Downtown Vancouver Updates II

[Feathered Friend]

Samuel Tower - 15-27 W Hastings

The proposal is to allow for the development of a 40-storey mixed-use rental building and includes:

441 market rental units;
108 below-market rental units operated by a non-profit operator;
Commercial space on the ground floor;
A floor space ratio (FSR) of 22.28; and
A building height of 117 m (384 ft.).

https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/15-27-w-hastings

8-36 W Cordova St - Cohen Block

The proposal is to allow for the development of a 20-storey mixed-use rental building with a five-storey podium and includes:

219 rental units with 20% of the floor area for below-market units;
179-room hotel;
Commercial space on the ground floor;
A floor space ratio (FSR) of 7.03; and
A building height of 66.4 m (218 ft.).

https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/8-36-cordova

Q&A period
April 02 → April 15 2025
Vancouver Heritage Commission
May 05 2025
Urban Design Panel
May 07 2025

[jollyburger]

I wonder if that amenity skybridge can be used for Hastings tower residents to exit out the Cordova side.

[jollyburger]

Bonnis Properties Sells Hudson Mall On Granville For $89M To Hazelview

The retail property is the commercial podium of the 30-storey condo tower at 610 Granville Street that was completed by Wall Financial Corporation in 2006. The building is known as The Hudson, while the retail podium is informally known as Hudson Mall. (Those names are presumably a nod to the adjacent Hudson's Bay Building at 674 Granville Street.)

Situated at the intersection of Granville Street and Dunsmuir Street, facing CF Pacific Centre, the Hudson Mall consists of several units occupied by The Keg Steakhouse, a Judith & Charles clothing store, and others. The property is comprised of 610, 620, 630, 640, 670, and 672 Granville Street, as well as 678 and 688 Dunsmuir Street.

The property was owned by Bonnis Properties under HCD Holdings Ltd. and was sold to Toronto-based private investment firm Hazelview Investments for $89,121,561 on January 31, 2025. The property is now held by Hazelview Investments under 610 Granville Nominee Inc. BC Assessment values the property at $84,354,000.

https://storeys.com/bonnis-properties-hudson-mall-granville-hazelview/

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

https://storeys.com/bonnis-properties-hudson-mall-granville-hazelview/The retail property is the commercial podium of the 30-storey condo tower at 610 Granville Street that was completed by Wall Financial Corporation in 2006. The building is known as The Hudson, while the retail podium is informally known as Hudson Mall.

Robert Macdonald might not appreciate being missed from the developer credit. If I recall correctly it was his project - Wall partnered with the financing.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Robert Macdonald might not appreciate being missed from the developer credit. If I recall correctly it was his project - Wall partnered with the financing.

There's a lot of pages that just mentions Wall Financial so I guess it's easy to overlook..

In the early 1980s, the two sites were acquired by Bramalea Development Corporation with the intention of redevelopment which did not materialize, and later sold to separate owners. Macdonald Development Corporation acquired Site B (the St. Regis site) in 1995, and Site A (the Granville site) in May, 2001. The owner demolished five dilapidated buildings fronting Granville Street while retaining the front facade of a sixth building plus the heritage "B" B.C. Electric Showroom Building. The owner also carried out renovations to the St. Regis Hotel and the Gotham Restaurant building. On September 12, 2001, Architectura submitted development application DE406058 to "underdevelop" theGranville site under the DD zoning with a 9 290 m² (100,000 sq. ft.) four-storey retail and office complex on Site A*. This application was processed then put "on hold" at the request of the applicant, pending the outcome of this rezoning application.

https://council.vancouver.ca/020611/p2.htm

This says Macdonald worked on a bunch of other projects together. I think he bought the Capitol 6 land as well though some other page mentions Wall was the majority partner on the development.

