Proposal for downtown Vancouver tower now condos instead of rentals

Revised proposal for 25-storey downtown Vancouver tower now condos instead of rentals

2022 concept of the tower at 902 Davie Street, Vancouver. (Bingham & Hill Architects/Reliance Properties)

Five years ago when Reliance Properties pitched the concept of a 25-storey tower replacing the 7-Eleven at the southwest corner of the intersection of Davie Street and Hornby Street in downtown Vancouver, there was 100% rental housing for the residential component.

But that concept with rental housing is no longer financially feasible due to the challenging economic conditions, with the residential component of this mixed-use tower now pivoting to 100% condominiums.

The 2017/2018 concept posed to the municipal government in the rezoning pre-application stage included 159 secured market rental homes, but the project was unable to proceed to the formal rezoning application process and was placed in limbo. A revised proposal through a redo of the same rezoning pre-application step in August 2022 now calls for 153 condominium homes.

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Several years earlier during the pre-pandemic condominium downturn, developers turned to building market rental housing to maintain the viability of their projects. In fact, prior to 2017, an earlier concept for this project called for condominiums, so the latest revision essentially reverts back to its original primary use.

“Purpose-built rental housing in a downtown tower performance architecture form has become increasingly uneconomic. With the radical increase in construction costs and interest rates together with the continuous political interventions in the rental regulations,” Jon Stovell, the CEO of Reliance Properties, told Daily Hive Urbanized.

902 davie street vancouver condo concept 2022

2022 concept of the tower at 902 Davie Street, Vancouver. (Bingham & Hill Architects/Reliance Properties)

He pointed to last week’s provincial government decision to cap 2023’s rent increase to no more than 2%, which is 3.5% below actual inflation. This also follows the pandemic-time rent freeze of 2020 and the 0% increase allowed in 2021, all compounded with the provincial government’s pre-pandemic strategy of slowing down rents.

The wide range of factors, including the provincial government’s rent cap, are souring the financial viability of rental housing projects, which were already more limited in opportunity prior to the current conditions.

Stovell adds that equity requirements for rental projects are now exceeding 50%, and programs by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation are not working that well.

2022 concept of the tower at 902 Davie Street, Vancouver. (Bingham & Hill Architects/Reliance Properties)

Furthermore, the financial viability of redeveloping this site at 902 Davie Street is also greatly impacted by physical constraints due to the City of Vancouver’s policies.

The building’s permitted height and volume at this particular location are severely depressed by three mountain view cones — View Cone B1 from the Charleson Park seawall in South False Creek, View Cone CI from the Laurel Street pedestrian overpass over West 6th Avenue, and View Cone 3 from Queen Elizabeth Park.

While the Queen Elizabeth Park view cone limits the pinnacle height, View Cone B1 has the greatest impact, as it chops out a large section of the tower at the northeast corner from mid-building to the roof.

Furthermore, in 2018, shortly after Reliance Properties presented their rental tower proposal to City staff, View Cone B1 was updated, which had the effect of reducing the tower’s permitted height even further.

City staff’s shadowing considerations for the nearby intersection of Burrard Street and Davie Street also sliced the rectangular upper half of the tower form into a triangular peak.

All of this is in addition to major setbacks in the tower to distance itself from adjacent buildings.

The high degree of sculpting the tower down into a highly irregularly shaped building, almost resembling a quartz, has the effect of creating an inefficient and expensive building design, with much potential floor area removed — as opposed to something closer to a conventional rectangular structure. Bingham & Hill Architects interprets the resulting forced design as an inspiration for The Lions’ twin mountain peaks on the North Shore, particularly the snowy peaks from the white-coloured exterior.

Stovell suggested that the project may have been able to retain its 100% rental housing use if it were not highly constrained by the view cones and shadowing policies.

2022 concept of the tower at 902 Davie Street, Vancouver. (Bingham & Hill Architects/Reliance Properties)

Nevertheless, he says, while this tower will no longer provide secured purpose-built rental housing, it is likely most of these condominiums will end up as rental housing supply anyway under individual investor ownership.

The condominium unit mix is 32 studios, 61 one-bedroom units, 45 two-bedroom units, and 15 three-bedroom units.

There will also be 34,000 sq ft of office space in the upper five levels of the podium, and 4,500 sq ft of ground-level retail and restaurant space.

The total floor area is 160,000 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio (FAR) density of a floor area that is 10.7 times larger than the size of the lot.

If built, this would effectively be the fourth tower of the Burrard Gateway complex on the city block. The parkade of seven underground levels would be accessed from Burrard Gateway’s third tower’s (Tower C) underground ramp. There will be 192 vehicle parking stalls and 312 secured bike parking spaces.

Earlier this year, construction officially reached completion on Burrard Gateway’s One Burrard Place — currently the third tallest building in downtown — and The Offices at Burrard Place, which is largely leased to Lululemon as an expansion office.

Site of the development lot at the existing 7-Eleven at 902 Davie Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Site of the development lot at the existing 7-Eleven at 902 Davie Street, in relation to other Burrard Gateway buildings on the block. (Bingham & Hill Architects/Reliance Properties)

Site of the development lot at the existing 7-Eleven at 902 Davie Street, Vancouver. (Bingham & Hill Architects/Reliance Properties)

Site of the development lot at the existing 7-Eleven at 902 Davie Street, in relation to other Burrard Gateway buildings on the block. (Bingham & Hill Architects/Reliance Properties)

2022 concept of the tower at 902 Davie Street, Vancouver. (Bingham & Hill Architects/Reliance Properties)

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