Downtown Vancouver Updates

[jo67sh]

Originally Posted by westcoast604

Does anyone know when the 2nd phase of Emery Barnes Park might proceed? I know that a few of the remaining land owners along Seymour and Davie were still negotiating the value of their properties before they sell - but this has been going on for years.

Edit: I just looked it up. The city apparently expropriated the properties as of this summer, so we may see demolition of these buildings soon.

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not sure if this is true cause there is a for lease sign on the closed restaurant just next door to the nail salon on davie..
i dont see the second phase park happening for atleast few more years..
from what i hear the landlord is looking to lease out the restaurant on a 10yr lease despite the city's intentions..

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by officedweller

There 's enough retail space at the Ritz for both a supermarket and a drug store. SDM's move is probably due to the success of the Homer St. location with the grocery section. But if it is co-located with a supermaket, their grocery sales may suffer.

hmmm if thats the case sounds like a perfect location for a CHOICES or a KINS FARM MARKET + the grocery store they pair with....Energana or what ever it is called.......

[officedweller]

Pics taken by me this morning.
Items of note - as mentioned by others, H+H has topped out and it look like steel columns have been erected on top of Yaletown Brewing for the office expansion - but they look really really thin.

[westcoast604]

Originally Posted by jo67sh

---------

not sure if this is true cause there is a for lease sign on the closed restaurant just next door to the nail salon on davie..
i dont see the second phase park happening for atleast few more years..
from what i hear the landlord is looking to lease out the restaurant on a 10yr lease despite the city's intentions..

Could be an old sign.
Here's the links to the reports on the COV website:

http://vancouver.ca:8765/cs.html?charset...df&qt=emery+barns+park&col=all&n=2&la=en

http://vancouver.ca:8765/cs.html?charset...df&qt=emery+barns+park&col=all&n=3&la=en

After reading through again I guess they are just requests to council to consider and approve the expropriation at the July 24 council meeting - as long as the land owner does not initiate in inquiry before that date. I didnt see anything in the minutes for that council meeting having to do with this issue, so im assuming he made the inquiry - and this again is delayed.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

I'm hearing that SHOPPERS DRUG MART will take the Ritz Retail space.....anyone else hear any rumblings?

and 7-11 apparently is coming to Coal Harbour........not sure where.....I imagine Ritz or Sapphire or Flatiron........I'm looking into it don't worry

i heard that SDM is opening somewhere in Coal Harbour too - but i thought it was close to opening - the ritz is a few years away

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i heard that SDM is opening somewhere in Coal Harbour too - but i thought it was close to opening - the ritz is a few years away

The Ritz looks like it will be ready for a Fall 2008 Commercial occupancy.....

[raggedy13]

Originally Posted by officedweller

There 's enough retail space at the Ritz for both a supermarket and a drug store. SDM's move is probably due to the success of the Homer St. location with the grocery section. But if it is co-located with a supermaket, their grocery sales may suffer.

Does it make sense to put a supermarket there when there is the Urban Fare just a block away at the base of Cielo? I know they would cater to slightly different markets but there's got to be some overlap.

[hollywoodnorth]

Business in Vancouver October 16-22, 2007; Issue 938

Vancouver tech park inches toward development

Quartet of Metro Vancouver post-secondary institutes hoping to create hub to cultivate provincial tech industry

Curt Cherewayko

Great Northern Way Campus administration is hoping to finalize a plan soon for the development of the campus’ first major new facility.

Construction on the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability – which will focus on sustainable urban development and building practices – is planned for the GNWC’s parcel of land southeast from the corner of Main Street and Terminal Avenue.

“If we can get sign-off on that agreement, we believe it will be completed in time for the Olympics,” said GNWC president Dennis Pavlich.

Leading by example, the complex could be one of the world’s most sustainable buildings. It will operate as a greenhouse gas neutral and net energy generating facility.

It would be the first major new building development at the campus, which is co-operatively owned by the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

Meanwhile, the University of Victoria is set to expand its tech hub on Vancouver Island from a single facility, which houses 1,300 staff, to a 3,000-employee tech community with multiple facilities.

The five-phased development plan for the 35-acre Vancouver Island Tech Park was recently approved by Saanich.

The project includes blueprints for three 80,000-square-foot buildings and an additional 15,000-square-foot space for retailing.

The VITP now houses 29 high-tech businesses in a 165,000-square-foot building.

According to a UVic study, the tech park contributed $280 million to the local and provincial economies in 2005. During the same year, the VITP directly employed 995 workers and helped create a total of 2,023 jobs in other industries.

Pavlich said he’s followed the VITP’s growth since its inception in 2002 and hopes that GNWC can replicate its success. He said the Vancouver campus wants VITP’s mix of large tenants and smaller developing businesses.

“[VITP] is able to accommodate very small [businesses] and it’s able to accommodate them as they grow.”

Though GNWC’s parcel of land is smaller than that of VITP – roughly 20 acres compared with VITP’s roughly 35-acre site – the Vancouver campus has 2.5 million square feet of permitted floor space.

UVic’s tech park expansion project will add 250,000 square feet of floor space to create a total 415,000 square feet.

