Safeway redevelopment at Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain nears City decision | Daily Hive

Safeway redevelopment at Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station nears Vancouver City Council decision

May 2024 concept: redevelopment of Safeway at 1780 East Broadway, Vancouver. (Perkins&Will/Westbank/Crombie REIT)

After more than a decade of planning since its earliest iterations, the proponents of the major mixed-use redevelopment of the Safeway grocery store site next to SkyTrain’s Commercial-Broadway Station are now approaching the finish line for rezoning approval.

For the project’s vocal opponents, many of whom are residents of the surrounding Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood, made apparent by the area’s “NO MEGATOWERS” red lawn signs, years of mounting concern and organized resistance are now coming to a head as the redevelopment proposal moves closer to a final decision by Vancouver City Council.

Next week, City Council is expected to review and endorse City staff’s recommendation to advance the rezoning application to a scheduled public hearing, anticipated to take place in May 2025.

If the rezoning application is approved by City Council at the public hearing later this spring, this will be the single largest development project within the area of the Grandview-Woodland Community Plan to date.

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“The proposed height and density exceed the Plan, but staff are supportive due to the emerging context given Transit-Oriented Area policies. The Plan’s vision is to embrace the Commercial-Broadway Station area’s potential as a transit-oriented precinct, with new opportunities for higher density housing, employment, retail services, and gathering space,” reads City staff’s response to the concerns expressed during the application’s previous formal public consultation process.

“The site is located next to one of the region’s busiest transit hubs, with excellent transit and cycling connectivity, providing alternatives to driving and reducing the need for parking.”

Existing condition of the Safeway grocery store site at 1780 East Broadway, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

no megatowers at safeway commercial broadway grandview-woodland

A “NO MEGATOWERS at Safeway!” site at the front of a house a few blocks away from the Safeway site next to SkyTrain Commercial-Broadway Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Over the years, the project has undergone numerous changes to its design, density, height, and mixed-use composition in response to neighbourhood feedback, evolving market conditions, and shifting municipal and provincial policies.

Early versions of the proposal envisioned a smaller complex focused primarily on strata condominium ownership. However, subsequent revisions gradually reduced the strata component in favour of rental units, eventually leading to a complete shift into 100 per cent secured purpose-built rental housing for the residential portion of the project in the November 2023-submitted application.

What will be considered by City Council later this spring is the May 2024-submitted revised application, which outlined taller tower heights to enable more rental homes, additional and improved on-site public spaces, and the incorporation of a childcare facility in exchange for the added density.

1780 east broadway vancouver safeway commercial broadway

May 2024 concept: redevelopment of Safeway at 1780 East Broadway, Vancouver. (Perkins&Will/Westbank/Crombie REIT)

The joint partnership between property owner Crombie REIT and local developer Westbank is proposing to replace the existing grocery store building and surface vehicle parking lot with three high-rise towers, reaching 479 ft. with 44 storeys, 417 ft. with 38 storeys, and 404 ft. with 37 storeys.

The total building floor area will reach about 847,000 sq. ft., establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 8.3 times larger than the size of the 2.4-acre lot at 1780 East Broadway. Perkins&Will is the project’s architectural design firm.

Part of the proponents’ rationale for the increased density through added height is the precedent set by the type of transit-oriented development proposals emerging within the Broadway Plan area, which has an easternmost border of Clark Drive — just two blocks from the Safeway site.

There will be a total of 1,044 secured purpose-built rental homes, including 940 market rental units and 104 below-market rental units. At least 35% of the homes will be sized for families, defined as units with two or more bedrooms.

Within the base podium, the project provides 74,346 sq. ft. of commercial space, including an approximate 50,000 sq. ft. replacement grocery store and various retail/restaurant units.

May 2024 concept: redevelopment of Safeway at 1780 East Broadway, Vancouver. (Perkins&Will/Westbank/Crombie REIT)

The public benefits include a 5,000 sq. ft., City-owned childcare facility for 37 kids, a mid-block, event-friendly public plaza between the SkyTrain station and the new building complex that also doubles as a pedestrian route between East Broadway and East 10th Avenue, and a publicly accessible upper-level courtyard. Space will be set aside for a Mobi bike share station.

Three underground levels will contain 348 vehicle parking stalls — down from the previous proposal of 438 stalls — and 2,011 bike parking spaces.

When the Millennium Line’s seamless Broadway Extension to Arbutus opens in 2027, Commercial-Broadway Station is expected to grow significantly in importance as a key regional public transit interchange. From this station, the travel time to Broadway-City Hall Station for a transfer to the Canada Line will only be about six minutes, and the travel times to the new Arbutus Station terminus will be about 12 minutes.

The City of Vancouver’s Urban Design Panel (UDP) reviewed and endorsed the project’s design concept in July 2024.

According to the UDP’s meeting minutes, the panel “acknowledged it is an incredible project with 1,000 rental units in the region with daycare and grocery store is remarkable,” and that “this is a large, complex project with lots of ambition related to sustainability.”

But some suggestions were made by the panel to improve the “connection to the feel of Commercial Drive” so that it would “‘fit’ Commercial Drive with more of the ‘quirkiness’ in the public realm.” As well, there was a suggestion to incorporate a direct SkyTrain station entrance from the plaza, if it is technically possible.

broadway extension skytrain millennium line extension ridership forecast 2045

2045 ridership forecast for the stations along the SkyTrain Millennium Line Broadway Extension (Broadway Subway) route, with permitted densities/heights for stations under the Broadway Plan also shown. (Perkins&Will)

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