Burnaby Updates

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

To me, the Amacon site by the rail tunnel entrance seems a bit out of the way for hotel.

Presumably they have to develop some commercial space, to max out the residential? They have existing hotel experience, with The Loden, and they're developing a new hotel at The Block on Robson, and the conversion of a Burrard medical office building, near Davie. They probably don't want office space, which would probably be really hard to lease.

[officedweller]

There's a transfer of residential from a site on Halifax - don't know how that impacts it. It is on Dawson, so maybe the City wants it there. In theory it's close to the BCIT / Discovery business park.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

does anyone have a list of all the developments in/around Metrotown? i would be curious to know how many are proposed at the moment.

[madog222]

^ https://www.burnaby.ca/services-and-paym...-construction/major-development-projects

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Redtruck

Hong Kong is not where Vancouver city planners should look for inspiration.

I wasn't planning on getting back to this discussion, but I think you were one of the few that actually see what is happening. Metro Vancouver living standards have already permanently deteriorated, but many have yet to wake up to it. Wanna go hiking or swimming in a local lake? Tough luck unless you go before sunset. Wanna start a family? Good luck trying to make that work in a 500 sqft 1BR apartment while trying to WFH off a kitchen counter. Oh, and don't even dream of finding a daycare spot until 3 years later. The list just goes on and on, and none of this was the norm only a short 10 years ago.

There are also a lot of young and naive people that will never own anything and be happy, which is perfect cattle for governments and corporations. I also laugh at people cheering for "below-market rental" as our savior, when even those are absurdly priced and onlu keep going up. What consolidation is it really when a below-market 1BR is in few years going to be the same $3,000/month, current market 1BRs are?

One has to roll on floor laughing for so many to genuinely to believe that building more (and taller) housing will fix all problems and not induce more demand? Yet those very same people believe in the fairytale of induced demand when it comes to roads. I just love how narratives only apply when it can justify your make-believe.

Canada has entered the endgame as probably the first developed country to be turned into a developing country and it only took few decades. I cannot wait for the excuses people will make when loadshedding begins in just few years.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by MistyMountain

62 and 54 floors including 10 storey hotel by Millenium

61 storeys with 11 storey hotel by Amacon

Crazy to think that Brentwood will have at least SEVEN buildings 60 floors or more! And those are only the known plans. Add in rest of Burnaby and we are at 15 buildings in the pipeline that are taller than anything in Vancouver. That is pretty darn crazy.

I am really happy to see more hotel development. Burnaby should really capitalize on Vancouver's plight, as we are conveniently located along multiple Skytrain lines. Once Purple Line gets built, Burnaby will be the true hub of our metro area.

[jollyburger]

I wonder how much hotel space Burnaby can support..

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I wonder how much hotel space Burnaby can support..

If the Provincial regulations are effective against short term rentals, there's going to be a significant increase in demand. There are around 2,000 more rooms now in the pipeline for Vancouver, but that isn't likely to be enough. Travellers who are driving to the area might prefer Burnaby or Richmond hotels too: the recently proposed Granville Street hotel has just 33 parking spaces for 464 rooms.

[jollyburger]

Burnaby Now article on the tower says this:

The project at 4141 Lougheed Hwy. would have the flexibility to allow the commercial podium to be used for offices or other employment “should the hotel market soften in the future.”

https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/ho...evelopment-in-burnabys-brentwood-7741609

Staff report on 4141 Lougheed

The development is anticipated to be constructed in a single phase.

https://pub-burnaby.escribemeetings.com/...%20now%3A%20outbound&utm_medium=referral

Staff report on 2211 AND 2271 ROSSER AVENUE

https://pub-burnaby.escribemeetings.com/...%20now%3A%20outbound&utm_medium=referral

[BaddieB]

New proposal for a 90 unit, six storey apartment building on Royal Oak and Grimmer. Called 'Nido'. A 5-over-1 type building.

