Future rental tower project in downtown Vancouver changes owners

Future rental housing tower project in downtown Vancouver changes owners

June 2024 revised concept of 1318 Thurlow Street and 1068-1090 Burnaby Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Crestpoint Real Estate Investments/Anthem Properties)

Yet another change has been made to the future high-rise residential tower project for the land assembly of 1318 Thurlow Street and 1068-1090 Burnaby Street in downtown Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood.

Not only has there been a change in its design and housing tenure mix, but there has also been a shift in ownership.

The project was previously being pursued by a joint partnership between Strand Development and Intracorp Homes. According to a release this week, the land assembly is now owned by a different partnership entailing Crestpoint Real Estate Investments and Anthem Properties.

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The acquisition was made under the “Crestpoint Opportunistic Real Estate Strategy,” which will strategically invest in a “range of opportunistic Canadian real estate investments” with a gross annualized return target of 15% to 18%.

The land assembly replacing existing aging low-rise apartment buildings is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Thurlow and Burnaby streets. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but the announcement states that Crestpoint owns 77% of the property and Anthem holds the remaining 23%. The 17,300 sq ft lot with its existing structures is worth $35.4 million, according to BC Assessment. The acquisition also includes the in-stream rezoning application plans.

“Since Crestpoint’s inception in 2010, some of our best investments have been in periods characterized by the market volatility and dislocation we see today,” said Kevin Leon, CEO of Crestpoint, in a statement.

“We believe it’s a compelling investment environment. We expect to use multiple strategies to create and capture value, including repositioning undermanaged assets, recapitalizing properties with weak balance sheets and renovating existing buildings to higher standards.”

1318 thurlow street 1068 1090 burnaby street vancouver anthem crestpoint 2024

Site of 1318 Thurlow Street and 1068-1090 Burnaby Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

1068-1090 Burnaby Street 1318 Thurlow Street Vancouver West End rental tower

Site of the 2023 revised rental housing tower design for 1068-1090 Burnaby Street and 1318 Thurlow Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Strand Development/Intracorp Homes)

Site of 1318 Thurlow Street and 1068-1090 Burnaby Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

The push to redevelop this site now spans the terms of three different Vancouver City Councils.

In July 2018, the Vision Vancouver-led City Council approved a rezoning application at this site for a 30-storey tower containing 128 homes, including 89 condominium homes and 39 social housing units.

Then in late 2022, as previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, Strand and Intracorp submitted a new rezoning application that incorporated more density by primarily adding more floors within the same volume of height and growing the size of the floor plates. At this juncture, the 295-ft-tall, 34-storey tower project now contained 311 homes, including 287 secured purpose-built market rental homes and 24 social housing units (equivalent to 10% of the total residential floor area). This previous change was pursued because the original condominium-primary design was no longer financially feasible due to changes in market conditions.

And now, based on the June 2024 revisions to the rezoning application, the project is now a 293-ft-tall, 32-storey tower with 100% secured purpose-built rental housing, with the previous social housing tenure fully removed. Instead, there will be 300 secured purpose-built rental homes, including 242 market rental units and 58 below-market rental units.

The unit size mix is now three studio units, 179 one-bedroom units, 112 two-bedroom units, and six three-bedroom units.

Previous 2023 design with rental housing and social housing:

Artistic rendering of the 2023 revised rental housing tower design for 1068-1090 Burnaby Street and 1318 Thurlow Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Strand Development/Intracorp Homes)

June 2024 revised design with 100% rental housing:

June 2024 revised concept of 1318 Thurlow Street and 1068-1090 Burnaby Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Crestpoint Real Estate Investments/Anthem Properties)

According to the application, the removal of two storeys of height reduces the building’s shadowing impacts on the Davie Street sidewalk. The floor plate sizes have also grown from 6,600 sq ft to up to 7,260 sq ft, which improves the livability of the units and increases the number of family-sized units, which is defined as units with at least two bedrooms.

“The removal of stories has made possible increases in the levels that contain amenity spaces where added ceiling height can have the most benefit. Individual suite sizes have increased to provide improved indoor livability and features,” reads the revised application.

Building shadowing impacts on Davie Street; June 2024 revised concept of 1318 Thurlow Street and 1068-1090 Burnaby Street, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Crestpoint Real Estate Investments/Anthem Properties)

As for shared indoor and outdoor amenity spaces, residents will have access to such spaces on the second level and the entirety of the 32nd level on the rooftop.

Four underground levels will contain 122 vehicle parking stalls, which is almost unchanged from the previous design. As well, there will be 512 secure bike parking spaces.

The total building floor area is now 218,500 sq ft, representing a floor area ratio (FAR) density of a floor area that is 12.63 times larger than the size of the development site. This is up from the 9.01 FAR density of the original condominium-primary concept with social housing and the 12.25 FAR density of the previous rental housing-primary concept with social housing.

Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects has been retained as the project’s lead design firm.

This revised design is coming forward under City Council’s new flexible policies for developers providing them with the option of proposing rental housing-primary projects along the east side of Thurlow Street within the West End instead of the more costly option of condominiums with significant community amenity contributions (CACs).

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