Downtown Vancouver Updates

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by Built Form

Finally! the owners of the Dominion Motors Bldg at Seymour and Smithe are moving forward with opening the 2 empty floors above Staples. They've started to carve out an entrance on Smithe near the alley and have taken space away from Staples. I anticipate office space as that would be the best use of the large floor plates.


pic by Built Form

Any idea whether a vertical addition of a floor or two of office space has been contemplated? The structure is a heritage building, if I recall correctly.

[hollywoodnorth]

great news of the BCINC purchase of the Post Office site!

interesting mention of the Canada Post purchase of the land on East Hastings as that made the news last year but nothing has happened since but I guess we should see something soon in terms of what the project will look like and when it will start.

In addition to its new Richmond facility, Canada Post recently purchased the old Aero Garment block at 333-385 Woodland in East Vancouver for $12,682,500. It’s just east of the Waldorf Hotel.

map link >> http://goo.gl/maps/xlKM3


Also I imagine with the location on more or less Commercial and Hastings ... the Mail Depot Vancouver Station F at 2160 Commercial Drive can be sold off as well? would be a prime site for redevelopment on the Drive! site link >> http://goo.gl/maps/gHxyt

[Hed Kandi]

..

[TwoFace]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Wow that offer is ~30% more then what most residential developers were bidding.

It's so much nicer when playing with other people's money.

Great news overall, I hope they incorporate the existing Georgia St facade into any new design.

[djh]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Wow that offer is ~30% more then what most residential developers were bidding. Good news for the feds. I wouldn't have been too worried if a residential developer had won the bid though, there would always be a very significant office component in any redevelopment. Even with bcimc buying it I still expect a residential component of some sort, guess we'll see soon. I'm sure they have preliminary plans already drawn up.

This site was previously held-up with a first nations land claim on it. What happened with that? Has it been resolved, or is there a possibility that this sale could fall-through because of the claim?

[djh]

Originally Posted by Built Form

Finally! the owners of the Dominion Motors Bldg at Seymour and Smithe are moving forward with opening the 2 empty floors above Staples. They've started to carve out an entrance on Smithe near the alley and have taken space away from Staples. I anticipate office space as that would be the best use of the large floor plates.


pic by Built Form

With the demand for non-AAA office space what it is in this city, I don't understand how a landlord can sit for decades on a great building in a fantastic location, and leave it 2/3rds underutilized. Some tenant would snap that up in a hurry. I just can't understand the reasoning.

[officedweller]

Wow, that took a long time.
I thought restuarant space would work with the high ceilings, but it is a huge space.

[jlousa]

The land claims issue was resolved on the Post office site a while ago.

[Locked In]

From the Sun article about the Post Office - no details, but the issue has been resolved:

The site had been the subject of a claim by several local First Nations, but Jon Hamilton of Canada Post in Ottawa said a “confidential understanding” had been reached with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh (Burrard) nations that allows the sale to go through.

...

Ken McGregor, manager of the Musqueam First Nation, declined to go into any specifics about the deal with the post office.

“It is not a land claim, it is an accommodation, and an accommodation has been reached,” he said. “It is confidential. It is not a rights and title case.”

Source: Vancouver Sun

[Built Form]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Any idea whether a vertical addition of a floor or two of office space has been contemplated? The structure is a heritage building, if I recall correctly.

Unfortunately I don't know all the details. It is a heritage structure so I don't think any addition is planned as it would've been made public by now. I'm sure JLo will know first!

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Locked In

From the Sun article about the Post Office - no details, but the issue has been resolved:



Source: Vancouver Sun

Hpw does stuff like this, which involves an asset owned by we the people, get slapped with a "confidential" tag?

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Built Form

Unfortunately I don't know all the details. It is a heritage structure so I don't think any addition is planned as it would've been made public by now. I'm sure JLo will know first!

There was a density swap among the neighbouring sites that includes The Spot and Metropolitan Towers (former site of the Domo gas station (Domo = Dominion Motors)) when the area was developed, so I doubt there is any additional density available unless it would be purchased from the heritage bank, but even so, I think there is a restriction on the amount that can be purchased.

[djh]

Originally Posted by Built Form

Unfortunately I don't know all the details. It is a heritage structure so I don't think any addition is planned as it would've been made public by now. I'm sure JLo will know first!

I don't think that's quite correct. It's on the Heritage Register, but I don't think that means it's actually formally regarded by law as a Heritage Building, with all of the bylaw protection that comes with that. I think the developer has the legal right to demolish the building if they want to.

And @JLousa: There's no mention in the Vancouver Sun article as to when an agreement was reached with the First Nations. So are you sure this happened a while ago, as you say? I don't remember hearing anything in the news about this, and since they very publicly raised their claim, I would have assumed the owners would have very publicly announced any deal.

[jlousa]

Just an update on the Post Office sale, turns out the price wasn't $130M but infact $159M. Given it's 2.98acres, (130,000sqft) at an FSR of 5.0 which is pretty decent already on such a large site that works out to 650K sqft so ~$244 per buildable sqft, which is really high especially considering that at least half of that will need to be commercial space. Even if can squeeze the city to land 7.0FSR (910K sqft) it'll still be $175sqft. You'll have to get much closer to 10FSR to make the numbers work and given the height constraints for the site I don't think it's possible.
This will be an interesting one to follow thru the system. Perhaps the Feds will use some of that windfall towards the new VAG.

[logan5]

What would the other half be? I presume residential, which fetches an average price (per sq. foot) in DT Vancouver of... I'm not sure actually.

[jlousa]

I would imagine residential will take up ~33% of any development. Residential prices vary widely but ~$175psf is about the upper limit you'd want to be at, and for that area I think that is a bit on the high side.

[red-paladin]

The former North-West Produce building is being demolished right now, only parts of the exterior walls are still standing. The fire was worse than I thought.

[entheosfog]

Some 'aftermath' pics:

[TwoFace]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Just an update on the Post Office sale, turns out the price wasn't $130M but infact $159M. Given it's 2.98acres, (130,000sqft) at an FSR of 5.0 which is pretty decent already on such a large site that works out to 650K sqft so ~$244 per buildable sqft, which is really high especially considering that at least half of that will need to be commercial space. Even if can squeeze the city to land 7.0FSR (910K sqft) it'll still be $175sqft. You'll have to get much closer to 10FSR to make the numbers work and given the height constraints for the site I don't think it's possible.

It's going to be a lot higher than that, once you factor in the demolition/site clearing costs.

[cornholio]

What are the height limits for the post office site and are they ones that could potentially be relaxed?