Burnaby Updates

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by phesto

Preliminary proposal for 82-storey tower at Lougheed Station.

Iconic Landmark Project Proposed for Burnaby

An “iconic landmark project” has been put forward by Pinnacle International for a 6.2 acre site in the Lougheed Town Centre area of Burnaby. Based on the preliminary design details, including towers up to 82-storeys in height outlined in the preliminary rezoning application, the towers may become the tallest in B.C..

Preliminary details for the proposed project include:

• Three residential towers (82-storeys, 67-storeys & 62-storeys);
• up to 1.9 Million SF of market residential (11.91 FAR);
• 20% rental housing (2.16 FAR);
• estimated 430,000 SF of office, retail & hotel uses;
• relocation of Gatineau Place to align with the new north-south Grand Promenade road, as
• new covered transit plaza adjacent to the SkyTrain station and bus loop;
• a new pedestrian bridge over Austin Road to connect the covered transit plaza and subject site with the Lougheed Mall site to the north.

Source: http://www.vancouvermarket.ca/2019/1...d-for-burnaby/

Shape's renderings for Lougheed City, which depict much taller towers on Pinnacle's property to the south, make a lot more sense now:

[LeftCoaster]

This is the project Jlousa and I were hinting at several months ago.

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Can't confirm or deny.

80 storeys is definitely in play in the metro now. Hopefully it makes it to reality.

Originally Posted by jlousa

I'll add a rumour, still in the design stage but we could see a 70-80 storey tower or two at Lougheed Centre but not part of Shapes development...
Not sure if this is the same one LeftCoaster has hinted at.

Glad to see it finally announced, it's been in the works for a while and the height has been worked through with the City so I'd expect to see it go through as proposed.

Also if I were a betting man I'd expect Shape to respond with some taller towers of their own in their next phase...

[SFUVancouver]

Quite the concept! Looking forward to seeing a site plan and rendering. Pinnacle isn't known for adventurous designs, so I won't be surprised if it's a competent but unimaginative design. With that said, I'm pleased to see that it's a mixed use play, with substantial hotel and office elements. I am surprised how fast development has taken off at the Lougheed Station area with City of Lougheed moving full speed ahead. Shape doing two massive suburban mall redevelopments at the same time just shreds the rule book. Pretty incredible.

[officedweller]

Pinnacle is building a tall project on Yonge St. in Toronto, so hopefully this will follow in those footsteps, although that one is downtown, this one not.

[Klazu]

I think all the Lougheed developments are helped by the fact that they are spread across two different city's jurisdiction. More resources to process proposals. It also helps that both Burnaby and Coquitlam are very pro-development overall.

It still cannot comprehend how such heights can make sense this far out. Everything in above rendering is 50 floors or above!!

[officedweller]

The site doesn't even go to North Road.

The hotel should be a plus for the area.

From Vancouver Market twitter:


https://twitter.com/vancouvermrkt?lang=en

[LowerLonsdaleMike]

Now this is awesome news! I really want to see this kind of height downtown or in the other two main town centres (Brentwood & Metrotown). Hopefully the Carter site at Willingdon/Lougheed will break the skyline with something in the 250-300m range). One can only dream.

[owenhujb]

If this were to go through, what year will it be complete? ~2030s?

[Vin]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

This is the project Jlousa and I were hinting at several months ago.





Glad to see it finally announced, it's been in the works for a while and the height has been worked through with the City so I'd expect to see it go through as proposed.

Also if I were a betting man I'd expect Shape to respond with some taller towers of their own in their next phase...

Looks like we love creating a Dubai after all...in the burbs of course.

Now we can finally push for the 100-storey mark: perhaps in Surrey Central?

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

This is the project Jlousa and I were hinting at several months ago.





Glad to see it finally announced, it's been in the works for a while and the height has been worked through with the City so I'd expect to see it go through as proposed.

Also if I were a betting man I'd expect Shape to respond with some taller towers of their own in their next phase...

Since it's out in the open now, do either of you know who the design architect might be?

They didn't mention one in the vancouvermarket article, and Jlousa talked about it being in the design phase so I imagine one has already been granted the commission.

[Metro-One]

Excited to see some renderings when they come forward.

