22-storey rental condo building with church planned for West End

With large grocery stores, retail shops, office spaces, hotels, and cultural facilities on the lower floors of the city’s residential buildings, Vancouver is renowned in North America for its wide prevalence of mixed-use developments.

This is also the city known for North America’s first urban Costco which is located in the basement of the Spectrum condo complex next to Rogers Arena.

A new development proposed in the West End will uniquely add to the city’s jumble of mixed-use developments. An application was recently submitted to rezone 1155 Thurlow Street (the intersection of Thurlow and Pendrell Streets) to allow for the construction of a 22-storey rental condo building with a church on its lower floors.

The proposal is designed by Henriquez Partners Architects and includes:

• floor space ratio (FSR) of 9.45;
• total floor area of 15,177.1 m² (163,365 sq. ft.);
• height is 62.9 m (206.3 ft.);
• 168 market rental housing units;
• 45 non-market rental housing units for seniors; and
• 133 parking stalls

The development is being spearheaded by Central Presbyterian Church which currently owns the site and the 1970s built church that sits on the property. It is hoping to expand its church operations by using the revenue generated from rental sales to build a new, larger church as well as arts and community spaces within the development’s lower three floors of congregation owned and operated space.

A surge in proposed developments for the downtown West End is expected given Vancouver City Council’s recent approval of the West End Community Plan that calls for additional density and taller height limits within the neighbourhood.

Images: Henriquez Partners Architects