Downtown Vancouver Updates

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by djh

^What's the address of this proposal?

its the cecil/yale - at the north end of the granville bridge at drake

• upgrade the Yale Hotel SRA units and transfer ownership to the City; and,
• demolish the Cecil Hotel building (not listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register), containing 237 liquor seats and 82 SRA units (50 qualify as designated SRA units).

[Hed Kandi]

The boards have been really slow and there hasn't been any new developments announced.

I'm wondering as to when we can expect Dubai Ports World or Emaar to announce their Vancouver projects ?

[jlousa]

They won't be announcing anything. Emaar has even taken down their Canadian site. Dubai Ports will be investing sizeable money into their local terminals, but don't expect anything skyscraper wise. As much as I would love to see Emaar enter into competition I'm not sure they'd enjoy jumping thru the hoops we have to here.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by jlousa

They won't be announcing anything. Emaar has even taken down their Canadian site. Dubai Ports will be investing sizeable money into their local terminals, but don't expect anything skyscraper wise. As much as I would love to see Emaar enter into competition I'm not sure they'd enjoy jumping thru the hoops we have to here.

about a year ago, the Sun said that they were sending their people over to see the viability of building skyscrapers and marinas in Vancouver.

[vanman]

You can't believe everything you read in the sun.

[jlousa]

To clairfy Emaar is involved in a project in the Dunbar area, they haven't given up on vancouver, they have given up on any large scale projects and will concentrate on infills.

I've placed some info on that project in the general update thread.

[Hed Kandi]

Vancouver needs a Trump investment.

If Toronto gets one, so should we!

[excel]

cant compare vancouver to toronto when it comes to commercial developments.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by Hed Kandi

Vancouver needs a Trump investment.

If Toronto gets one, so should we!

Do we want that guy's name anywhere near out city?

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by Nutterbug

Do we want that guy's name anywhere near out city?

amen...IMHO "trump" stand for


Tacky
Real Estate
Universally
Mediocre
Projects

[officedweller]

Looking at the Trump TO plans - the suite layouts are definitely a cut above the std James Cheng open concept layout. That said, it took forever for the project to sell in TO - probably because of the large suite sizes and hemmed-in location. I wonder whether they would sell well here. I think the closest Vancouver project in terms of suite size and layout would be the Kingswood at 14th & Fir (which took forever to sell too) or the Hotel Georgia project (although I haven't seen ordinary Hotel Georgia suite layouts - just the penthouse one that was posted here).

[204]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Hopefully they are preserving the facade of the Murray Hotel - nice big stone arches on that building.

Indeed...


Urban Oasis

There is core drilling going on today in the parking lot just south of the Murray Hotel near Hornby and Helmcken.

It would be nice to find out some more info about this project.

[officedweller]

Thanks for the pic - nice cornice on it too - probably one of the best preserved by the looks of it (together with the former Salvation Army House on Dunsmuir)

*********

Here's the latest elevation of the Playhouse / Wall Centre False Creek project. They are applying to the City to increase one of the tower heights to 42m - for 38m, 34m, 42m and 47m towers.

[officedweller]

Another rendering from City Council report:
Cressey project @ 1st & Crowe (SEFC private lands - next to Foundry?) designed by Rafii.

We need some more variety in SEFC....these are beginning to look alike.

[LeftCoaster]

Wow, I like those townhomes, they look modern but not too tacky

[Coldrsx]

^crazy modern, crazy awesome

[SFUVancouver]

Regarding that last project on Crowe, yes it is adjacent Foundry, right across the street in fact. It will also be on the SEFC NEU and feature an extensive green roof on the tower with urban agriculture and deep growing medium. The building's amenity space will be on the roof as well.

The alleys in SEFC are planned to be a definite cut above the usual. They will have a concrete runnel in the centre, poured concrete strips, a la country lanes, and a clearly defined sidewalk/walking area on either side of the main thoroughfare. I hope they turn out like Watson St. in Vancouver, which is a little side street/lane that parallels Main st between Broadway and 18th where Main jogs to the East and absorbs Watson. Watson is treated like a lane but is technically a street so there is a sidewalk and some businesses and residences entering off of it as well as commercial services and loading.

For the Playhouse development there will be a number of townhouses entering off of a shallow courtyard facing the alley at the ground level of the eastern pair of towers.

Regarding the Rize Alliance project for the Cecil/Yale site, I like it a lot. I think it will add a lot to downtown. The taller tower that is going to go up at Drake and Howe isn't doing it for me though. None the less, in a year or so we can expect to see a pair of towers begin to rise flanking the north end of the Granville Street bridge.

[officedweller]

The plans in the City Report show that there will be a number of "Garden Flats" facing the alley in the 1st & Crowe project. Not sure if there woill be any elevation versus the alley.

Note that of the 4 storey podium, the north side is stacked with 2 sets of 2-storey townhouses stacked on each other, while the south side has one set of 2-storey townhouses above two floors of single level (1-bedroom, it looks like) condos.

http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20080115/documents/p1.pdf

*********

From today's 24 Hours newspaper:

[Jacques]

interesting article, I guess here comes more condos?

[mr.x]

Is the Playhouse/Wall Centre at where McDonalds and Burger King are? looks nice.

god forbid more condos at where the Plaza of Nations is....i think it's a huge loss to the city.