Looking for more information.

[sportysox]

Got my research!

Thanks

[raggedy13]

I can't help much with numbers 2-4 but I'd say the majority of towers built in Vancouver (i.e. residential) are done by private development companies.

A few of the significant Vancouver ones off the top of my head:

Pinnacle International
Concord Pacific
Amacon
Polygon
Cressey
Bastion
Millennium
Bosa
Delta Land

With office towers its a slightly different story. Many are still built by development companies but not as exclusively as the residential sector. If you want details though I'm not the best guy for it.

I'd suggest you change the name of your thread to something more specific. In its current vague form it might not attract much attention. There are definitely members in the Vancouver forum that would be able to answer all your questions though, assuming they stumble across this thread.

[jlousa]

1. Who is building the majority of high-rises? Is it larger investment firms, or individual developers?

See above answer, add Westbank, Wall Financial, Aquillini, Concert, Omni, etc... take a look at the UDI BC site for almost all the companies involved look in the link section.
Almost all of them are privately owned, a few are public but none of them are large investment firms. Office Towers are a completely different ballpark and are almost exclusively built these days by pension fund money.

2. What is the average floorplate size of a downtown high-rise?

5500-8000sqft with the majority around 6000sqft.

3. How much are developers buying these sites for in and around downtown?

Varies way to much to give you an answer you could use, it all depends on density potential, zoning (residential allowed?), how long ago the property was purchased etc... Best recent purchase to give you an idea would be to see what Millenium paid for the SEFC site. That'll give you a clue how much it costs.

4. What is the profit margin for these developers? And is that margin on total sales

The larger the risk the larger the profit margin will have to be. Some people believe they make 20-25%. Truth is if a developer can walk away with 10% they're happy. You wouldn't see so many developers fail if they were raking in the money.

[sportysox]

Thanks for the raggedy13 and jlousa.

Any idea on the price per square foot of land? I am guessing it ranges between $400-$1000?

[sportysox]

Thanks again.

[jlousa]

1. Developer acquires land (after conducting which tests? zoning, environmental, soil engineering?) (3 months)
2. Hires Architect (including which other elements? traffic survey, other impacts?)
3. Hires sales/marketing company to develop building identity
4. Hires building contractor to estimate costs (6 months including 2+3)
5. Submits plan to city & go through approval process (what is the process?)
6. If Rezoning, has to go to public approval? (6 months including 5+6)
7. Build sales centre/or renovate existing (3 months)
8. Pre-sales begin (6 months)
9. Building construction (18 months)
10. Sales closing
11. Move-in
Total time - 3.5-4 years

Are we talking highrise/midrise/lowrise as that affects the answers.

In general though an architect will be working with the developer before they even purchase the site, the developer will have a good idea what he's looking at before spending any money. Marketing is also involved from the start. The building contractor won't be hired until after all zoning work has been done and approved. Hope that helps.