Four mixed-use towers proposed for future Emily Carr SkyTrain station | Daily Hive

Four towers up to 37 storeys proposed for SkyTrain's future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station, featuring condos, rental homes, retail, and a hotel

2025 rezoning concept of 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Onni Group)

With four high-rise towers reaching up to 37 storeys and over 1.1 million sq. ft. of total building floor area, this is the single largest development proposal to date within the City of Vancouver’s Broadway Plan area.

Local developer Onni Group has now submitted its new rezoning application outlining its ambitious plans to develop its partially-excavated construction pit at 375 East 1st Avenue, which is immediately northwest of SkyTrain’s future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.

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A carefully envisioned proposal designed by Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects and David Stokyo Landscape Architect, this building complex could be a model transit-oriented development, combining a critical mass of density with an exceptional mix of uses inside one volume.

It seamlessly integrates strata condominiums, secured purpose-built market and below-market rental housing, a sizeable hotel, major office space, and diverse retail and restaurant offerings — including both small and large-format commercial units — alongside expansive indoor and outdoor public spaces.

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Site of 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, adjacent to SkyTrain’s future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station. (Google Maps)

399 east 1st avenue vancouver onni april 2024

Onni Group’s construction pit at 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

375 east 1st avenue vancouver onni group emily car rezoning 2025

2025 rezoning concept of 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Onni Group)

All four towers rise from a unified five-storey podium that spans the site, anchoring the development with a fully enclosed, light-filled publicly accessible atrium at its heart.

Such weather-protected, climate-controlled indoor spaces of this size are generally a rare public space feature in Vancouver.

This vast five-storey indoor atrium features skylights and an amphitheater-like seating and staircase area, all oriented toward a two-storey glass wall with large sliding doors that connect the space to the outdoors in fair weather. Just behind the landing of the amphitheater-like area — which could serve as a venue for performances and other events — the glass wall offers sweeping views of a new outdoor public space, a greenway, on the building’s west side.

Furthermore, the complex is designed to make the event-friendly atrium the vibrant heart not only of the building but also of the ever-evolving designated Creative District in the City’s False Creek Flats Plan.

2025 rezoning concept of 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Onni Group)

Access to some of the building’s most active areas is intentionally funnelled through the atrium to drive pedestrian traffic, including entrances into the hotel lobby and larger commercial units of 14,000 sq. ft. and 29,000 sq. ft. — which are ideal for businesses such as a grocery store or a larger retailer — as well as smaller commercial units suitable for cafes, restaurants, and other retail.

With tables and seating scattered throughout, other areas of the atrium provide a welcoming environment for lingering, socializing, studying, and casual gatherings.

Furthermore, there are wide and visually inviting entrances into the atrium from East 1st Avenue to the south, Thornton Street to the east, and the new greenway to the west, serving to pull people into the building from the subway station and surrounding area. This is in addition to some direct streetfront entrances for the various businesses.

“The hotel and residential lobbies, and commercial retail unit spaces open into the atrium where its auditorium stair and seating areas provide a new kind of public space for the campus that complements the outdoor public spaces of the subway station and the greenway,” reads the project’s design rationale.

“As a place to sit, meet, view performances, lectures or as a venue for public art, the atrium auditorium becomes a versatile indoor/outdoor all-season venue for many programming possibilities. The central nature of the atrium, overlooked by the office corridors above and framed on all sides by the inner faces of the hotel and residential lobbies and by the dual-frontage commercial units, the atrium extends the public realm into the depth of the site.”

Artistic renderings show the corridors and interiors of the base podium’s hotel, office, and residential spaces, above the main level of the atrium, will offer views overlooking the atrium below. As well, the atrium could feature a striking suspended public art installation.

Moreover, drawing on Indigenous inspiration, the shape of the atrium and the design of its open corridors on the upper levels are influenced by the way water has tunnelled and shaped the land over time.

2025 rezoning concept of 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Onni Group)

Additionally, when an individual stands at the centre of the atrium and looks up toward the skylight, the experience is said to evoke the sensation of gazing upward from beneath the water toward boats floating on the surface above — on the rooftop of the base podium.

“This concept of the portal is drawn from the Indigenous mythology associated with this location and becomes a theme of the project, where the visitor is drawn into a portal to another realm, and encounters another kind of space and hopefully learns or is transformed by the experience,” reads the design rationale.

Within the upper levels of the base podium, there will be three levels of office space and partial levels of shared indoor amenity space for residents and hotel guests.

