Rositch Hemphill.

A partnership between Marcon and Quadreal have submitted a development application for the Chrysler dealership site in the Coquitlam Centre area for a new high density mixed use project dubbed “Coquitlam Central“.

The 12 acre site is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Lougheed Highway and Pinetree Way, at the unofficial entrance to Coquitlam Centre.

The project is divided into two phases – a north and south phase.

• Phase 1 – North Side has an urban character and Is anticipated to be builin a single phase (i.e., no sub phases), although the building permits for each tower will likely be phased; and
• Phase 2 – South Side has a residential character and will be built in
• multiple sub phases, in a counterclockwise direction, beginning in the NW corner of Phase 2 and completing at the NE corner.

The overall proposal includes:

• 6 condo towers with 3,000 condo units;
• 2 rental towers with 1,000 rental units;
• 528,000 sq ft of commercial space, including hotel & office;
• a 3-star hotel tower with 150 rooms & conference space;
• a 170,000 sq ft office building connected to the hotel;
• An overall density of 7.15 FAR;
• 1.5 acres of public park and plaza space;
• a pedestrian/cyclist bridge over Lougheed Highway;
• On-site art valued at $900k;
• A daycare;
• An anchor grocery store;
• An estimated overall total of approximately $150M in municipal DCCs,
• density bonus payments, and CACs.

The project team will prepare the application for the first round of public engagement, through a virtual (digital) Public Information Meeting. Following the first round of public engagement and additional refinement, the project will be brought back to a minimum of one future Council-in-Committee meeting and another round of public engagement. The applicant will then refine the master development plan and development agreement, in effort to bring the application forward for consideration of First Reading. Given the scope of the project and the host of elements to be addressed. It is estimated that the application could proceed for consideration of First Reading sometime in mid-2022.