32-storey West End rental tower approved by Vancouver City Council

32-storey West End rental housing tower approved by Vancouver City Council

2024 revised artistic rendering of 1065 Pacific Street, Vancouver. (Buttjes Architecture/Wall Financial Corporation)

Another secured purpose-built rental housing tower has been approved for the Thurlow Street corridor in downtown Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood.

Earlier this week, in a public hearing, Vancouver City Council approved the rezoning application by Wall Financial Corporation to redevelop 1065 Pacific Street into a 300-ft-tall, 32-storey rental housing tower with 180 units, including 36 below-market units and 144 market units.

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The site is near the northeast corner of the intersection of Pacific Street and Thurlow Street, with a narrow frontage of only 99 ft and a lot depth of 131 ft — a lot size of about 12,800 sq ft. The resulting total building floor area is 145,300 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 11.2 times larger than the size of the lto.

Site of 1065 Pacific Street, Vancouver. (Goodman Commercial)

Existing condition:

Site of 1065 Pacific Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

1065 pacific street vancouver rental housing wall financial corporation 2024

2024 revised artistic rendering of 1065 Pacific Street, Vancouver. (Buttjes Architecture/Wall Financial Corporation)

The rezoning was approved in a 5-1 vote, with city councillor Peter Mesizner voting in opposition, marking a rare instance of a member of City Council under the governing ABC Vancouver party voting against a residential project. Mayor Ken Sim and city councillors Lisa Dominato (ABC), Rebecca Bligh (ABC), Christine Boyle (OneCity), and Pete Fry (Green) were absent from the meeting.

During the deliberations, Meiszner took issue with the size of the building on the small lot area.

“I’m really struggling with this one. We need the rental housing and below-market rental housing, but it seems like a really large building on a really small site,” said Mesizner during the meeting.

City staff explained that while the design does not meet the frontage requirements under the City’s West End Plan, the City’s director of planning has the authority to waive that consideration. It was also noted that the area plan stipulates the frontage can be reduced below the requirement of 130 ft if the project offers public benefits, such as affordable housing.

The area plan enables tower floor plate sizes of up to 6,600 sq ft for residential uses, but this proposal will have 4,800 sq ft floor plates due to its small lot size.

2024 revised artistic rendering of 1065 Pacific Street, Vancouver. (Buttjes Architecture/Wall Financial Corporation)

For the same tight lot size reasons, the design incorporates two car elevators to access the underground parkade instead of traditional ramps, which require significantly more space. Five underground levels will accommodate 95 vehicle parking stalls and about 340 bike parking spaces.

Currently, the lot is occupied by a 1963-built, three-storey building with 30 apartment units. The new tower will provide a six-fold increase in the number of rental homes on the site, with a unit size mix of 117 one-bedroom units, 62 two-bedroom units, and a single three-bedroom unit.

In early 2023, in a deal worth about $19 million, Goodman Commercial sold the property to Wall Financial Corporation for its rental housing tower redevelopment potential under the West End Plan.

Between the submission of the rezoning application in 2022/2023 and this week’s public hearing, Buttjes Architecture created new artistic renderings depicting a refined architectural design concept.

2022/2023 rezoning application’s original conceptual design:

1065 Pacific Street Vancouver rental housing tower

2022/2023 rezoning application’s original artistic rendering of 1065 Pacific Street, Vancouver. (Wall Financial Corporation)

March 2024 revised design at public hearing:

2024 revised artistic rendering of 1065 Pacific Street, Vancouver. (Buttjes Architecture/Wall Financial Corporation)

To achieve this rezoning, the developer pursued the policy stream of the City of Vancouver’s alternative option of providing developers on the east side of the Thurlow Street corridor within the West End with the ability to pursue a redevelopment with 100% rental housing, with at least 20% of the rental residential floor area set aside for below-market units. A growing number of projects along Thurlow Street within the West End have pursued this 100% rental housing path, instead of the City’s West End Plan’s normal stipulation of a mix of condominiums and social housing, which is associated with far greater community amenity contributions (CACs).

One of those projects is immediately to the north at 1065-1066 Harwood Street. Bosa Properties originally proposed two condominium towers with some social housing, but this was later revised to a 100% rental housing project under the alternative policy stream, which was initially a temporary option before being made a permanent policy for the area. Both 300-ft-tall, 30-storey towers in the Harwood Street project will generate a total of 549 rental homes, including 437 market rental homes and 112 below-market rental homes. The rezoning application was approved by the previous makeup of City Council in June 2022, and the development permit application was approved in September 2023.

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