Downtown Vancouver Updates

[Spoolmak]

What is the addition? Height addition?

[jlousa]

Apparently there is no proposal, simply a transfer of density. Although I'm sure there must be a plan for it, there is nothing coming forward at this time.

[AlexYVR]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Any word on the nature of the addition to Park Place?
It goes before the DPB next Monday.

::crosses fingers::

Applestoreapplestoreapplestoreapplestoreapplestore

[SpikePhanta]

I wouldnt mind an apple store, but it must not take over the awesome park there

[officedweller]

666 Burrard mysteriously disappeared from Monday's DPB Agenda!!!

Damn!! It was on there a few days ago.

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/dpboard/2010/Agendas/June28.html

[flight_from_kamakura]

hopefully that means there's some sort of negotiation to add height, 15 stories or so would do. i won't hold my breath...

[Coldrsx]

Anyone able to get me 5-10 shots of the Emery Barnes Park phase 1 and 2 in the next couple of days? We are building a new park downtown Edmonton in a very similar context and I love the simplistic but effective design there.

Thanks in advance.

[dleung]

Originally Posted by flight_from_kamakura

hopefully that means there's some sort of negotiation to add height, 15 stories or so would do. i won't hold my breath...

The density transfer is 65,000 square feet... it would be less than 4 office floors. No one would go through the trouble for that kind of height increase.

[officedweller]

But 4 floors is all you can build and still stay under the view cone that runs over Park Place and the top floors would garner the highest rents (and regain a view of the harbour lost to Bentall V) (I'm being hopeful that it's a vertical expansion - I would hate to see the fountain/plaza at grade built on)

[yogiderek]

What is the floor plate at the top of 666 Burrard. If it is 10,000 sq ft they could get six stories in? Also, isn't there a deal with Christ Church cathedral to keep the park? At least that window should never be covered up.

[officedweller]

Typical floor size - 17,500 sq ft (the terraces up top take a bit away, but probably not down to 10,000)

http://www.parkplace.ca/default.cfm?tID=21&propID=1058

[dleung]

Park Place had the fattest floorplates in Vancouver, until its fatness was exceeded by the 18,000 SF plates at Fairmont pacific rim, a residential building

Typical office plates in other cities are in 25,000-30,000 SF range... the WTC twin towers had 40,000 SF floorplates

[Coldrsx]

For reference, Edmonton's new Epcor Tower is 24,000sqft.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by SpikePhanta

I wouldnt mind an apple store, but it must not take over the awesome park there

They wouldn't DARE tinker with that park ! ! ..... (would they)?

[officedweller]

No, they wouldn't allow the parkette to be built on (unlike the plaza at the Pacific Centre Rotunda).
As a "ceremonial street" Burrard Street has a configuration of alternating open spaces on each side of the street - I don't think they'd tinker with that.

[officedweller]

Continuing the conversation regarding the Pacific Centre Expansion on the rotunda plaza (facing Hotel Georgia) here instead of in the Hotel Georgia thread.

Here are some renders - this form was rejected by either the UDP or the DPB a few years ago.
One of the comments was that the Pacific Centre entrance was not prominent enough (on either Howe or Georgia)
and looked like an "afterthought".
No word since.

These pics were posted in this forum a few years ago but I can't find them here - found them through Google on another forum:

http://www.mallvibes.com/shopping-fashio...mbie-fitch-pacific-centre-expansion.html

[SpikePhanta]

Why as much as i like the rotunda, I wouldn't mind something like that, just needs a much bigger entrance IMO.

Also Abercrombie and Fitch yes please!

[itinerant]

Thanks officedweller! These renderings make it a lot easier to see whats in the minds of CF. I think the design concept is way off base, but it is clear they want to bring the retail to the street--which isn't a bad thing at all.

Maybe they could entice Apple to bring a flagship store to the corner--that would be fantastic! Apple has the right modernist design aesthetic that would work very well with 70's look of Pacific Centre.

I'd prefer to see something more akin to the simpler geometries of the existing buildings. It should ideally keep a dramatic plaza and glassed over entryway. One thing the current rotunda and outside space does is provide shelter from the rain while keeping the entrance bright. With some careful consideration, CF could produce something that still retains some indoor/outdoor presence while giving room for a flagship tenant [like Apple... maybe I should drop something in Steve's email about it :-) ].

[SpongeG]

whats so great about an apple flagship?

its no greater than a normal store other than size

[AlexYVR]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

whats so great about an apple flagship?

its no greater than a normal store other than size

Actually, that's untrue. Apple flagships are known to have much, much higher $/sq. ft revenue than other stores of the type or size. For example:

Time for some perspective. Apple is in a curious retail niche, because all the products are a) consumer electronics, and b) virtually all Apple, all the time. Finding an equivalent for comparison is difficult. For example, I checked the 10-Ks of Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint Nextel, as three enterprises with retail stores that focused on company brands, but couldn’t get retail sales breakouts.

So I checked Best Buy’s last annual report. What I found was surprising in comparison.

At the end of its FY2009, the company had 1,023 stores and average per-store annual revenues of $34.2 million. Clearly that’s a lot higher than Apple, but consider that Best Buy has far more brands and categories and, as important, generally a lot more retail space per location — about 39,000 sq. ft. That compares with about 6,000 sq. ft. for Apple’s stores. In other words, the average Best Buy has annual sales per square foot of about $876. For Apple stores, even using the lower $27.7 million figure I calculated above, that would be a staggering $4,616 annual sales per square foot. Now let’s make some outrageous assumptions – that there are enough high-flying Apple locations that the average per-store annual sales are only $20 million. That would still be well over $3,000 a square foot.

Jeez. No wonder they keep the stores around. I’m sure it leaves most any retail executive uncontrollably salivating.

Now for one more comparison. I looked up the FY2008 annual report of the Neiman Marcus Group, which operates the luxury department stores. Here’s the picture, in short:

* 40 There are 40 Neiman Marcus-branded stores.
* Those stores represented 71.2 percent of the company’s $4.6 billion annual revenue, or about $3.28 billion.
* The 40 stores have an aggregate area of 5,442,000 square feet.

Do the arithmetic and you get $602 per square foot annual sales. The chain doesn’t even match Best Buy, let alone Apple, which may be in . Although a reference from 2005, apparently the top retail space in a high end mall was reaching $1,600 per square foot. That’s still nothing in comparison.

Source Link: http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10002004/apple-stores-still-king-of-retail-selling/

The 5th Avenue NY flagship (while a standout, to be sure) does $440 million dollars of business a year ($45,000/sq ft). A comparison to Canadian upscale retail: Holt Renfrew averages $950/sq. ft.

Source Link: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=c87bf747-cf1c-44c9-a8dd-23ba517b9a0f