Capitol is another joint venture between Peter Wall and Rob MacDonald (Capitol Residences Limited Partnership with Development Management by Wall Financial Corp.) The two teams, have already worked together on the highly successful Hudson, Yaletown Park and Electric Avenue at Paramount Place and the Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver.

https://www.6717000.com/blog/2007/03/capitol-living-is-perfect-for-our-condo-winner/

[officedweller]

The Bramalea project (early 1990s) was to be an indoor mall to be anchored by Woodwards at the north end and The Bay on the south end (this was when Woodward's was moving upscale and wanted out of the DTES for its flagship store, but it may not have even been completed before Woodward's closed up in 1993).
Bramalea had bought all of the buildings between Granville and Seymour from The Bay to Pender St, except the former CIBC Building (where Shoppers is currently located).
The City refused to approve the application, then all of the buildings were sold off piecemeal.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The Bramalea project (early 1990s) was to be an indoor mall to be anchored by Woodwards at the north end and The Bay on the south end (this was when Woodward's was moving upscale and wanted out of the DTES for its flagship store, but it may not have even been completed before Woodward's closed up in 1993).
Bramalea had bought all of the buildings between Granville and Seymour from The Bay to Pender St, except the former CIBC Building (where Shoppers is currently located).
The City refused to approve the application, then all of the buildings were sold off piecemeal.

The City never had a chance to refuse (or approve) the project - the market wasn't ready, and the developer went belly up. From The Sun, March 24, 1993 "Trilea Centres Inc. has listed nearly a full city block of prime downtown Vancouver property for sale at a price of $29 million. Trilea once envisioned a $400 million retail, office and hotel development on the site bounded by Granville, Seymour, Dunsmuir and Pender but market conditions deteriorated and the project never got off the
ground.

"I feel bad that we won't see our project developed," said Trilea's vice-president, George Stewart. "I think it's one of the premier sites in Vancouver, possibly North America, because there are very few sites of this size assembled right in the middle of a city core."

He said Trilea is selling the property as part of a court-approved plan of arrangement for Trilea's financially troubled parent company Bramalea Ltd., which is trying torestructure about $4.9 million in debt. Bramalea has set a target of selling $2.2 billion worth of assets by1997.

Trilea assembled the downtown Vancouver site in 1987 and 1988 and planned to develop an office tower, a hotel and huge retail complex that was to be anchored by a major department store. Woodward's Ltd. once considered the site for a new flagship Vancouver store. "But the market was just not receptive to that type of project, given the difficulties that arose with office leasing and retail leasing,"Stewart said.

Trilea owns 10 of the 14 properties located within the block and they have been offered for sale at prices ranging from $2.1million to $5million. The total asking price for all 10properties is $29.04million and the sale is being handled by Colliers Macaulay Nicolls Inc. Stewart said several parties have already expressed a strong interest in the site but he doubts that any single buyer will purchase all 10 properties."

[jollyburger]

^^ They found some orphaned property in Brampton still owned by the company a few years ago and had to go back to court to settle the ownership.

According to the first concepts prepared by Aitken Wreglesworth &
Associates, the several very large and fine heritage buildings on the
Trilea site, most notably the Yorkshire Trust and London buildings, were
to be demolished, with elements of their facades re-erected elsewhere on
the site; this is a kind of facadism and tokenism not of a character to
be expected in a major city in the 1990s. ..."

https://www.heritagevancouver.org/pdf_newsletter/hvs-news-1990-1991-screen.pdf

The London Building is directly adjacent to the "A" listed Bank of Montreal and the "C" listed Piccadilly Hotel. The protection of the London Building will prevent the assembly of the entire blockface for redevelopment, as was once proposed by Trilea.

https://council.vancouver.ca/010426/csb4.htm

There's a document at the Central Branch with more details

The TRILEA Project, Blocks 43 & 33

https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S38C295511

[officedweller]

One of the biggest parcels sold off was the BCIT site.

Originally Posted by Changing City

The City never had a chance to refuse (or approve) the project -...

I remember reading newspaper articles saying it was opposed by the City.
So maybe it was during the pre-approval negotiation process or something,
but the City did not want it approved because it would drain life off Granville street like Pacific Centre did.
It was about the time that the City wanted streetfront retail rather than underground connections, etc.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

https://www.heritagevancouver.org/pdf_newsletter/hvs-news-1990-1991-screen.pdf

Fascinating tidbit from Nov 1991:

The Hotel Georgia (then owned by Westons and Bentalls) was facing impending demolition for an Adrian Smith (of Skidmore Owing and Merrill at the time) post-modern stepped art deco-ish design as tall as Scotia Tower that looked like the NBC Tower in Chicago:



Chicago's NBC Tower:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/NBCTowerJuly.jpg


... and Dec 1991, noting that the Westons wanted Holt Renfrew to occupy the lower levels of the office tower (rather than move to a refurbished Public Library Building).

