Downtown Vancouver Updates - Page 775

mcminsen · #**15481** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 11:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcminsen

1335 Howe Street. Looks pretty well gutted now.

July 23 '17, my pics

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

My photos below - September 21st

Starting to disappear.

Oct.9 '17, my pics

Vin · #**15482** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 6:02 PM**

Sad to see a perfectly good concrete building go like this. Structurally, this building is a lot better than countless other woodframes in this city that deserves demolition. What a waste.

LeftCoaster · #**15483** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 8:43 PM**

Lol, what?

It was a decrepit old motel built to minimal density levels.

SpongeG · #**15484** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 5:00 AM**

550-foot-tall 'stacked box' office tower proposed for downtown Vancouver

from the daily hive

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/1133-melville-street-vancouver-office-tower-redesign

Feathered Friend · #**15485** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 5:08 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpongeG

550-foot-tall 'stacked box' office tower proposed for downtown Vancouver

from the daily hive

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/1133-melville-street-vancouver-office-tower-redesign

You may have wanted to check over here http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=218143&page=8 before posting.

As I said to the first person that posted this today:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Doesn't seem that there's anything new there, Daily Hive is just covering what we discussed back in June. Thanks for taking the initiative to post though.

SpongeG · #**15486** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 5:10 AM**

there's too many threads it just popped up on my facebook tonight

Feathered Friend · #**15487** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 6:38 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpongeG

there's too many threads it just popped up on my facebook tonight

Ah well, no need to rush to post; there's no prize for posting first here, and if there was I'm sure it would be so horrible that no one would want it.

In fairness though, the thread for 1133 Melville was in the top 12 and there is a search function. It's not a big deal, but I would hate to see over eager threads started retelling the same information.

Vin · #**15488** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 5:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Lol, what?

It was a decrepit old motel built to minimal density levels.

whatnext · #**15489** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 5:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Lol, what?

It was a decrepit old motel built to minimal density levels.

While lower than what's allowed now, it was hardly "minimal". The Inn had 157 rooms, when you add that to what's being lost at he Empire Landmark and the Coast Plaza there's a clear trend. We're losing a lot of midrange hotel rooms and replacing them with a much smaller number of expensive rooms. Not good news for the convention business in Vancouver.

osirisboy · #**15490** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 6:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vin

Sad to see a perfectly good concrete building go like this. Structurally, this building is a lot better than countless other woodframes in this city that deserves demolition. What a waste.

At least the new building will have the same size podium so we will still have the same street wall and it's not replaced with some dinky 2 storey podium

LeftCoaster · #**15491** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 10:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vin

You don't see the irony, no?

The irony? I think you need to look up the definition of Irony.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/irony

What I'm hearing from you is only the least developed piece of land is worthy of development and nothing can be re-developed until they are the most under-developed piece of land in the city.

Thankfully we live in a free market economy and private land owners are free to develop their lands as entitled when they wish.

I think you should stick to playing sim city.

LeftCoaster · #**15492** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 10:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatnext

While lower than what's allowed now, it was hardly "minimal". The Inn had 157 rooms, when you add that to what's being lost at he Empire Landmark and the Coast Plaza there's a clear trend. We're losing a lot of midrange hotel rooms and replacing them with a much smaller number of expensive rooms. Not good news for the convention business in Vancouver.

The city also is gaining or has gained the new coast hotel, the new executive hotel in the Credit Suisse, The Trump, the many new rooms in the Parq development, etc etc... Net hotel rooms in the city are definitely up.

While these above noted hotel rooms are likely more expensive, previously more expensive hotel rooms are now older comapred to the new stock and will go for a lower premium than they went for before the new stock.

osirisboy · #**15493** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 10:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

The city also is gaining or has gained the new coast hotel, the new executive hotel in the Credit Suisse, The Trump, the many new rooms in the Parq development, etc etc... Net hotel rooms in the city are definitely up.

While these above noted hotel rooms are likely more expensive, previously more expensive hotel rooms are now older comapred to the new stock and will go for a lower premium than they went for before the new stock.

Landmark coast are large hotels. Even this one is larger than trump is. Not sure if there is a net increases in hotel rooms

LeftCoaster · #**15494** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 10:32 PM**

Trump's actually quite small by room count. I just looked up Empire, it was 370, Parq alone is well over 500 though so there's more than enough capacity coming on-line.

The city makes a lot of money off hotel taxes, they're not falling over themselves to reduce room count in the City.

