Broadway Corridor Updates

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by Changing City

they'd have to pay for the the lane, which would add cost (and pay for service relocation, maybe?).

100% required. That's were things get annoying

[officedweller]

There are several sites around Oak where the alley has been closed and diverted:


https://www.google.com/maps/search/b....25z?entry=ttu

[jollyburger]

Most of them have H-frame poles for electricity as well so I guess that's a consideration as well. And a lot of them have natural gas/sewer mains running down them as well.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

On its own it's DOA. Even with purchasing the lane (if you can), very costly.

OK What's you're threshold for this property?

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

There are several sites around Oak where the alley has been closed and diverted:

If you look on the 1912 layer on the City's VanMap, you'll see that there were no lanes in that part of Fairview when the land was platted. I suspect they've been created in later years, when the City has required them as part of the development of those lots, rather than they were diverted. The bigger lots that run from Broadway through to 8th are where the City couldn't get a lane provided.

To divert a lane today, a developer would have to own a property on the appropriate part of 8th Avenue as well. That's unlikely to happen, and hard to achieve. The Engineers wouldn't allow a lane exiting onto Broadway.

[officedweller]

Yeah, the 301 Broadway site is odd because there are 2 parcels across the lane before you hit 8th Ave, and a built loft condo building fairly close to the corner.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Yeah, the 301 Broadway site is odd because there are 2 parcels across the lane before you hit 8th Ave, and a built loft condo building fairly close to the corner.

It's possible to imagine a 5.5 FSR strata building with almost no parking on the lot. In Gastown on East Cordova was over 7 FSR, zero lot line, 120 feet x 50 feet (onto a lane). Turned through 90 degrees it would be possible to build something that sets back the residential floors slightly from Broadway, but it's not an ideal location and the shallow depth makes designing apartments tough. They wouldn't sell at a premium, and the site wouldn't be worth close to $38m for a developer to risk trying to make it work (or to sell the units).

It might be better as rental, and then the development could potentially get a higher FSR too. But I suspect the site value would be nowhere near $38m for a rental building either. 950 W Broadway is over 3 times bigger, is assessed at $43m and sold for $46m (and is easy to redevelop compared to this), so that would suggest this site might be worth in the ballpark of its assessed value - around $12m.

It would make a good site for a budget hotel with no parking. Central loaded corridor and 18 to 20 feet of depth on either side for the rooms. But not at $38m! The lot for 901 W Broadway is nearly twice the size and sold for a hotel for $22.5m. That would suggest this site might be worth about the same as it's assessed value for a hotel too, closer to $12m.

[jollyburger]

I also noticed around Bridge Street (Cambie)/Yukon that the eastern lots aren't exactly in line with the lots west of Cambie if you look up and down Broadway. It's the same with the road network on either side of Cambie.. 7th and 8th don't line up.

https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/...y-ninth-avenue

This 1899 map seems to show an alley network on the east side of the future Cambie

https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/...ic-town-site-9

The 1887 Plan for the City of Vancovuer

https://vault.library.uvic.ca/concer...0-8786e21b0df5