City Council approves Olympic Village stacked box tower with 122 rental homes

Artistic rendering of 5 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver. (MA+HG Architects/Point Grey Developments)

A rental housing project with an animated architectural flair against Vancouver’s typical window wall tower typology has been green-lit for the Olympic Village by Vancouver City Council.

In a public hearing last week, city council voted 8-0 in favour of the rezoning for 5 West 2nd Avenue, with TEAM councillor Colleen Hardwick abstaining, and OneCity councillor Christine Boyle and A Better City councillor Rebecca Bligh absent from the decision.

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The redevelopment by Point Grey Developments will be located at the northwest corner of Ontario Street and West 2nd Avenue, replacing a 1941-built, two-storey commercial building — an auto body shop and the former location of The Wood Studio.

Site of 5 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

The property will be redeveloped into a 192-ft-tall, 18-storey building containing 122 rental homes, with 24 units (20% of the total number of units) dedicated as below-market units for households earning below $80,000 annually. The unit size mix is 21 studios, 57 one-bedroom units, 36 two-bedroom units, and eight three-bedroom units.

Designed by MA+HG Architects, the tower’s massing is cut into four vertical sections, with each volume horizontally shifted or carved to create a stacked box appearance. The resulting massing also enables multi-roof terraces for common outdoor amenity spaces for residents and various indoor amenity spaces. A playful appearance is also established with the use of light pastel colours for the brick facade.

The ground level would also entail 5,800 sq ft of retail and restaurant space.

5 West 2nd Avenue Vancouver rental tower

Artistic rendering of 5 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver. (MA+HG Architects/Point Grey Developments)

No community amenity contribution is required, given that the project is 100% rental housing, but it will be required to provide $1.15 million in development cost levies (DCL) — after a waiver of $3.45 million in the city-wide DCL and area-specific DCL.

While support for the project was unanimous, city councillors expressed a desire for more affordability and public benefits than what was being offered and lamented the loss of 2,000 sq ft space for The Wood Studio.

The music studio, along with an unsanctioned 2,7000 sq ft basement rehearsal space, supported 60 to 80 musicians for music creation, collaboration, and rehearsal.

Artistic rendering of 5 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver. (MA+HG Architects/Point Grey Developments)

To mitigate the loss of the music studio, the property owner has offered an 817 sq ft retail unit that would be privately owned and can be leased to a not-for-profit music organization.

Green Party councillor Michael Wiebe said he was “not as excited I thought I’d be for this project” in terms of the benefits, given that “industrial land is being upzoned.” He said the replacement arts and cultural space does not offset the loss.

A Better City councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung added that “as we have vigorously been pursuing a housing-first priority agenda, I think that when you’re losing things like art and culture space, it can come with consequences in terms of livability and cultural and civic amenities. It is very difficult to get it back and build those spaces again.”

Artistic rendering of 5 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver. (MA+HG Architects/Point Grey Developments)

COPE councillor Jean Swanson, who has frequently opposed market rental housing over a perceived lack of affordability, also voted in support. She said, “the project won’t gentrify because the rents are already high in the area.”

Like other similar projects, the below-market units will see an average starting rent of $950 for a studio to up to $2,000 for a three-bedroom unit. For average market rents in such a new building, rates of about $1,800 for a studio, $1,975 for a one-bedroom unit, $2,804 for a two-bedroom unit, and $3,349 for a three-bedroom unit can be expected.

“An average market rental studio unit could be affordable to a single person working in occupations in the education sector and industrial sector. A two-bedroom market rental unit could be affordable to a couple employed in occupations such as technical roles in engineering or manufacturing,” state city staff in their report on this project.

The redevelopment will have a total floor area of 95,700 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 7.9 times larger than the size of the 12,100 sq ft lot.

Three underground levels will provide 53 vehicle parking stalls and 239 bike parking spaces. The location is near frequent bus routes, a five-minute walk from SkyTrain Main Street-Science World Station, and roughly a 12-minute walk to Olympic Village Station, the future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station, or the future Mount Pleasant Station.

The property is owned by the family of Mohinder Sandhu, who immigrated from the United Kingdom to Canada in 1964. He acquired the property in 1967.

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