Condo and social housing tower for Broadway and Fraser Street corner

New 18-storey condo and social housing tower to replace Catoro Cafe site at East Broadway and Fraser Street corner

Artistic rendering of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Bingham Hill Architects/Wall Financial Corporation)

Big changes are eyed for the southwest corner of the intersection of East Broadway and Fraser Street.

This latest rezoning application under the City of Vancouver’s Broadway Plan is amongst the first high-rise condominium tower proposals in the area plan to date, as the vast majority of the projects that have come forward so far have pitched secured purpose-built rental housing as the primary use.

Local developer and property owner Wall Financial Corporation’s application calls for a mixed-use development of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street. Records show the properties changed hands in June 2022 for a land assembly formation.

You might also like:

Currently, the transit-oriented development site is occupied by old buildings constructed in 1914, 1936, 1979, and 1985, which contain small businesses such as Hail Mary’s restaurant, Klasik Inasal & Noodle Express, Pizzeria Barbarella, and Cataro Cafe, which opened its unique Japanese-inspired cat cafe concept — both an adoptable cat sanctuary and cafe — in 2019. The cat cafe itself is also themed after Japan’s Studio Ghibli’s iconic film My Neighbour Totoro.

In addition to the existing ground-level uses, there are currently 15 rental homes mainly on the upper levels of the low-storey buildings.

648-680 east broadway 2505 fraser street vancouver wall financial

Site of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Site of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Bingham Hill Architects/Wall Financial Corporation)

Existing condition:

Site of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

Artistic rendering of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Bingham Hill Architects/Wall Financial Corporation)

Wall Financial will redevelop this site into a 180-ft-tall, 18-storey mixed-use tower with strata market ownership condominiums, social housing, and new retail/restaurant uses. This is the maximum height permitted for the site under the area plan.

Under the Broadway Plan’s prescriptions for this site, if the developer is to pursue strata market ownership condominium uses on a property that currently has rental housing, they must dedicate at least 20% of the new residential floor area or the same number of rental units — whichever is greater — as turnkey social housing units to the municipal government.

The application calls for a total of 137 homes, including 113 strata market ownership condominium homes and 24 social housing units. The overall unit size mix is 23 studio units, 65 one-bedroom units, 34 two-bedroom units, and 15 three-bedroom units.

Artistic rendering of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Bingham Hill Architects/Wall Financial Corporation)

Building uses of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Bingham Hill Architects/Wall Financial Corporation)

The condominiums will be situated within the eastern half of the building, including the full use of the tower, while the social housing will be placed within the western half of the building, with the social housing specifically located in the upper five levels of the six-storey base podium. There will be separate main entrances and lobbies for each housing tenure, with the social housing entrance located on the western end of the building on Fraser Street and the condominium entrance located mid-block on Fraser Street.

Common amenities will also be separated. Condominium residents will have an indoor amenity space on the second level and a larger area on the seventh level, which opens up to an outdoor amenity area on the rooftop of the base podium, as well as indoor and outdoor amenity spaces on the entire tower rooftop. Social housing residents will have indoor amenity space located on the second level, which opens up to an outdoor amenity space fronting the laneway.

At ground level, the building generates about 4,800 sq ft of retail/restaurant space across four commercial retail units, with about 3,800 sq ft being leasable space after common area exclusions.

“The corner of East Broadway and Fraser Street presents a unique opportunity for a development that enriches the pedestrian realm of the evolving neighbourhood,” reads the project’s design rationale by Bingham Hill Architects, with contributions by Bearmark Design and Landscape.

“We are proposing to design the commercial space along the ground level of the East Broadway frontage and allow it to wrap along Fraser Street. The continuous retail frontage is only interrupted by two resident entrances serving the market housing and the social housing uses.”

Existing condition:

Site of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

Artistic rendering of 648-680 East Broadway and 2505 Fraser Street, Vancouver. (Bingham Hill Architects/Wall Financial Corporation)

Four underground levels contain 123 vehicle parking stalls and 280 secure bike parking spaces.

Broadway and Fraser Street bus routes well serve the site, and two future SkyTrain stations — Great Northern Way-Emily Carr to the north and Mount Pleasant Station to the west — are roughly a 15-minute walking distance away.

Just to the southwest, on sites about a block away in the vicinity of East 10th Avenue and Carolina Street, Fastmark Acquisitions and Havn have each submitted separate applications to build secured purpose-built rental housing, with each of their towers reaching nearly 20 storeys.

The municipal government is currently considering potential major increases in maximum building heights and densities across much of the Broadway Plan area, due in large part to the need to abide by the provincial government’s new transit-oriented development legislation. Also, the Broadway Plan’s existing policy of limiting the number of towers per block will be abolished for residential zoning closest to SkyTrain stations. The amended policies are expected to be finalized in late 2024.

You might also like: