The Ultimate Vancouver Rumour Thread!

[phesto]

An inquiry has been made regarding a new office development downtown- 600,000 sq ft and approx. 20 FSR. It is a corner site on a major street downtown. There are some issues to work out before it even reaches rezoning...that is all I know right now.

Not sure if this is the same one Jlo and Leftcoaster were referring to earlier in this thread, but it sounds promising...(moreso than Amacon's project).

[Mininari]

Oh the agony of the necessity of secrecy.

Well, that sounds like a 30,000sq/ft floor plate max, built up to 32+/- stories.
400-450ft. Thats a good fit to the earlier mentioned "other, significant" office tower project at a "great site." The proximity to the water and the height would justify the very high lease rates required to make this (or any office project) feasible.

My guess is this site is the parkade at the corner of Granville and W. Cordova Street. It makes sense since its a reasonable size site, and probably has a height limit that would permit such a building. The only catch with this site is that the tower would be shoulder to shoulder with that nice shiny stubby tower directly beside it.

The bay parkade site is capped at 290ft
There ARE parcels along Seymour that I suppose could be assembled for an office tower, but 400+ft?

And on the note of high costs and lease rate requirements... hopefully Amacon CAN eventually build a 500ft+ tower on their site, using the super-premium lease rates in the highest floors to help finance the project.
I'm sure SOME business out there would love to have a 40th floor (or higher) office, with a spectacular view!

Its a shame about the GM place tower, but the market dictates that location can't afford to be an office tower right now... but maybe Bentall and this "classified" tower will make it.

Awesome news, none the less!

[jlousa]

The office tower myself and Left coaster isn't quite that tall and isn't that large sqftage wise, but it's possible it could be the same tower, always ask for more and neogatiate downwards to what you really wanted all along.


I'm sure Tri-Power has something up their sleeves with the GM Place office tower proposal. If other developers can afford to build a office tower out in Surrey and rent it out for <$30psf why does Tri-Power require >$40psf to make a go of it, the price of the land is already paid for, they could still turn a profit at the lower rates (Construction costs would not be much higher even though it's an innovative building). They must be fishing for something, lets see what they get.

[officedweller]

That sounds like good guess (Cordova & Granville parkade) Mininari - but is that site 30,000 sq ft?
The former Fido site on Georgia and the Telus parkade on Seymour I think would have a 300ft-ish height limit on them.

[LeftCoaster]

I'm not sure this is the same project, like Jlousa said that is much larger and higher than what we were talking about. However this would be about the right time for it to be moving to this phase, and I would not be surprised if this was indeed an overshot to use the extra unnecessary height as a barganing tool, so maybe it is?

If so, lets just hope the city doesn't widdle them down too far!

This being said the plans and renderings I have seen are still quite preliminary so it is possible that the developer has changed the plans and is now looking to add more size/height... although I highly doubt it. Something to get you guys dreaming though...

[Hed Kandi]

Originally Posted by phesto

Not sure if this is the same one Jlo and Leftcoaster were referring to earlier in this thread, but it sounds promising...(moreso than Amacon's project).

Love it!

From now on JLousa will be known as the 🞵🞵🞵🞵 Bombshell Diva "Jlo"

Bahahahaha

[officedweller]

The Globe & Mail - in its property report section - today indicates that 500 Robson & 817 Richards were sold for $6.5 million ($47 million per acre). That's the SW corner with the Sil Vous Plait restaurant and parking lot. It is noted as residential property.

[phesto]

Only speculation on my part, but I'm going to guess the office site I mentioned previously is the NW corner of Granville and Pender (where Shoppers is). View cone there would limit the height to approx. 370 ft, but still workable with 20,000 sq ft floorplates; or maybe they would ask for an increase in height...

[jlousa]

phesto,

The office tower you're hearing about is most likely the Amacon proposal for 1133 Melville. It's still very early but they've just put out a feeler on it. They have the info as 42 Storeys and 600,000sqft. So it fits what you've heard except for it being on a major intersection.

