Vancouver tower proposal site under receivership changes ownership

Tower development site under receivership in downtown Vancouver changes ownership

Artistic rendering of 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

After nearly a year-long legal process, the large downtown Vancouver property at 1045 Haro Street — the site of a stalled major tower building development proposal — has changed hands as part of its receivership process.

Last week, the Supreme Court of BC approved the sale of the property to Vancouver-based Chard Development. Deloitte was previously appointed to oversee the receivership proceedings.

“We look forward to working with the local neighbourhood, the business community, and existing tenants to understand the needs of the existing building, neighbourhood and support our mission of expanding Vancouver’s housing continuum,” said Byron Chard, president and CEO of Chard Developments, in a statement to Daily Hive Urbanized today.

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This is a 43,200-square-foot parcel of land at the northeast corner of the intersection of Thurlow Street and Haro Street in the West End. It is currently occupied by a 1980-built, seven-storey building with 160 apartment units and nearly 10,000 sq ft of commercial space fronting Thurlow Street.

830-850 Thurlow Street 1045 Haro Street Vancouver Intracorp

Location of the proposed complex at 830-850 Thurlow Street and 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

Site of 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

Site of 1450 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Over five years ago, on behalf of various parties that form the project’s ownership group, Intracorp Homes first floated the property’s redevelopment but struggled with a rezoning application submission due to the City of Vancouver’s impasse.

A 580-ft-tall, 56-storey tower and a 14-storey building had been proposed for the large lot, featuring 443 strata market condominium homes, 66 secured purpose-built rental homes, 43,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant uses, and a 6,700 sq ft childcare facility for 49 kids.

The tall tower’s design was irregular, triangular, and shaped to mould itself around protected mountain View Cone D emanating from the Heather Bay marina on the False Creek South seawall. Patkau Architects designed the project.

However, the application stalled as City staff were unsatisfied with the view cone mitigation strategies and were particularly opposed to how the tower would create new shadowing on Robson Street’s retail strip sidewalks just to the north.

Artistic rendering of 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

Mountain view cone height restrictions impact on 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

In July 2022, Vancouver City Council approved City staff’s recommendation to process — not to be confused for its approval — the rezoning application submission under the non-compliant rezoning application stream, which meant the proposal would formally go through a review that may lead to City staff recommending City Council’s future rejection of the rezoning’s approval. However, the project required a level of density that could only be achieved through added height to maintain the redevelopment’s financial viability.

“The Borrowers have indicated that they have not met the redevelopment requirements of the City despite substantial efforts to do so over the past five years and no development permit for the Property has been applied for to date. This delay, along with the significant increase in interest rates and the monthly revenue shortfall, required the Borrowers to negotiate several amendments to the credit agreement in place with the Syndicate,” reads Deloitte’s filing to the court on August 16, 2024.

In an October 2023 petition, the Bank of Montreal (BMO) indicated that it provided the ownership group with a loan of $95.3 million in 2018. At the time of the filing, which was made after the ownership group defaulted on their interest payments, the credit agreement was accruing interest at a rate of over $24,000 per day, which is compounded. BMO’s loan was used to cover more than half of the property’s purchase price in 2018.

The troubled previous ownership group was led by 1044227 BC Ltd. and Forseed Haro Holdings, which each held a 45% interest in the property. Terrapoint Developments held the remaining 10% ownership stake.

The value of the August 2024 court-approved sale to Chard Development was not disclosed, but BC Assessment pegs the property at $98.1 million as of July 2023 — a steady decline from its previous valuations over the years. Even in 2018, it was assessed by BC Assessment at $125.2 million.

The ownership group, however, had their property appraised based on its development potential, deeming it worth $192 million as of July 2023.

Artistic rendering of 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

Artistic rendering of 1045 Haro Street in the downtown Vancouver skyline. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

Artistic rendering of 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

Layout and public realm plan of 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

After BMO refused to extend the loan earlier in 2023, the ownership group retained commercial real estate firm CBRE to seek interested parties to buy the property.

By May 2023, CBRE received six different offers ranging in value between $81.5 million and $100 million. Some of these offers included incentives that would increase the purchase price if certain conditions were met. This includes a letter of intent from Chard Development for nearly $93 million.

However, the ownership group rejected all of these offers last year; while the offers would have paid the BMO loan in full, it would have resulted in the ownership group seeing tens of millions of dollars in losses, as they had acquired the property in 2018 for $172.75 million, plus incurred subsequent costs related to mortgage payments and advancing the proposal’s design and planning work.

Between October 2018 and December 2023, the ownership group paid BMO over $27 million in interest and fees to support the loan.

Artistic rendering of 1045 Haro Street, Vancouver. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

The failed two-building proposal of a 56-storey tower and a 14-storey building had a floor area ratio (FAR) density of a floor area that would be 10.21 times larger than the size of the lot and a gross total building floor area of 501,753 sq ft (with 441,709 sq ft being FAR density after exclusions are accounted for).

However, according to CBRE’s previous marketing brochure for the property’s receivership sale, an alternative redevelopment scenario of twin 21-storey towers would be compliant with the City of Vancouver’s existing mountain view cone policies and shadowing restriction guidelines.

But the pair of 21-storey towers would have considerably less total building floor area — a gross buildable area of 370,551 sq ft, with 355,822 sq ft of FAR density after exclusions or an 8.23 FAR density. This alternative concept also incorporates a four-storey base podium, with commercial retail/restaurant/office uses for the first two levels.

In July 2024, City Council approved sweeping changes to Vancouver’s view cone policies, but it did not include any relaxations for View Cone D.

Alternative redevelopment concept of two 21-storey towers for 1045 Haro Street that would be compliant with City of Vancouver policies. (CBRE)

The proposed tower at 830-850 Thurlow Street and 1045 Haro Street, as seen from View Cone D, emanating from Leg-in-Boot Square and the Heather Bay marina on the South False Creek seawall. The view cone is blocked by both sailboat masts next to the marina and the tower. (Patkau Architects/Intracorp)

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