Holborn Group proposes 38-storey social housing tower for Gastown | Daily Hive

Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the social housing tower at 388 Abbott Street, Vancouver, which is associated with the Hudson's Bay parkade redevelopment project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Holborn Group)

This article is Part 3 of Daily Hive Urbanized’s three-part series unveiling what may be the most ambitious private-sector building proposal in downtown Vancouver’s history.

PART 1: Downtown Vancouver’s skyline soars with proposal for landmark towers up to 1,033 ft
PART 2: Canada’s tallest building with a public observation deck proposed for Vancouver

About a decade ago, local developer Holborn Group first floated a proposal to redevelop a surface vehicle parking on the southernmost extent of the Gastown district in downtown Vancouver into a 10-storey, mixed-use residential and commercial building.

The site is 388 Abbott St. (95 West Hastings St.) — situated at the northeast corner of the intersection of West Hastings Street and Abbott Street, immediately east of the Woodward’s complex.

This concept provided 132 units of secured purpose-built market rental housing and 6,000 sq. ft. of ground-level retail/restaurant space. Vancouver City Council approved its rezoning application in 2018, but the project never proceeded.

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But now, Holborn Group is circling back with a new proposal. A rezoning application has been submitted to achieve a 402-ft-tall (122 metres), 38-storey social housing tower on this 13,000 sq. ft. site. Upon completion, built to a turnkey condition, the entire property — both the new tower and the land — would be gifted to the City of Vancouver, under the ownership of the municipal government. The total value of this gift to the City is currently estimated at over $224 million.

This tower would be built by the developer as a substantial community amenity contribution (CAC) in exchange for the strata market condominium housing uses of its massive Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment project about half a kilometre to the southwest — where the developer is proposing to build three mixed-use towers between the heights of 783 ft. (239 metres) and 1,033 (315 metres), with the highest building achieving the staggering feat of becoming Canada’s third tallest building in the future, and featuring a rooftop public observation deck attraction.

Parking lot site of 388 Abbott Street, Vancouver. (Holborn Group)

Parking lot site of 388 Abbott Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Cancelled 10-storey market rental housing project: Previous conceptual artistic rendering of 388 Abbott Street, Vancouver. (Gair Williamson Architects/Holborn Group)

388 Abbott Street Vancouver social housing tower 1

Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the social housing tower at 388 Abbott Street, Vancouver, which is associated with the Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Holborn Group)

The social housing tower would contain a total of 378 units, spanning 305,215 sq. ft. of floor area, plus a 6,900 sq. ft. childcare facility on the ninth floor of the building, with an expansive outdoor play space on the lower rooftop of the base podium. Additional uses include a 5,140 sq. ft. Indigenous Art Gallery on the ground level.

The number of units provided in this social housing tower is equivalent to 20 per cent of the floor area of the strata market ownership condominium housing units found within two of the towers at the main development site of the Hudson’s Bay parkade at 501-595 West Georgia St.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized on Monday, Henriquez Partners Architects managing principal Gregory Henriquez shared that the height of the social housing tower would be aligned with the height of the tallest tower at Woodward’s, which he also designed more than two decades ago, as well as the towers of International Village to the south, and the future West Hastings Street tower of the Army & Navy redevelopment just to the east on the same city block.

He also asserted that this aligns with the City of Vancouver’s emerging strategy of enabling taller towers within the Downtown Eastside and its peripheral areas to catalyze more affordable housing.

Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the Hudson’s Bay parkade city block redevelopment at 501-595 West Georgia Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Holborn Group)

If the developer’s Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment is approved, it is anticipated that the social housing tower would be built as part of the first phase of the project.

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Over the years, Holborn Group has faced much criticism for the slow progress of its Little Mountain redevelopment project near Queen Elizabeth Park, where it committed to building 282 social housing units to replace the aging homes that were previously demolished.

As of early 2025, all remaining social housing buildings are now under construction as part of the developer’s broader vision for a new mixed-income residential community.

This article is Part 3 of Daily Hive Urbanized’s three-part series unveiling what may be the most ambitious private-sector building proposal in downtown Vancouver’s history.