[phesto]

Originally Posted by jlousa

phesto,

The office tower you're hearing about is most likely the Amacon proposal for 1133 Melville. It's still very early but they've just put out a feeler on it. They have the info as 42 Storeys and 600,000sqft. So it fits what you've heard except for it being on a major intersection.

It's not Amacon, this is very recent, plus it's a corner site for sure. The 600,000 sq ft / 20 FSR figure is very preliminary, and is pushing it at best. It's been put to a local architecture firm who is 'familiar' with office towers in this city...

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by phesto

NW corner of Granville and Pender (where Shoppers is). ..

Pharmasave?

[phesto]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Pharmasave?

Whoops, yeah Pharmasave. The owner of that building acquired 455 Granville as an assembly and there'd been talk of redevelopment, but upon further inspection, it's only a 15,000 sq ft, not big enough for a large tower. Although I guess they could try for 20 FSR on an office development.

[officedweller]

It's just outside of the "Higher Buildings" area (which stops at Dunsmuir along Granville), but it is on a "main street". There's also a view cone over the site at abot 360ft, and even if the higher buildings policy applied, council has interpretted the higher buildings policy as being limited by view cone heights.

[radacal]

after a year of inactivity, it appears that there may be funding forthcoming for the vancouver aquarium expansion/renovation...hopefully design work will get going soon.

[djh]

In the Westender this week there is a full-page realtor ad with 12 suites at H&H (at Homer & Helmcken) up for receivership.
This is the building that last year was in major financial problems after the developers and the marketers (Rennie) had a major public falling-out, and I believe the developers were having major financial issues on multiple projects.

So, these 12 suites, are these ones held by the developer who is trying to raise some cash to finish the project?

[officedweller]

That sounds about right - so don't expect a bargain! The developer who took over the project also applied to teh City to reconfigure the penthouse (or subpenthouse?) suites from 6 units to 4 larger units.

[raggedy13]

I've caught wind that the City will be commencing a review of policies and regulations governing view corridors starting sometime in 2009. Anybody heard anything about this? I look forward to it, if true.

[Mininari]

Originally Posted by raggedy13

I've caught wind that the City will be commencing a review of policies and regulations governing view corridors starting sometime in 2009. Anybody heard anything about this? I look forward to it, if true.

If thats true, I wonder if any of the developers pitching office proposals might see this as another reason to hold off on construction. Then they would be waiting for costs to come down AND to see if their parcel might be allowed to go higher.

In any case, I hope they can come to some compromise that will benefit the city, the developers, and the "I'm rich! don't block my view" people.

[phesto]

Originally Posted by raggedy13

I've caught wind that the City will be commencing a review of policies and regulations governing view corridors starting sometime in 2009. Anybody heard anything about this? I look forward to it, if true.

A review of height limits as well as view cones is part of the capacity options review under the Metro Core jobs study for both the CBD and CBD extension areas. City staff will make some kind of recommendation to council in 2009 as to policy governing height, density, and if they deem neccessary, to amend the view cone policy to accomodate the increased job capacity (built density).

I don't think there will be a seperate review of the view cone policy at least until the capacity options are presented.

One of the initial recommendations is to expand the CBD area to cover the CBD extension area. There is a lot of development potential under the 'C Central' area, especially if there is any kind of increase in densities and allowable heights. Because view cones limit anything tall in this area, a relaxation would accomodate greater density, maybe future developments could be 450 ft as opposed to currently limiting proposals to 300 ft height.

In the meantime, the City has advised at least two developers that their rezoning applications for projects including office space would be viewed more favourably after the Metro Core study is complete (ie. initiating rezoning at late 2009 earliest) - both because they are implying that there would be conflict within the rezoning process as policy will be unclear regarding potential densities and heights; and also because they are just understaffed at the moment.

[jlousa]

I'm acutally a big fan of the view cone corridors, it has probably been the single most effective policy in shaping our successful downtown. W/O it there is a good chance we would've ended up with a much smaller cluster of taller building and a less diserable place to live/work/play.

Portland is another example of a hugely succesful city that hasn't required height to make it work.