Also states that there will be pedestrian walkways between the towers as well as over Austin to the Lougheed Mall site. The transit plaza also sounds interesting.

If this proceeds as being described now this will be a new major level of development for Metro-Vancouver.

It is great to see Burnaby embracing height (Coquitlam and New West also seem to be following the same path, and Surrey keeps trying despite always somehow not being able to pull it off) but it really would be nice for this to start rubbing off on Vancouver, where 5 story office projects are still being built directly above soon to be major transit hubs...

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by rickvug

If Burnaby is considering 82 floors at Lougheed then what kind of heights might be expected on the Metrotown mall site that will be the core of Burnaby's Downtown area? My initial thought is that 100 floors wouldn't be out of the question, at least from a planning perspective. No clue about the economics of it all as you get up to these heights.

Crazy times. The core inner "suburbs" are going to feel pretty different in a few decades time as heights go taller and these centres become built out.

If you're talking about the Concord Sears project on Metrotown mall's Kingsway-facing parking lot, the current concept proposal for that project is 65 storeys for the tallest tower.

Admittedly that could change (especially with this news) - but I doubt it would change by 20 additional storeys much.

Alternatively the mall owners themselves are said to want to build a residential tower themselves where the current parking lot in front of the Superstore sits. But I doubt that one will go higher than 50 storeys (if that).

I think (or more like, believe) that past a certain height it stops being a question of economics, and becomes one of prestige and notoriety.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Excited to see some renderings when they come forward.

Also states that there will be pedestrian walkways between the towers as well as over Austin to the Lougheed Mall site. The transit plaza also sounds interesting.

If this proceeds as being described now this will be a new major level of development for Metro-Vancouver.

It is great to see Burnaby embracing height (Coquitlam and New West also seem to be following the same path, and Surrey keeps trying despite always somehow not being able to pull it off) but it really would be nice for this to start rubbing off on Vancouver, where 5 story office projects are still being built directly above soon to be major transit hubs...

It boggles the mind,
....for such a prime location.

[MetroYVR]

I'd be too afraid to live on a 82nd floor

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

I think (or more like, believe) that past a certain height it stops being a question of economics, and becomes one of prestige and notoriety.

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

It boggles the mind,
....for such a prime location.

Equally boggling is that developers won't even touch the strip mall across the street, or any of the walkups or SFHs in the area. It seems that this is indeed mostly about bragging rights rather than economics or planning; Vancouver would've gone with 15-25 floors, then midrises and townhomes all the way to Burquitlam instead.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

It seems that this is indeed mostly about bragging rights rather than economics...

Let me get this straight. You believe Pinnacle is proposing a building height that hurts their bottom line?

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

Let me get this straight. You believe Pinnacle is proposing a building height that hurts their bottom line?

I believe that the bottom line would plateau after a certain height; I would sincerely like to know if it'd really generate 2x as much profit as a 30+ storey like in Metrotown, or if the net gross is basically the same and the developers just want to break a record.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

I believe that the bottom line would plateau after a certain height; would it really generate 1.5x as much profit as a 30-40 storey, or would the costs and revenues basically even out?

That's the very question big companies like Pinnacle are in the business of knowing the answer to.

So, again, do you believe that Pinnacle--a private company whose business is property development--is proposing a building height that's not beneficial to its bottom line?

[logan5]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

I believe that the bottom line would plateau after a certain height; I would sincerely like to know if it'd really generate 2x as much profit as a 30+ storey like in Metrotown, or if the net gross is basically the same and the developers just want to break a record.

There's so much density here, the heights might be a necessity. Ken Chan is saying over 13 FSR total density in his story. That's a huge amount of density. I'm wondering how they are getting so much residential and a relatively small amount of commercial space.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by logan5

There's so much density here, the heights might be a necessity. Ken Chan is saying over 13 FSR total density in his story. That's a huge amount of density. I'm wondering how they are getting so much residential and a relatively small amount of commercial space.

Probably because it's going to be literally across the street from City Of Lougheed, which is rebuilding a mall into podiums with towers on top. There's already going to be plenty of retail - I'm more interested to see how much office and hotel space there's going to be here (not sure how much CoL will have).