General Vancouver Updates

[vanman]

Originally Posted by Changing City

It's difficult to know whether to put this in the Industrial Intensification thread, the office market thread, or here. It's the Rezoning on the Kia car dealership on SW Marine next to Marine Gateway. It's a big international architecture firm, HDR, who now have a Vancouver office and a local developer (Mercury, part of Hungerford).

Currently an I-2 industrial site, the project has two office towers, 10 and 19 storeys, with around 400,000 sq. ft of office space. There are two 3 storey industrial podiums with a mid-block link, and over 200,000 sq. ft. of light industrial space. There's also a childcare included in the project, (and a small retail element). Hungerford also picked up the nearby former Dueck site that was owned, but never developed, by Walmart.

It's good to see a high-density Transit Oriented Development node that's adding employment as well as residential towers (and the retail that's already been developed).

More renderings and info at VancouverMarket.ca

Wow. Wasn't expecting office towers east of Yukon anytime soon.

Is there any other examples of sizeable office towers placed on top of industrial podiums in North America. We're used to seeing maybe 3-6 floors of office space above industrial but that's about it.

I'm starting to think the transfer station's days are numbered. That property must be worth 10s of millions already even before it is hemmed in with redevelopment. I wonder if it's possible to intensify the land use there somehow while keeping the transfer station.

[jollyburger]

They're working on the master planning for the Manitoba Yard:

https://bids.vancouver.ca/bidopp/RFP/RFP-PS20200308.htm

I doubt they have anywhere they can really move it.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by vanman

I'm starting to think the transfer station's days are numbered. That property must be worth 10s of millions already even before it is hemmed in with redevelopment. I wonder if it's possible to intensify the land use there somehow while keeping the transfer station.

i doubt it. Manitoba Yard will never leave. it is the largest one CoV has. out of all the yards they have, that one really cant move; if anything it isnt big enough and they want to expand it.

Originally Posted by jollyburger

They're working on the master planning for the Manitoba Yard:

https://bids.vancouver.ca/bidopp/RFP/RFP-PS20200308.htm

I doubt they have anywhere they can really move it.

the only place they could probably move it is out to Kent Yard's area by the waterfront. though right now it is a super easy drive onto the Oak St Brdige to the landfill along Hwy 99; i doubt theyll move it.

i heard they might even move City Hall to Manitoba Yard. who knows if that is true though.

[officedweller]

This is an interesting model pic:


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/396-southwest-marine-drive-vancouver

[SpongeG]

a crane went up at Format on Kingsway today.

[djh]

Originally Posted by officedweller

This is an interesting model pic:


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/396-southwest-marine-drive-vancouver

The density and re-imagining of the Marine Gateway neighbourhood over the last 5-10 years has been tremendous. If I was starting out now I would absolutely consider buying an apartment around there, rather than downtown. It's cleaner, safer, easy to commute to downtown if and when necessary, has most of the stores you need for 90% of your needs, and is easy to get out of town for the times you actually need to jump in your car.

I think over the next 5 years the area will probably develop the infrastructure that turns it from being a commuter zone (i.e., just where you live and sleep) to a neighbourhood. So hopefully, fashion retail stores, local shops, a range of pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs, and definitely some greenspace and maybe even waterfront space. Without those, it will be a nice place to invest in, until you're ready to level-up to a bigger place.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Developers don't appear to share that confidence; the north side of the street lacks storefronts, and so do many of the upcoming towers.

[djh]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Developers don't appear to share that confidence; the north side of the street lacks storefronts, and so do many of the upcoming towers.

The recently-completed development on the north-west corner of cambie has (somewhat basic) stores. Granted, the one on the north-west corner has none, but I'm sure more developments will fill out that area with stores.
It's a start. I know the speed of development in Vancouver is often glacial, and retailers may be even slower to fill CRUs if they weren't planned from the start, but with that many residents in a small footprint, there is too much potential for stores to ignore. Look at Olympic Village and how it finally attracted a great range of retailers.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by djh

The recently-completed development on the north-west corner of cambie has (somewhat basic) stores. Granted, the one on the north-west corner has none, but I'm sure more developments will fill out that area with stores.
It's a start. I know the speed of development in Vancouver is often glacial, and retailers may be even slower to fill CRUs if they weren't planned from the start, but with that many residents in a small footprint, there is too much potential for stores to ignore. Look at Olympic Village and how it finally attracted a great range of retailers.

Very true. Yet as Fremont Village and Steveston's boardwalk will testify, it takes more than just a few CRUs and condos to become a retail hub; even OV is somewhat lifeless outside of the Square and the seawall. Only time will tell if the foot traffic at Marine Gateway can be exported down the street.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Very true. Yet as Fremont Village and Steveston's boardwalk will testify, it takes more than just a few CRUs and condos to become a retail hub; even OV is somewhat lifeless outside of the Square and the seawall. Only time will tell if the foot traffic at Marine Gateway can be exported down the street.

The pedestrian environment isn't great at Marine Gateway either. Marine Drive isn't exactly a street I would want to stroll down or linger at. The majority of the traffic in the area is passing through to somewhere else, and most of the residents likely work somewhere else that has better retail options, so it's not like the only competition is other retailers in the immediate vicinity.

[jollyburger]

Marine Gateway will always be the destination retail. Throw in another 40K of retail in the second phase and unless there's some massive change in the density of the area that's going to be 90% of the retail in the area forever supplemented by the big box stores down the road & Richmond.

[djh]

Also, much of the new retail will be happening off Marine Drive - in new lobbies and areas accessed by new side-streets or raised plazas. The environment off Marine Drive can be made to be much more amenable, and surely will happen over time, if they are master-planning that area to any extent. I wouldn't be surprised if they reduce the number of lanes and/or convert lanes into parking or bus only.

Think about the potential for the location in the future, not how it looks now. Near the water, near transit, near inter-city arterials, high-density. Why wouldn't the city convert it an attractive neighbourhood for residents?

[Migrant_Coconut]

It's a catch-22: amenities require foot traffic, and foot traffic requires amenities. Marine Drive isn't a major SkyTrain station and isn't close enough to downtown, so the probable end result is that commuters only crowd around Gateway and the bus loop (albeit in higher numbers than there are now), while anything beyond that depends on local customers.

[officedweller]

Major arterials make poor shopping streets.
That's why Robson, not Georgia, is the retail highstreet. Likewise, Dawson, not Lougheed, was chosen - and of course off-arterial in malls and plazas.

[Migrant_Coconut]

South Granville and Main work fine as shopping streets. Then again, they also have decent bus coverage; frequent service on Marine will require more than just two villages and infill.

[idunno]

South Granville and Main work fine, but the focus on through-traffic makes them far from ideal shopping streets. It's really too bad that most of the commercial high streets in Vancouver (and a lot of North American cities) function similarly.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by idunno

South Granville and Main work fine, but the focus on through-traffic makes them far from ideal shopping streets. It's really too bad that most of the commercial high streets in Vancouver (and a lot of North American cities) function similarly.

That pattern is due to mass transit, ie streetcars that were in place as they originally developed.

[GenWhy?]

We might be getting new rental district schedules by Council vote in early November.

[hollywoodnorth]

What ever happened to ONNI's 375 East 1st Avenue. It was just starting excavation pre-covid in early 2020. then they froze it and nothing since.

https://www.onni.com/property/commercial/375-east-1st-avenue-office-retail/

[Lexus]

2021, October 3

Now completed at Cambie and Broadway.

Untitled by Lexus LX570, on Flickr