Trifecta of residential, office and industrial coming to Main Street and 1st Avenue corner

May 2 2019, 2:53 am

Very few mixed-use redevelopment projects accomplish the complete trifecta of building uses: residential, commercial, and industrial.

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But a new proposal designed by GBL Architects to redevelop 220 East 1st Avenue — the southeast corner of the intersection of Main Street and East 1st Avenue — within the False Creek Flats aims to check all three boxes.

220 East 1st Avenue Vancouver

Site of 220 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

220 East 1st Avenue Vancouver

Site of 220 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

QuadReal Property Group and Hungerford Properties have provided Daily Hive with a preview of their proposal to redevelop the city block site with a 10-storey stacked-industrial and office building on the western parcel and a 13-storey residential building on the eastern parcel.

The total floor area of the proposed redevelopment is over 263,000-sq-ft, including 40,370-sq-ft of industrial space on the ground and second levels, 81,075-sq-ft of office space within eight levels, and 141,707-sq-ft of residential space within the upper levels for 215 rental homes.

An arts-walk public space will bisect the residential and industrial/office buildings.

220 East 1st Avenue Vancouver

Artistic rendering of 220 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver; northeast corner showcasing the residential component. (GBL Architects / QuadReal Property Group / Hungerford Properties)

220 East 1st Avenue Vancouver

Artistic rendering of 220 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (GBL Architects / QuadReal Property Group / Hungerford Properties)

The proposal aligns with the municipal government’s False Creek Flats Plan of turning the district’s southwest corner into a creative and innovation hub, with mixed-uses that permit residential — one of the few locations where new residential space is located within the False Creek Flats.

A development application has been submitted to the municipal government, but its complete details have yet to be publicized at the time of writing.

220 East 1st Avenue Vancouver

Artistic rendering of 220 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver; Arts Walk bisecting the residential and commercial buildings. (GBL Architects / QuadReal Property Group / Hungerford Properties)

220 East 1st Avenue Vancouver

Artistic rendering of 220 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver; northwest corner showcasing the stacked-industrial and office components. (GBL Architects / QuadReal Property Group / Hungerford Properties)

Just one block north of this development site, the City of Vancouver is envisioning a 1.5-acre Vancouver Innovation Hub. An international competition was launched last year for a unique redevelopment with 300,000-sq-ft of floor area that incorporates market and non-market housing, light industrial start-ups and accelerators, affordable industrial space for social enterprises, market rates for laboratory and digital uses, and non-market industrial arts production.

Over two decades, the False Creek Flats Plan calls for an increase in the area’s employment — from 8,000 to 22,000 jobs — in healthcare and the creative and tech industries and new homes for 3,000 people. Most of this growth will occur at the new St. Paul’s Hospital campus at the district’s northwest corner, the western perimeter along Main Street, and the southern perimeter along East 2nd Avenue and Great Northern Way.

A new subway station as a part of SkyTrain’s Millennium Line Broadway Extension at the intersection of Great Northern Way and Thornton Street will help accelerate this growth.

The City of Vancouver’s approved False Creek Flats plan. (City of Vancouver)

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Kenneth ChanKenneth Chan

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