Poor Italian Restaurant in Vancouver to be redeveloped into rental housing

Poor Italian Restaurant in East Vancouver to be redeveloped into rental housing

Artistic rendering of the new rental housing building with Poor Italian Restaurant at 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Alan James Architect/Cornerstone Architecture)

A popular East Vancouver restaurant known for its classic interpretation of Italian cuisine is set to be redeveloped into a mixed-use building with secured purpose-built rental housing.

A rezoning application has been submitted to redevelop 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, which is the site of Poor Italian Ristorante (Restaurant).

Poor Italian is the sole occupant of the existing 1968-built strip mall building, which previously had multiple businesses until the restaurant took over the entire space in 2009.

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But the application notes the new six-storey building will include a new replacement space for Poor Italian.

With that said, the application suggests the new restaurant space will be substantially smaller than the existing configuration.

Existing condition:

3282-3296 East 1st Avenue Vancouver Poor Italian Ristorante Restaurant

Site of Poor Italian Restaurant at 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

Artistic rendering of the new rental housing building with Poor Italian Restaurant at 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Alan James Architect/Cornerstone Architecture)

Ground-level floor plan of the new rental housing building (3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver), with the new space for Poor Italian Restaurant also depicted. Click on the image for an expanded version. (Alan James Architect/Cornerstone Architecture)

Currently, Poor Italian has 6,300 sq ft of commercial space in the existing building. On the west side of the new building’s ground level, there will be 2,500 sq ft of indoor restaurant space for Poor Italian, plus a 1,100 sq ft covered outdoor dining patio.

The project is tentatively named the “Moscone Building,” after Michael and Sandy Moscone, who own the building and started the restaurant with former news anchor Tony Parsons. The Moscone family is also known for their namesake landscape architectural firm.

The project’s design firms are Alan James Architect and Cornerstone Architecture.

Existing condition:

3282-3296 East 1st Avenue Vancouver Poor Italian Ristorante Restaurant 11

Site of Poor Italian Restaurant at 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

Artistic rendering of the new rental housing building with Poor Italian Restaurant at 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Alan James Architect/Cornerstone Architecture)

The building will be built to the Passive House green building standard, in addition to other green design features such as its primary energy source of electricity for cooling and heating, plus hot water using heat pumps that use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. It is also noted that the design team is “lobbying the restaurant operators [to use] induction cooking in the restaurant to eliminate all use of fossil gas,” instead of enabling natural gas connections into the building.

In addition to the restaurant space, there will also be a 1,440 sq ft retail space on the Rupert Street side of the building.

Within the upper levels, the building will contain 63 secured purpose-built rental homes, with a unit size mix of 16 studios, 27 one-bedroom units, and 20 two-bedroom units.

Artistic rendering of the new rental housing building with Poor Italian Restaurant at 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Alan James Architect/Cornerstone Architecture)

The development site is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of East 1st Avenue and Rupert Street, which sees heavy vehicle traffic to/from Highway 1 just to the east.

The property is within the municipal government’s upcoming Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan, which is currently being planned, with a draft area plan for increased residential and employment density expected to be created in 2024. Similar to the Broadway Plan’s previous planning process, there is an interim moratorium on most types of rezonings within the Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan, with the exception of secured rental housing, social housing, supportive housing, and/or community care facilities. For this reason, the Poor Italian proposal has been able to proceed into the formal rezoning application stage.

Two underground levels will contain 53 vehicle parking stalls — including 19 stalls for retail/restaurant uses and 31 stalls for residents — and 86 secure bike parking spaces.

The total building floor area will reach 55,100 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 3.43 times larger than the size of the lot.

Site of Poor Italian Restaurant at 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Artistic rendering of the new rental housing building with Poor Italian Restaurant at 3282-3296 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Alan James Architect/Cornerstone Architecture)

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