After more than 50 Vancouverites signed up to speak at a public hearing Tuesday night, city council planned to push back its vote by two weeks on a controversial plan to rezone a prime piece of waterfront real estate in the city’s West End.

Many of the planned speakers were locals asking city hall either to reject the plan or force affordable housing into a Beach Towers rezoning application that proposes the development of 133 units available at above-market rental prices.

“We want a third of these units to have a starting rent that’s targeted to the median income in our community,” said Christine Ackermann of the West End Residents Association. “I think it’s our job to push city hall for more affordability and I think they can get it.”

The rezoning hearing for the Beach Towers STIR project (click here to view rezoning application documents) is happening now. 

Click here to watch the proposal live.

As reported in the Financial Post today, Best Buy Canada will be closing 15 stores nationwide, following the lead of it’s counterparts in the US in an effort to reduce costs and focus on outlets with a smaller footprint.

Best Buy…”, which is closing stores in the British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario markets, will open a substantial, but unspecified number of its smaller Future Shop web stores and new Best Buy Mobile locations over the next three years across the country.”

The two Metro Vancouver locations affected are as follows:

• Queensborough Landing in New Westminster
• Morgan Crossing in South Surrey

After multiple offers were received late last year, it has been learned that bcIMC has been the successful purchaser of the 2.98 acre Canada Post site located at Homer and Georgia Streets in Downtown Vancouver. Udpate: the purchase price was $159 Million.

Here is the press release from bcIMC:

“bcIMC is pleased to confirm that we have purchased the Canada Post site at 349 West Georgia, a 2.98 acre city block in downtown Vancouver from Canada Post.

We see the Canada Post site as a long-term investment that provides a unique opportunity for a large-scale mixed-use development in a desirable and strategic location in downtown Vancouver. The purchase of this property is consistent with our strategy to invest in prime real estate with the potential to provide steady and attractive long-term returns for our pension plan clients.

A redevelopment of this scale requires extensive and careful planning. Redevelopment will commence once sufficient planning has been completed, required approvals have been received and market conditions support it. We look forward to working with the City of Vancouver as we move forward with our planning.

bcIMC is one of Canada’s largest institutional investment managers and is responsible for investing the assets of public sector pension plans within British Columbia. bcIMC invests more than $95-billion of managed gross assets. bcIMC has a long and successful track record of property ownership and real estate development.”

Vancouver planner sets sights on four areas.

Brian Jackson “hit the ground running” when he joined the city as its general manager of planning and development in September, but he said his familiarity with Vancouver helped his fast start.

Jackson lives in Yaletown and typically walks to work across the Cambie bridge or takes the Canada Line. (He owns an Acura, but he noted its mileage was at 31,000 kilometres at the beginning and end of 2012.)

Over the past few months, he’s gotten to know staff, functions of departments, issues in more details, developers and community groups.

Asked about this year’s priorities, Jackson listed several: “We have four area plans coming up in 2013 — Marpole, Downtown Eastside, Grandview Woodlands and the West End. So we’re going to be bringing those forward by the end of the year. Those processes are well underway. We have three implementation strategies we have to follow up on — previous plans that have been adopted — in Norquay, Mount Pleasant and Cambie. We have special studies that are underway for the Pearson site on Cambie and Oakridge at Cambie and 41st. We have policy studies that are underway for the viaducts, Northeast False Creek, We have to respond and to provide a regional context statement in association with the new regional growth strategy that’s been approved by Metro Vancouver and a new sign bylaw for the city. And then we have our applications — a lot of applications.”