[vancity_m]

Grimmer Street and parallel Lane Street off of Royal Oak are a great precedent for mid-density mixed-use blocks in Burnaby. With just a couple recently built projects it has developed into a mini pedestrian friendly high street with all the commercial retail units on the ground level and has a nice human scale without any high rises towering over them. Hopefully as the area matures these retail units can attract some vibrant small businesses. Would love to see more blocks like these across Burnaby.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by madog222

And in Metrotown Thind has applied to change the commercial office space in Highline to hotel use.

And not just convert it. There will be 15 floors of hotel instead of 10 of office. (and the commercial FSR goes up as a result). The report says "Specifically, the applicant is proposing to utilize the previously approved 10 storey office and retail component for hotel and restaurant purposes, and to add five hotel floors to the development. The commercial floor area of the development is proposed to increase from 6,895 m2 (74,215 sq.ft.) to approximately 11,613 m2 (125,000 sq.ft.). Finally, the applicant is proposing to reconfigure the residential units on the top three levels of the tower (sub-penthouse and penthouse levels), resulting in smaller units and a modest increase in the residential unit count from 327 to 332 but no change to the previously approved 5.0 FAR density under the RM5s District is indicated".

It needs a revised rezoning as apparently that area doesn't allow hotel 'as of right'. It's quite the dramatic change for a building already under construction. The developer's letter says "This additional commercial floor area will be accommodated in five additional floors to the tower portion". Did they not sell the bottom five floors of condos? Or maybe all the buyers find themselves a little further up the tower.

[officedweller]

Ah, that Thind conversion in Metrotown was from 2019 - did it go ahead?
I haven't heard of a hotel advertising an opening...

[madog222]

I assume that rezoning from late 2019 didn’t happen. They have just made a new submission the past council meeting to rezone the C2 office space only, no mention of residential floors being converted. https://pub-burnaby.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=71004

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by madog222

I assume that rezoning from late 2019 didn’t happen. They have just made a new submission the past council meeting to rezone the C2 office space only, no mention of residential floors being converted. https://pub-burnaby.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=71004

Thanks!
A 10 floor hotel is still pretty substantial.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Thanks!
A 10 floor hotel is still pretty substantial.

Presumably around 75,000 sq ft, as the 2019 rezoning said. It will be interesting to see what management brand opens there. I guess Thind could operate it themselves, as Amacon and Onni do.

It's interesting that so many agent's websites refer to Highline as a 53 storey tower, which is inaccurate, as they didn't follow through on the 2019 rezoning.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by officedweller

To me, the Amacon site by the rail tunnel entrance seems a bit out of the way for hotel.

Maybe the rail tunnel entrance can be turned into an attraction too.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

Interesting that the Brentwood area will have 2 separate projects that have a hotel component in the podium, going forward at the same time.

Brentwood will be losing an existing hotel, the Executive on Lougheed when it gets redeveloped soon.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by vanman

I was thinking the same thing.

As a tourist I definitely appreciate staying in locations that are in close proximity to rapid transit and walkable with nearby amenities even if that means not being in the centre of the city or close to any major attractions so I guess it makes sense. Metro Vancouver's town centres are actually pretty ideal locations for hotels for the same reasons they're great places to live.

I used to work for a national company and its only office was in Burnaby in the Brentwood area about 15 years ago and when the execs from Toronto came in they would need a place to stay and the Executive on Lougheed was really the closest choice, also often meetings and large staff meetings were held in that hotel, the hotels provide a lot of use for businesses rather than schlepping everyone downtown to a hotel. Not everyone comes for tourism purposes, weddings, grads etc bring in out-of-towners for a few days, so when your Burnaby cousin or Surrey cousin gets married etc rather nice to stay close than all the way downtown, I live in Coquitlam where we lost all but two hotels and when my out of town family comes they don;t have much choise these days, they would never choose to stay downtown, they are the get in get out of the evil city as fast as possible, they hate Vancouver. lol.

[vanman]

^That's also a good point. Not everybody wants to stay downtown. I know people that have air bnbs in single family homes in Surrey and Coquitlam and they don't usually have problems filling their suites.