Vancouver looks to Richmond in hiring new planning boss.

After an extensive international search in which it received 108 applications from all over the world, the City of Vancouver had to go no further than the municipality next door to hire a new general manager and director of planning.

On Tuesday the Vision Vancouver-led council ratified the hiring of Brian J.Jackson as the new general manager of planning and development. For the last four years Jackson has been acting general manager of planning for Richmond. He begins work August 27.

Resales of newer woodframe condos on Vancouver’s Westside (including UBC lands) has averaged $715 per sq ft over the past year. Pricing has remained relatively flat and has not shown a decline as of July 2012. University condos, averaging $740 per sq ft over the past year, typically trade at a premium to comparable Westside of Vancouver product, which averaged $677 per sq ft over the same time period. There are currently only a handful of active new woodframe projects on the Westside as sites are difficult to locate for developers.

Source: MLS Stats. (woodframe condo resales less than 10 years old)

Onni Development Corp has completed the purchase of a 1.07 acre residential development site from The University of British Columbia Foundation for $15,375,000.  The property is currently zoned IC-3 and is to be developed as part of the Great Northern Way Campus.

A two-storey retail building has sold at the Southwest corner of Denman and West Georgia Streets in Downtown Vancouver. The building is 9,400 sq ft and tenants include the Running Room. The purchase price was $7,360,000, equating to $780 per sq ft.

Vancouver’s Shannon Mews eyeing first permit.

The application for phase one of the Shannon Estate development at 57th and Granville goes before the city’s Development Permit Board July 16.

Council approved the rezoning of the Shannon Mews site almost a year ago—at 2 a.m., July 29—following three days of contentious hearings that went late into the night. Of the 179 people registered to speak, 85 were opposed, four were classified as “other,” seven were in support and 83 didn’t speak.