18-storey rental tower proposed near future Mount Pleasant SkyTrain

Artistic rendering of 2535 Carolina Street and 557 569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Havn)

Three single-family lots at the northwest corner of the intersection of Carolina Street and East 10th Avenue in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood could become a high-rise residential rental tower.

This is a transit-oriented development, with the site well served by frequent bus routes along East Broadway just to the north and Fraser Street one city block to the east. And it is within close proximity to two future SkyTrain Millennium Line stations — a 10-minute walk to Mount Pleasant Station and about a 15-minute walk to Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.

It is one of the growing number of projects spurred by the City’s Broadway Plan that is now coming to light.

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Havn, a new player in Vancouver’s real estate development industry, has submitted a new rezoning application to redevelop the land assembly of 2535 Carolina Street and 557-569 East 10th Avenue into a 204-ft-tall, 18-storey, mixed-use building.

2535 carolina street 557 569 east 10th avenue vancouver havn rental housing

Site of 2535 Carolina Street and 557-569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Existing condition:

Site of 2535 Carolina Street and 557-569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

Artistic rendering of 2535 Carolina Street and 557 569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Havn)

The proposal calls for 150 secured purpose-built rental homes, including 117 market rental units and 33 below-market rental units, based on the allocation of 20% of the residential space for below-market rental housing. The unit size mix is 55 studios, 44 one-bedroom units, 36 two-bedroom units, and 15 three-bedroom units. Residents will have access to various shared indoor and outdoor amenity spaces, including a significant tower rooftop space.

Unique to this project’s uses in such a residential area is its attempt to reintroduce a neighbourhood grocery store — an 828 sq ft commercial retail space is prominently situated on the ground level fronting the intersection.

“The design pays homepage to the nostalgia of local Broadway storefronts, while further establishing the intersection of 10th and Carolina as a gathering place for the community. The tower’s design incorporates a deliberate interplay between light and heavy facades,” reads the design rationale by architectural firm Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership.

Artistic rendering of 2535 Carolina Street and 557 569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Havn)

But the tower’s slender design is no mistake. In an interview, Havn co-founders Adrian Lai and Martin Rahn told Daily Hive Urbanized the position and form of the tower is on the eastern half of the footprint — closest to the property’s edge with Carolina Street — to abide by the municipal government’s 80-ft separation rule for towers.

While the design follows the tower separation rule, it does not comply with some of the prescriptions of the Broadway Plan for this particular location, and for these reasons, this is deemed to be a non-compliant application for City Council’s eventual consideration.

This is the second tower proposal for the city block, which is one of the blocks under the Broadway Plan where only one tower is permitted per block. However, another proposed tower project on the block by a different entity has taken that spot — a 19-storey secured rental housing project at 523-549 East 10th Avenue, immediately west of Havn’s development site. This adjacent development site and its rezoning application design plans were acquired by Fastmark Developments earlier this fall, according to real estate firm Avison Young.

Havn’s site of 2535 Carolina Street and 557-569 East 10th Avenue, in relation to Fastmark Developments’ adjacent tower proposal site of 523-549 East 10th Avenue and other tower sites prescribed by the Broadway Plan. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Havn)

523-549 East 10th Avenue Vancouver rental housing tower

Artistic rendering of 523-549 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (GBL Architects/Fastmark Developments)

Artistic rendering of 2535 Carolina Street and 557 569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Havn)

While only one tower is permitted on this particular city block, just immediately to the north, across the laneway, the Broadway Plan permits a maximum of three towers per block for the blocks along East Broadway between St. George Street and Prince Albert Street.

Lai says his team went through the City’s pre-application letter of inquiry process soon after the Broadway Plan was fully enacted in September 2022, which led to a flood of submitted inquiries. But it took the City more than half a year to respond to their preliminary proposal, at which point the separate proponents of the adjacent project already submitted a full rezoning application — skipping the letter of inquiry — and secured their position as the block’s tower.

“We’re not trying to place blame on anyone. It’s just just the unfortunate reality that we have to deal with,” said Lai.

Rahn added, “That initial stage with the City was actually a lot longer than anyone anticipated, which we think put most developers a little bit behind. We’re all now trying to catch up in terms of timing because time is money. Sitting on projects longer than anticipated really impacts the bottom line on how feasible these projects ultimately are.”

Lai believes his company has made a strong case to the municipal government to allow for a second tower on the block, given its transit-oriented development location, the further deterioration of housing affordability since the Broadway Plan’s approval, more recent municipal and provincial directions, and the steps taken by their team to mitigate other stated constraints.

The project floor area ratio (FAR) density exceeds what is prescribed in the Broadway Plan, which calls for a maximum density of a floor area that is 5.5 times larger than the size of the lot for this particular site. Their project proposes a FAR of 5.8, which is due in part to the provision of the local-serving retail space and a community book exchange area. The proposed total building floor area on the 16,100 sq ft land assembly is 93,700 sq ft.

With only one tower permitted on the block, the Broadway Plan otherwise only permits residential buildings up to six storeys with a density of up to 2.7 FAR for the block’s other parcels. This would produce far fewer rental homes on the site.

Artistic rendering of 2535 Carolina Street and 557 569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Havn)

2535 carolina street 557 569 east 10th avenue vancouver havn rental housing 11

Typical floor plan between levels 7 to 11 at 2535 Carolina Street and 557-569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Havn)

When asked whether the slender tower form, resulting in smaller floor plates, led to reduced density and fewer rental homes, Lai said that is not necessarily the case. They are having discussions with the adjacent tower developer and the City to see if any compromises can be made to have a more efficient floor plate, but there are no guarantees since this is a non-compliant application.

Two-and-a-half underground levels will accommodate 52 vehicle parking stalls — lower than the City’s minimum of 77 stalls for such a design — and 241 secured bike parking spaces.

Lai adds that Havn has two more rental housing tower proposals in the pipeline within the Broadway Plan area. The rezoning applications for both projects have also been submitted and should be made public within weeks.

This includes an 18-storey tower with 170 secured purpose-built rental homes at 2156-2172 West 14th Avenue, which is near SkyTrain’s future Arbutus Station, and another 18-storey tower with 165 secured purpose-built rental homes at 121-129 West 11th Avenue, which is near both Broadway-City Hall and Mount Pleasant stations.

Both projects will also set aside 20% of the residential floor area for below-market rental homes.

Rahn notes the project at 121-129 West 11th Avenue is impacted by the wide-sweeping View Cone 3 emanating from the peak of Queen Elizabeth Park. A previous design with a shorter building height and larger floor plates was in compliance with the view cone’s height restriction for the site, but the City was against the larger floor plates for accommodating the required density to support the project. Under the Broadway Plan, the building height can extend into the view cone only if the project provides social housing uses.

Reliance Properties’ proposed redevelopment of the former MEC West Broadway store into two rental housing towers is also impacted by the same view cone.

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