Inside the Downtown Eastside's new largest social housing building

Bob & Michael's Place at 58 West Hastings, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Vancouver Chinatown Foundation’s new social housing building at 58 West Hastings Street has been 13 years in the making.

And it is now in the home stretch, with construction crews now working on the finishing touches ahead of the building reaching its occupancy stage in May 2024. Just last month, the foundation announced the building now carries the name of “Bob & Michael’s Place,” in recognition of the previous donations made by Carol Lee’s father — the late Robert Lee, a philanthropist and developer — and art philanthropist and developer Michael Audain.

This is the single largest social housing building in the Downtown Eastside — a 10-storey building, located on a mid-block site that takes up half of the city block’s street frontage with West Hastings Street, just east of the Woodwards complex.

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The two lower levels are largely dedicated to Vancouver Coastal Health’s (VCH) new 50,000 clinic facility, named the Lily Lee Community Health Centre Hastings, which will open separately in 2025, and 5,500 sq ft of ground-level commercial space dedicated to restaurant uses.

Within the upper levels, the building contains 231 social housing units, including 111 units with rents up to the Housing Income Limits (HILs) of BC Housing and 120 units at shelter rates for people on income assistance.

Bob & Michael’s Place at 58 West Hastings, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The HILs units will be highly affordable homes for households within the range of the high end of low incomes and the lower end of middle incomes, with a studio starting at about $1,250 monthly and an impressive two-bedroom, family-sized penthouse unit with an expansive north-facing private patio at about $1,850 monthly.

The unit size mix is 54 micro units, 107 studio units, 11 one-bedroom units, and 59 two-bedroom units. The total building floor area is about 220,000 sq ft, including 140,000 sq ft of residential uses.

Upon completion, the social housing will be operated by United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society (known as SUCCESS). As of this week, SUCCESS has received about 500 applications and is still encouraging eligible individuals and households in need of affordable housing to apply online. In order to be eligible, applicants must be capable of independent living, and on the BC Housing registry.

The furnished units will have the same durable furnishings provided by the University of British Columbia’s student housing furniture supplier.

Residents will also have access to extensive shared amenity spaces, including two indoor lounges and a large outdoor amenity area on the lower rooftop with space for lounging, community agriculture, and a children’s playground.

Bob & Michael’s Place at 58 West Hastings, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

bob & michael's place 58 west hastings street vancouver social housing

Bob & Michael’s Place at 58 West Hastings, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

During a tour of the building earlier this week, Vancouver Chinatown Foundation chair Carol Lee described Bob & Michael’s Place as a passion project, which has been envisioned since the organization was first established in 2011.

She says the foundation spearheading the construction of a major social housing building was the brainchild of her business partner, Henry Fung. Lee’s family, best known for their real estate development business and other philanthropy, has also put their money where their mouth is by donating millions of dollars towards both the social housing and VCH facility components.

At the time, this project was a pivot for a brand new charity with a mandate to directly focus on initiatives that culturally and economically revive the struggling historic Chinatown district, but Lee believed they had to help address some of the area’s broader socioeconomic issues.

“It was a big ask of the [foundation’s] board because I had to convince them that we’re going to have to raise probably over $30 million for the next-door neighbour before we’ve really done anything in Chinatown,” Lee told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview.

“But I think they understood the importance of having a healthy next-door neighbour… it was a big project for a small foundation.”

Vancouver Chinatown Foundation chair Carol Lee; Bob & Michael’s Place at 58 West Hastings, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Bob & Michael’s Place at 58 West Hastings, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

She also wants the building’s future residents to know that “it took a whole community of people to care enough for you to be able to live here.”

The project’s principal contractor, Axiom Builders, is not making any money on this major construction project. Similarly, WT Leung Architects also designed the building for the foundation at cost.

Prominent local artists are also involved in the project, including photographer Stan Douglas, who is providing his remaining proof of a 2002 captured photo for a large wall area in a residential lobby, and Douglas Coupland, who helped design the children’s playground.

“I think it shows you the power of the idea that we want to help each other. If we help each other, everybody is better off. We’re all better off,” said Lee.

The opening of the building to its first residents this spring will be a watershed moment for both affordable housing projects in Vancouver and the work of the foundation, but Lee laments the long journey to reach this point, which she describes as unnecessary government bureaucratic delays that led to almost a doubling of the project’s total cost.

Lee told Daily Hive Urbanized that when they first put together the project’s first pro forma in 2016, the estimated total cost was $60 million, including $20 million to $25 million that the foundation would raise.

“I didn’t need to borrow money from anybody,” said Lee, describing her 2016 pro forma.

“Originally, the [pro forma] model was that if somebody gave us the land, I was just going to go and raise the money, and not need help from anybody.”

Ultimately, due to the delays from the site’s changing of zoning in the middle of the planning process, the project’s total cost came to $110 million — an additional $50 million.

“This is a problem when you deal with government and bureaucracy and different kind of changes and delays,” she said, noting the red tape.

“Don’t be an obstacle. Don’t try and make it difficult for us… There were a lot of challenges with the local government.”

Bob & Michael’s Place at 58 West Hastings, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The project’s $110 million cost is now covered by $45.8 million from the federal government’s National Housing Co-Investment Fund — with $18.5 million as a non-repayable funding contribution and $27.3 million as a low-cost repayable loan — and $33.6 million in non-repayable funding from the provincial government.

“That [government] money could have gone to another non-profit organization to do another project, so we have to look at it as time costs money,” emphasized Lee. “I think that’s one of the things that people don’t understand. The longer it takes, the more money it’s going to cost.”

The foundation is now covering the remaining $30 million through fundraising, which Lee says they are making good progress on reaching their full target.

As for the land, the City of Vancouver provided the foundation with a nominal 99-year lease for the use of the City-owned vacant lot for the project. Additionally, the provincial government through BC Housing is providing an annual operating subsidy of $1.8 million over the building’s 60-year lifespan.

After experiencing further delays from the initial pandemic impacts, construction on Bob & Michael’s Place finally began in Summer 2021.

“I think there’s reasons for our hope. Hopefully, the lessons that we learned here will help us figure out how to do it faster and more economical,” continued Lee.

Bob & Michael’s Place at 58 West Hastings, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Bob & Michael’s Place is the second major mixed-use development with affordable housing to reach completion in the area recently.

To the north at 23 West Cordova Street, in partnership with BC Housing, Westbank recently reached completion on their Blood Alley complex, which includes 142 homes, including 80 social housing units and 62 market rental homes.

Closer to Lee’s project, immediately to the north at 15-27 West Hastings Street and 8-36 West Cordova Street, the Cohen family has partnered with Bosa Properties for the proposed redevelopment of the historic Army & Navy department store complex. The former department store’s West Cordova Street parcel will be dedicated to office and retail uses, while the West Hastings parcel will see 189 homes, including 62 social housing units and 127 market rental homes.

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