Two towers in the West End with over 500 rental homes moving forward

Nov 19 2022, 12:38 am

Five months after the rezoning application was approved by Vancouver City Council, a development permit application has been submitted by Bosa Properties to pursue its twin rental housing towers in downtown Vancouver’s West End.

The latest application for the next stage of the project’s review is aligned with the design outlined during rezoning, with only very slight changes to the overall floor area and the number of homes.

The project would be located on the northeast and southeast corners of the intersection of Harwood and Thurlow streets.

The north tower at 1065 Harwood Street will contain 275 secured rental homes, including 56 below-market rental homes and 219 market rental homes, along with five levels of underground parking with 142 vehicle parking stalls and 520 secured bike parking spaces. The total floor area would reach 216,000 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio (FAR) density of a floor area that is 12.5 times larger than the size of the lot.

The south tower at 1066 Hardwood Street will similarly have 274 secured rental homes, with 56 units being below-market rental homes and 218 units being market rental homes. Five underground levels will contain 134 vehicle parking stalls and 520 secured bike parking spaces. The total floor area would reach 215,500 sq ft, establishing a 12.46 FAR.

Both towers combined will carry a total of 549 rental homes, including 112 below-market rental homes and 437 market rental homes.

1065-1066-1078 Harwood Street 1332 Thurlow Street Vancouver Bosa4Rent

Site of the rental-only concept for 1065 Harwood Street (north site) and 1066 Harwood Street (south site). (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa4Rent Homes)

1065-1066-1078 Harwood Street 1332 Thurlow Street Vancouver Bosa4Rent

Site of the rental-only concept for 1065 Harwood Street (north site) and 1066 Harwood Street (south site). (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa4Rent Homes)

The below-market housing allocation includes replacement units for the residents of the existing four over-60-year-old, low-rise buildings on the development sites.

Both new towers are 300 ft tall with 30 storeys, but the north tower appears slightly taller due to its higher elevation.

While the building uses, design form and floor area are essentially the same as the approved rezoning, Henriquez Partners Architects’ new artistic renderings for supporting the development permit application show a significant architectural design change for the project. The design has now been greatly simplified into a more conventional concept, with the appearance suggesting a measure of value engineering.

November 2022 artistic rendering of the north tower at 1065 Harwood Street:

1066 harwood street vancouver rental bosa properties

November 2022 artistic rendering of 1065 Harwood Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa4Rent/Bosa Properties)

November 2022 artistic rendering of the south tower at 1066 Harwood Street:

1066 harwood street vancouver rental bosa properties

November 2022 artistic rendering of 1066 Harwood Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa4Rent/Bosa Properties)

2021 artistic rendering of both rental housing towers at 1065-1066 Harwood Street:

1065-1066-1078 Harwood Street 1332 Thurlow Street Vancouver Bosa4Rent

Previous approved rezoning design: 2021 artistic rendering of the rental-only concept for 1065 Harwood Street and 1332 Thurlow Street (north site), and 1078 Harwood Street (south site). (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa4Rent Homes)

Over five years ago, Bosa Properties originally proposed to build two condominium towers with a similar height and density but with a starkly different design. It would have included 241 homes, including 143 condominium homes and 98 social housing units. But the condominium-primary proposal stalled due to the market downturn at the time, which meant the social housing units and the high level of community amenity contributions (CACs) were no longer financially feasible.

To move this proposal and several others forward along the West End’s Thurlow Street corridor, in late 2020, city council approved city staff’s recommendation to enable a two-year period of providing developers with the flexible option to build market rental housing with a below-market rental housing component, instead of condominiums with some social housing and allocating CACs worth tens of millions of dollars, as required under the West End Plan. This interim policy has since catalyzed the conversion of a number of previous condominium-primary proposals into rental housing.

2017 artistic rendering of the mixed-use condominium and rental housing towers at 1065-1066 Harwood Street:

Cancelled condominium/rental housing design: 2017 artistic rendering of the proposed BlueSky development at Thurlow Street and Harwood Street intersection. (Henriquez Partners Architects/BlueSky Properties)

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