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Originally Posted by WarrenC12
I thought that was actually 450 Pacific. I could have sworn there was an address sign there for years.
Kind of a joke though. A failure of policy? Concord loophole?
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It could be characterized as a victim of changing circumstances, and a funding stalemate for decades. These sites, and a couple of others, were the 20% sites for non-market housing. The assumption back in the mists of time when the initial Concord / False Creek North Plan was drawn up (while you were still in school, and some posters here were still a parental aspiration), was that the Feds and Province would fund construction of non-market units on land that Concord would sell to the City at a reduced value, as development proceeded. That worked for a while; there were non-market units built in the Yaletown phases back in the early 90s, and a co-op by Cambie Bridge in 1999, for example. Then the Feds stopped funding housing, and the Province stopped funding new-build except for a few specific target groups, so the City had the right to buy the land, but no access to funds to get any non-market housing built.
They sold some site development rights back to Concord (like Cosmo on W Georgia) in exchange for potential purchase of 1050 Expo and two other sites, subject to funding from the Province. There was a design; and approved building permit even, and the Province never made that funding available, so that site still sits undeveloped. 990 Beatty and 900 Cooperage are similar sites near Cambie Bridge, in limbo for many years.
1502 Granville is near the waterfront by Granville bridge, in front of 601 Beach. 450 Pacific and 431 Beach are nearby, in between the market towers. You'll recall that Concord were very unhappy with how the City bought 601 Beach from them, and instead of just building a modest non-market building, proposed to sell the site off to a rival developer for a big tower that paid for the non-market units. Despite Concord's court case, that project was approved. That might be a factor in why the remaining sites are still sitting undeveloped, (as well as the need for funding) and why Concord aren't rushing to submit their NEFC scheme (especially as they lost their court case with the Plaza of Nation owners as well).
There might be deal being worked out, or the whole thing might be sitting, with neither the City or Concord talking. We wouldn't know until a deal is worked out and signed, because usually these sensitive financial agreements are 'in camera', for obvious reasons. The announcement in 2018 was unusual, as it wasn't really a done deal, but in hindsight a kind of 'look, we are still delivering' move by Vision, presumably to try to retain some role on Council. We know how that turned out.
One day those six sites (and some at NEFC) will get developed, and perhaps some will deliver a fair amount of non-market housing as was originally intended. It might not be as much as was expected, but politics and finances changed the ability to deliver the intentions decades ago.
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