Vin · #**15495** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 11:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

The irony? I think you need to look up the definition of Irony.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/irony

What I'm hearing from you is only the least developed piece of land is worthy of development and nothing can be re-developed until they are the most under-developed piece of land in the city.

Thankfully we live in a free market economy and private land owners are free to develop their lands as entitled when they wish.

I think you should stick to playing sim city.

Great cities around the world keep their existing stock of buildings and develop outwards organically, not artificially confining the densest area to one little spot where buildings get built, torn down and rebuilt. That's what we are facing now in Vancouver. Ever wondered why we keep losing our heritage buildings, while surrounding areas remain "undeveloped"?

We hardly live in a "free market" like what you think. It's not a free market when one can build something with a high FSR on a plot of land while a block away the City only allows a low FSR structure. How is that "free" when there are artificial restrictions like this?

And no, I don't think I need to look up the definition of "irony" or play Sim city like you suggested.

Quote:

Originally Posted by osirisboy

At least the new building will have the same size podium so we will still have the same street wall and it's not replaced with some dinky 2 storey podium

Sure, but at this rate, this City will never achieve "the greenest City" status by 2020. Good concrete structures built in the past with plenty of life left in them required lots of effort and money raised to have them constructed, and should not simply be torn down at a whim just because a new structure can bring in more profit, especially when there are thousands of other sites in the city where such a building can be built.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Trump's actually quite small by room count. I just looked up Empire, it was 370, Parq alone is well over 500 though so there's more than enough capacity coming on-line.

The city makes a lot of money off hotel taxes, they're not falling over themselves to reduce room count in the City.

You conveniently left out Coast Hotel. Together with Empire Landmark, we are definitely losing hotel rooms. What's more, Coast and Landmark must have way more affordable room rates than the cheapest rooms offered at Parc. This is not acceptable for a city with a growing tourism industry.

LeftCoaster · #**15496** Posted **Oct 12, 2017, 12:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vin

Great cities around the world keep their existing stock of buildings and develop outwards organically, not artificially confining the densest area to one little spot where buildings get built, torn down and rebuilt. That's what we are facing now in Vancouver. Ever wondered why we keep losing our heritage buildings, while surrounding areas remain "undeveloped"?

Wait you're talking about keeping original stock and building out but your original comment was about tearing down different buildings also in the core.

Do you even pay attention to what you are saying anymore?

So what is it? Should we be redeveloping smaller downtown buildings or not? Only wooden ones? Better tell that to the owners of under-built concrete properties.

And aren't you the guy who wants to tear up blocks of downtown for a new mall?

Get your story straight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vin

You conveniently left out Coast Hotel. Together with Empire Landmark, we are definitely losing hotel rooms. What's more, Coast and Landmark must have way more affordable room rates than the cheapest rooms offered at Parc. This is not acceptable for a city with a growing tourism industry.

Well they also built a new Coast hotel to replace that one...

I left out the Coast Hotel because I couldn't find info on how many rooms it has. If you have them please include them.

I can guarantee you there are more hotel rooms in downtown Vancouver today than there were 10 years ago. Not to even begin to discuss the amount of rooms available via Air B&B...

osirisboy · #**15497** Posted **Oct 12, 2017, 12:25 AM**

Oh i thought trump was like 120 rooms. And that's more at parq than I had thought.

Landmark was 357 and coast is 199 rooms just FYI. Which is a large chunk of cheaper rooms. Maybe net increase overall but decrease in cheaper rooms

(I'm just thinking out loud). And yeah air B and B has changed things too

LeftCoaster · #**15498** Posted **Oct 12, 2017, 12:35 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vin

You conveniently left out Coast Hotel. Together with Empire Landmark, we are definitely losing hotel rooms.

I don't know why i waste my time with you but I crunched the numbers really quickly. It's not even close.

Here's the net change in completed and proposed hotel rooms since 2010:

LeftCoaster · #**15499** Posted **Oct 12, 2017, 12:38 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Maybe net increase overall but decrease in cheaper rooms

Sure, but that's how it works. No one is building new cheap hotels downtown.

Just like in office buildings the older product satisfies the lower end of the cost spectrum and the newer product generally is geared to the higher end.

Previously higher end hotels now have relatively lower rates, such as the Mariott, Metropolitan etc...

And so goes the circle of life.

osirisboy · #**15500** Posted **Oct 12, 2017, 12:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

I don't know why i waste my time with you but I crunched the numbers really quickly. It's not even close.

Here's the net change in completed and proposed hotel rooms since 2010:

That's helpful thx!