Adjacent to an indoor amenity space, the large rooftop of the base podium will serve as an outdoor amenity space for both hotel guests and residents, featuring a large outdoor swimming pool, poolside lounge area, children’s playground, landscaped area, and garden plots.

All hotel rooms and residential units are situated within the tower levels above the base podium.

2025 rezoning concept of 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Onni Group)

Including the levels of the base podium, the northwest, northeast, and southeast towers will each be 35 storeys, while the southwest tower will be the tallest at 37 storeys, reaching 423 ft.

The northwest tower houses hotel rooms on the lower levels and market rental homes on the upper levels. The northeast tower features below-market rental homes on the lower levels and market rental homes above. The southeast tower is dedicated entirely to market rental homes, while the southwest tower consists exclusively of strata condominiums.

Overall, there will be 210 hotel rooms and 965 homes, including 300 strata ownership condominium homes, 605 secured purpose-built market rental homes, and 60 secured purpose-built below-market rental homes.

The overall rental housing unit size mix is 43 studio units, 386 one-bedroom units, 160 two-bedroom units, and 76 three-bedroom units, while the strata condominium unit size mix is 165 one-bedroom units, 100 two-bedroom units, and 35 three-bedroom units. Residents will also have access to shared amenities on the tower rooftops.

At this early stage, no hotel operator has been identified.

At ground level on the west side of the building, a 19,000 sq. ft. north-south greenway — named the Brewery Creek Greenway — will feature landscaped areas, trees, and a blue-green rainwater system tracing the path of the namesake historic buried stream. The development site notably sits on the historic shoreline of the False Creek Flats, before this eastern portion of the inlet west of Main Street was filled for the railyard toward the end of the First World War.

Additionally, the greenway will feature a linear public plaza — a flexible area designed for food market booths and community events. This greenway serves as the outdoor public space that the atrium faces.

2025 rezoning concept of 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects/Onni Group)

Overall, the project consists of 53,500 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant uses, 121,000 sq. ft. of hotel uses, 150,100 sq. ft. of office uses, 58,200 sq. ft. of below-market rental housing uses, 477,000 sq. ft. of market rental housing uses, and 247,000 sq. ft. of strata condominium uses.

If approved, this project will have a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 9.99 times larger than the size of the 2.54-acre lot.

Five underground levels contain 655 vehicle parking stalls — including 42 stalls for retail/restaurant uses, 98 stalls for hotel uses, 137 stalls for office uses, 338 stalls for resident uses, and 50 stalls for residential visitors — and 2,368 secured bike parking spaces.

Site excavation at this vacant industrial lot of 399 East 1st Avenue first began before the pandemic for Onni Group’s previously approved development concept of four mixed-use buildings, ranging between seven storeys and 15 storeys.

When Daily Hive Urbanized originally reported about this previous concept in 2016, it included 220 live-work homes, 199 hotel rooms, 80,000 sq. ft. of office space, 45,000 sq. ft. of ground-level retail/restaurant uses, and an 86,000 sq. ft. underground warehouse on level P5 — below the underground parking. These buildings, similar to the scale of the buildings the developer built just to the south, were to be oriented around a large public plaza.

Onni Group completely pivoted its concept after certainties were established for the new Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station, which will open in 2027 as a part of SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway extension. As well, the revised concept is further guided by the City’s 2017-approved False Creek Flats Plan and 2022-approved Broadway Plan, and the provincial government’s new transit-oriented development legislation.

The area is already a growing employment and institutional hub, with recently built office buildings and the Emily Carr University of Art & Design campus just to the east.

Onni Group’s construction pit at 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Previous 2016 lower-density development concept for 375 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (IBI Group/Onni Group)

“As an emerging district for the digital and creative sectors, it is an ideal location for development of transit-oriented mixed-use housing, workspace, retail commercial, and outstanding public space,” continues the design rationale.

Onni Group’s project at 375 East 1st Avenue will complement PCI Developments’ immediately adjacent major development to the east at 455-565 Great Northern Way and 1850 Thornton Street, which is a separate three-tower, mixed-use project integrated with the subway station entrance.

Within towers up to 35 storeys, the project by PCI Developments will feature 548 rental homes, 74,000 sq. ft. of office space, 22,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant space, a public indoor atrium and market hall, and a 13,600 sq. ft. high-ceiling, multifunctional event space. As well, there will be an event-friendly public plaza.

455-565 Great Northern Way 1850 Thornton Street Vancouver PCI Low Tide Emily Carr Station June 2024

June 2024 rezoning concept: Artistic rendering of 455-565 Great Northern Way and 1850 Thornton Street, Vancouver. (Perkins&Will/Low Tide Properties/PCI Developments)

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