Other recent developments at the GNWC, according to Pavlich, include plans to build the corporate headquarters of a high profile B.C. company and an accompanying research facility. Pavlich declined to disclose the company’s name.

He added that construction could begin shortly.

Campus representatives are also planning a workshop for early March 2008, at which stakeholders and industry leaders will devise a development plan for the campus’ educational facilities and determine how they can attract the high-tech community to the GNWC.

“When this design was put in place, there was no contemplation of higher education being here,” he said. “So that needs to be incorporated.” •

[Hed Kandi]

Vancouver Site Finally Confirmed


October 17th, 2007

After years of speculation and anticipation, there is finally confirmation that that an Apple store will occupy a space inside the Pacific Centre Mall in downtown Vancouver (BC). The three-block indoor mall has been undergoing a long-term and extensive renovation that included demolition, construction and the juggling and moving of several retailers, along with the addition of new stores. But Apple isn’t among those new tenants. Instead, additional construction will begin in 2009 for retail space where Apple will locate its first western Canada store. That work will be finished by the holiday season of 2009 and, most importantly, for the 2010 Olympic Games that begin in February.


http://www.ifoapplestore.com/db/2007/10/17/vancouver-site-finally-confirmed/

[mezzanine]

^ great news! I was hoping for it to be opened at robson and seymour, below the H-Mart. Apple will make a mint here.

I thought there was an apple store in calgary already, though...

[mersar]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

I thought there was an apple store in calgary already, though...

Nope, they were supposed to open on this fall in Calgary but nothing yet (we're still hoping for next year, there is a huge amount of retail opening up in the core once Sears closes their downtown Calgary store that may be possible, better exposure then the Chinook Centre location that was toted).

Good to see at least one of the Western stores is moving ahead.

[mr.x]

awesome news, it's about time we got one.

[Smooth]

Apple store by 2010? Maybe by then the iPhone will have actually made it to Canada.

[excel]

Pretty sure Rogers Wireless already has something going for bringing the iphone to Canada. Anyone else know anything about this? Sorry for stretching this way of thread topic.

[Delirium]

some renderings of alto -

[deasine]

Originally Posted by excel

Pretty sure Rogers Wireless already has something going for bringing the iphone to Canada. Anyone else know anything about this? Sorry for stretching this way of thread topic.

For the near near future, I can't see it happening. The next "big move" in Rogers is the release of the 3G network across the country. 3G has been released to Toronto area already... From my sources, it will be released by november (but those are rumors)... Vancouver will be one of the many fortunate cities to have 3G. Note that 3G in Rogers will be American 3G frequency, meaning phones bought from Asia that have 3G will not be compatible with 3G from Rogers or AT&T.

The next touchscreen phone is HTC Touch... which I have to say is an amazing phone. Though it's not as nice as the iPhone (in terms of looks or UI), it's still pretty good, and the fact it's much better for businesses because of Windows Mobile.

Anyway enough phone talk. About the Apple store... will it be in the "plaza" area near Vancouver City Centre station? Because it's opening 2009... Canada Line is opening 2009 with much of the construction completed before 2009...

[SFUVancouver]

^ That would be a good site for it. Building from scratch in an outdoor environment should let the Apple designers and architects have greater freedom than if they were working with an existing storefront or, even worse, inside a mall.

Getting a real Apple Store should be nice for the city but I'm not emotionally invested in it in any way.

[SpongeG]

maybe it will be a glass cube

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by excel

Pretty sure Rogers Wireless already has something going for bringing the iphone to Canada. Anyone else know anything about this? Sorry for stretching this way of thread topic.

You wont see iphone coming to Canada for a while because only Rogers and Fido are both gsm networks and their both the same company...In any case Rogers would have to give a reasonably priced unlimited data package which they wont because their making a killing of all the idiots out here. Therefore no iphone unless you want to spend 1-2 grand a month using it, while even in places like Rwanda you can get unlimited data packages for around $40-50...Anyways not trying to be rude but I think our Canadian society is pathetic for putting up with this crap and allowing itself to be riped off, while Telus, Bell and Rogers make a killing. I probably have bit more in depth knowledge of the inner workings of our cell providers then most and the situation in Canada is rather sad. By the way if you want a cheap data package then just hook up your phone in the states and pay the roaming charges up here because it will come out considerably cheaper. See Rogers charges its own customer more to use their infrastructure then it charges customers of other networks in the states. Man this stuff realy gets me pissed off.
These are the best rates for these phone companies, and remember that there are no unlimited data packages in Canada unlike everywhere else. Rogers and Fido being the only gsm phone provider out here are the only providers a foreigner can use with their phone when they come here. Also I believe T-Mobile offers $40 unlimited data packages though I could be wrong about that.

[SFUVancouver]

I dredged up the renders of CIRS. I thought this project was stalled but I have recently heard otherwise. They rejigged the design to allow the facilities to be shared between UBC's CIRS and the Great Northern Way Campus' Centre for Digital Media.


Source: http://www.cirs.ubc.ca/assets/pdf/media/SE%20rendering%20May%2030%2006.pdf


Source: http://www.cirs.ubc.ca/assets/pdf/media/NE%20rendering%20May%2030%2006.pdf

I'm very much looking forward to seeing this and the larger Great Northern Way Campus precinct all come together over the next decade.