[phesto]

Thanks for sharing. I wonder if a tall office tower had been approved if it would have even gone ahead. By the mid-90's (into the latter part of Harcourt's NDP term) the office market stalled and nothing was built until Bentall 5 in 2002.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by phesto

Thanks for sharing. I wonder if a tall office tower had been approved if it would have even gone ahead. By the mid-90's (into the latter part of Harcourt's NDP term) the office market stalled and nothing was built until Bentall 5 in 2002.

It wouldn't have made much sense to have built it into a market with high vacancy - 1992 was over 16% Downtown. It was back down to 9% by 1995, when new projects started to get approved, but they were initially modest, like 1138 Melville (completed 2000) and Pivotal (2002). Bentall 5 was built in 2 phases (expensively, and inconveniently), because there was such caution in the market.

If a bigger building had been built anyway, chances are those other projects might not have gone ahead when they did.

[jollyburger]

Gordon Price

We have since found out that it was Gordon Price who suggested to the
developers that they look at the Library as a preservation project and a
potential source of additional density/height for the corner of Georgia
and Howe; he believes that the city skyline is becoming flat-topped, and
would be enhanced by a very tall building at Georgia and Howe, creating
an apex for the skyline. The current proposal is, he believes, the right
one at the right time and place, although he has stated no opinion about
whether future councils would look at this as a precedent somewhere
else, on another high point of land. Councillor Price has been looking
for support within the heritage community for the preservation of the
Library as a trade-off for the Georgia Hotel, but has so far not found
it; at the last Heritage Advisory Committee meeting, there was little
support for the proposal as it has been presented as a sort of Hobson's
choice—we lose the Georgia in order to save the Library.

https://www.heritagevancouver.org/pdf_newsletter/hvs-news-1990-1991-screen.pdf

The architect of the Hotel Georgia project was behind the CF Waterfront Station tower as well (his partner lead the design).

https://www.urbanyvr.com/crystal-office-tower-waterfront-station/

[hollywoodnorth]

1050 Expo is under site prep now .... site is fenced in and machinery is on site.

https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/1050-expo-blvd

The department of Non-Market Housing Development and Operations within the City of Vancouver has applied to develop this site with a 29-storey residential apartment building. This proposal includes:

299 social housing units
A Floor Space Ratio of 5.94
An approximate floor area of 23,215 m² (249,882 sq.ft.)
An approximate height of 88.4 m (290 ft.)
Three levels of underground parking, accessed off Expo Boulevard

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

1050 Expo is under site prep now .... site is fenced in and machinery is on site.

https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/1050-expo-blvd

The department of Non-Market Housing Development and Operations within the City of Vancouver has applied to develop this site with a 29-storey residential apartment building. This proposal includes:

299 social housing units
A Floor Space Ratio of 5.94
An approximate floor area of 23,215 m² (249,882 sq.ft.)
An approximate height of 88.4 m (290 ft.)
Three levels of underground parking, accessed off Expo Boulevard

They are waiting for approval to do the secant piling.

https://plposweb.vancouver.ca/Public/Default.aspx?PossePresentation=Guest&PosseObjectId=229487416

[vehementi]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Samuel Tower - 15-27 W Hastings

https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/15-27-w-hastings

8-36 W Cordova St - Cohen Block

https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/8-36-cordova

Q&A period
April 02 → April 15 2025
Vancouver Heritage Commission
May 05 2025
Urban Design Panel
May 07 2025

43 storey rental building (same height as Woodwards towers) and the rest retail/commercial.

If city council approves the height restriction violations (now that the hard part - view cones - is over) I wonder if this will open the flood gates to high rises in DTES?

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by vehementi

43 storey rental building (same height as Woodwards towers) and the rest retail/commercial.

If city council approves the height restriction violations (now that the hard part - view cones - is over) I wonder if this will open the flood gates to high rises in DTES?

It'll just be a one off because of the size of the site. I mean who is dumb enough to try and build there unless it's provincial/federal money backing it.

[Changing City]

Tree protection has gone up on the corner of Davie and Seymour, where the City have a social housing project.



source: Changing City blog

[osirisboy]

What kind of social housing is this going to be?

Oops never mind. It’s listed in your blog

[Zepfancouver]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

It should go up as quick as they build the elevator core.

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https://www.zgf.com/work/5057-community-land-trust-foundation-of-bc-981-davie-st

I believe the elevator core will be build up right up to the 17th floor before any floors and walls are installed. The 18-strorey Brock Commons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHtdnY_gnmE
This afternoon - One week build up of the building core.