Future tower project on Davie Street pivots from condos to rental housing

Artistic rendering of 1188 Cardero Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Townline)

Another future residential tower project in downtown Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood is pivoting from market strata condominium housing as its primary use to secured purpose-built rental housing.

A new rezoning application by local developer Townline and Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects outlines a revised proposal to build a 226-ft-tall, 22-storey tower at 1188 Cardero Street — a lot on the northeast corner of the intersection of Davie Street and Cardero Street.

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This site is immediately east of Westbank’s 2020-built complex of two towers with rental housing and the new replacement Safeway grocery store and immediately west of the historic Gabriola Mansion (also known as the Rogers Mansion), which recently underwent an extensive renovation for its conversion into rental housing.

1188 cardero street vancouver rental housing townline

Site of 1188 Cardero Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Townline)

Before (top) and after (bottom) at 1188 Cardero Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Townline)

Under the new revision, there would be a total of 198 secured purpose-built rental homes, including 161 market rental units and 37 below-market rental units. The unit size mix is 61 studios, 68 one-bedroom units, 58 two-bedroom units, and 11 three-bedroom units.

In contrast, the developer’s 2022 development permit application initially proposed a 197-ft-tall, 20-storey tower with 128 homes, including 96 market strata condominium units and 32 social housing units.

According to the new rezoning application, the change to the single housing tenure of rental housing “allows a more cost-effective means of delivering significantly more housing units without the inefficiencies of duplicate infrastructure within each tenure for mechanical and electrical equipment, elevators, lobbies, amenities, building management, etc. It creates a more integrated and equitable use of building features and amenities by all tenants regardless of housing tenure.”

It should also be noted that the pivot to rental housing eliminates the need to provide significant community amenity contributions (CACs) that would be required for a project with condominiums.

Artistic rendering of 1188 Cardero Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Townline)

The slight building height increase still complies with the height restrictions of the protected mountain View Cone 20 emanating from the intersection of Granville Street and West Broadway. This height allows for two additional storeys, which will enable the design of higher ceiling heights to better accommodate mechanical cooling equipment for the units and a shared indoor and outdoor amenity space for residents on the entirety of the tower rooftop — in addition to the indoor amenity space at ground level. Also, the extra height conceals rooftop mechanical heating, cooling, and domestic hot water instead of placing this equipment within underground levels, which would require a deeper excavation.

Three underground levels would contain 72 vehicle parking stalls and 309 secure bike parking spaces.

In addition to the added building height, the new rental housing concept’s floor plate size of 6,600 sq ft is also 20% larger than that of the previous condominium/social housing concept.

Artistic rendering of 1188 Cardero Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Townline)

Building uses of 1188 Cardero Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Townline)

The total building floor area would reach 138,500 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is eight times larger than the size of the 17,300 sq ft lot. Overall, the proposal is larger than the City’s West End Plan’s prescriptions for the site.

Under the West End Plan, the provision of ground-level retail/restaurant uses is not an absolute requirement by the municipal government for the three city blocks of Davie Street between Cardero and Jervis Streets, which is why recently constructed building developments or proposals on this segment of Davie Street do not have any commercial uses. This cements the segregation of the retail strips of Davie Village (Upper Davie) to the east and Lower Davie to the west instead of what would otherwise be the makings of a continuous retail strip along Davie Street between False Creek and Denman Street/English Bay.

Currently, the site of 1188 Cardero Street at the easternmost end of the Lower Davie retail strip is occupied by a 1989-built, four-storey condominium building with 33 units.

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