Telus proposes 25-storey rental housing tower on Vancouver-Burnaby border | Daily Hive

Telus proposes 25-storey rental housing tower on Vancouver-Burnaby border, right next to Swangard Stadium

Concept of 3696 Kingsway, Vancouver. (Arcadis/Ledcor/Telus Living)

Right on the Vancouver-Burnaby border, at the southwest corner of the intersection of Boundary Road and Kingsway, lies a substantial telecommunications exchange utility building.

And this particular facility, immediately to the west of Central Park’s Swangard Stadium, stands out from most others because of its cellular base station tower.

The facility also happens to be just kitty corner from “The Boot,” the 1976-built office tower on the Burnaby side of Boundary Road. It was originally known as the BC Tel headquarters building and then the Telus Brian Canfield Centre.

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Now, for this utility building site at 3696 Kingsway, telecommunications giant Telus has submitted a new rezoning application to Vancouver’s municipal government to redevelop the property into a 271-ft.-tall, 25-storey, mixed-use tower with 100 per cent secured purpose-built market rental housing, about 10,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant uses on the ground level, and a small replacement telecommunications utility building using the latest technology.

This proposed rental housing building would exceed the height of Telus’ former headquarters office tower.

3696 Kingsway Vancouver Boundary Telus rental housing tower

Site of 3696 Kingsway, Vancouver, with the walking distance from SkyTrain’s Patterson Station also shown. (Google Maps)

Site of 3696 Kingsway, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Concept of 3696 Kingsway, Vancouver. (Arcadis/Ledcor/Telus Living)

There would be a total of 233 market rental units, with a unit size mix of 24 studios, 117 one-bedroom units, 69 two-bedroom units, and 23 three-bedroom units. Shared indoor and outdoor amenity spaces would be provided to residents on both the base podium and tower rooftop levels.

On the westernmost end of the property, there would be a new two-storey, 4,000 sq. ft. telecommunications utility building — just a small fraction of the existing building’s size, made possible by Telus’ transition from copper-based to fibre-optic telecommunications infrastructure, which requires far less space.

Additionally, as a major green design feature, excess heat from the new utility building would be piped into the tower’s systems to help support space and water heating needs.

Through its Telus Living division, the company is redeveloping its outdated and/or under-utilized facilities that use old copper-based infrastructure. To date, many Telus Living projects have included designs that redevelop former telecommunications exchange utility building sites, often incorporating smaller on-site utility components with fibre optics and a waste heat recovery system for the new on-site mixed uses.

Concept of 3696 Kingsway, Vancouver. (Arcadis/Ledcor/Telus Living)

The company is looking to build over 4,000 new homes across B.C., plus new commercial and industrial developments. Currently, there are dozens of active proposals by Telus Living across the province, which would generate a combined total of over 3,000 homes if fully achieved. Many of these units would be located within the city of Vancouver, including a new proposal by Telus to redevelop their Strathcona warehouse facility into two mixed-use towers with rental housing, retail/restaurant uses, childcare, and a non-profit arts and culture space.

For the Boundary/Kingsway project, there would also be three underground levels to provide 145 vehicle parking stalls. As well, 373 secured bike parking spaces would be offered.

Walking along the BC Parkway pathway, the development site is near two SkyTrain stations — about a 15-minute walk northwest to Joyce-Collingwood Station, and a 13-minute walk southeast to Patterson Station.

The total building floor area would reach nearly 179,000 sq. ft., establishing a floor area ratio (FAR) density of 6.43 — over six times larger than the size of the 7,232 sq. ft. plot of land.

For this project specifically, Telus is working with Ledcor and architectural design firm Arcadis.

Concept of 3696 Kingsway, Vancouver. (Arcadis/Ledcor/Telus Living)

This is one of the first sizeable applications to be considered under the framework, process, and policies of the newly enacted Vancouver Official Development Plan (ODP), necessitating an amendment to that plan in addition to the rezoning.

Just across the street at The Boot complex, demolition is nearing completion on the office tower’s 10-storey north base podium fronting Boundary Road — part of the initial work to add five residential towers to the property, ranging between 31 and 64 storeys in height, and some retail/restaurant uses, including a possible grocery store. The main office tower will remain.

In this area on the Vancouver side of the border, City of Vancouver planners have, over the decades, limited tower geodetic heights — land elevation and structural heights combined — near Joyce-Collingwood Station to that of The Boot (roughly 274 ft.) to preserve it as a visual landmark. However, this aesthetic rationale was not shared by City of Burnaby urban planners, who permitted tower heights well over twice that of The Boot on the same property — a project approved by Burnaby City Council in 2025.

The City of Vancouver’s building height restrictions within the 2016-approved Joyce-Collingwood Station Precinct Plan are strategically intended to match the height of the Telus “The Boot” office tower in the City of Burnaby. (City of Vancouver)

Central Park Commons Telus Boot 3777-3791 Kingsway Burnaby

Artistic rendering of Central Park Commons at the Telus Boot at 3777-3791 Kingsway, Burnaby. (Arcadis/PC Urban)

telus boot office tower burnaby demolition august 3 2025

Demolition progress on the 10-storey north podium of the Telus Boot office tower in Burnaby, as of August 3, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

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