Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon
That took forever to build. I went to the library yesterday, which turned out great. The architect nailed that bit.
I have a few gripes with it. Up first are the names, the Library's name you can't write (or remember). The social housing portion is grammatically incorrect "Cause We Care."
The other is the cost. The 21 housing units cost $10.2M, with $700K being an endowment for op-ex. How does a wood frame apartment block with zero land costs cost $450K per unit?
This is way more than what my mom's fairly luxurious 2 bedroom, concrete condo in New West cost with land costs included, with a heritage restoration. It's just utterly mind boggling.
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The housing is family housing - not studios. The application said there is 24,000 sq ft of residential space (there's some amenity space, and a rooftop play area as well as the apartments). Building new for around $400 per sq ft doesn't seem particularly outrageous - especially as it's not a big building with 21 units, so it doesn't have the economies of scale that a 210 unit project can achieve.
I'm pretty certain the cheapest woodframe in New Westminster is around $500 per sq ft to buy today, and concrete is more like $600.