Opinion: Flipped to death — failed Curv tower shows speculative rezoning game | Daily Hive

Opinion: Flipped to death — failed Curv tower project exposes speculative rezoning game

Revised concept of The Curv at 1059-1075 Nelson St., Vancouver, with the completed The Butterfly tower also depicted. (WKK Architects/Bravia Group)

Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by Robert Renger, who was the senior development planner for the City of Burnaby and the municipal government’s lead for the planning and development of the UniverCity community at Simon Fraser University.

The planned “The Curv” tower development in downtown Vancouver’s West End is an interesting example of the flipping-rezoning process that real estate firm Goodman Commercial portrayed through rose-coloured glasses in an op-ed published in Daily Hive Urbanized earlier this week.

In 2013, Vancouver City Council’s adoption of the West End Community Plan set off a speculative land rush to purchase older, affordable rental buildings in order to evict tenants, demolish the buildings, and build condominium towers.

The Curv site — then two older low-rise apartment buildings at 1059-1075 Nelson St. — was purchased by developer Wall Financial Corporation in 2013 for $16.8 million.

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Wall sold the site in 2016 for $60 million to a buyer who flipped it one month later for $68 million. These were share sales that avoided the Property Transfer Tax (PTT). BC Assessment was only $15.6 million in 2016.

In 2020, Henson Development secured rezoning approval for a 60-storey tower at the extraordinarily high density of 24.7 FSR/FAR, by promising to include 102 social housing units to be turned over to the City of Vancouver. Then in 2021, Henson sold the site to Brivia Group for an undisclosed amount, possibly over $100 million.

In 2023, Brivia informed the City’s planning staff that they didn’t want to build the social housing. In 2024, City staff and City Council amended the West End Community Plan to accommodate that, and in 2025 they approved a revised rezoning of the site to accept a community amenity contribution (CAC) cash payment of $55 million instead of the on-site social housing, which City staff had valued at $70-million in-kind, five years earlier as part of the original rezoning.

They also granted the new developer 95,000 sq. ft. of valuable additional market rental housing density to replace the social housing, as well as 15,000 sq. ft. of enclosed balcony area. This was a great deal for the developer, but it shortchanged the public. The City’s planning director, Josh White, nevertheless tweeted proudly about it in March.

1059-1075 Nelson Street Vancouver The Curv tower

Revised concept of The Curv at 1059-1075 Nelson St., Vancouver, with the completed The Butterfly tower also depicted. (WKK Architects/Bravia Group)

Despite the City’s planning department’s efforts, we now know that The Curv developer Brivia Group defaulted on its $91-million mortgage in April 2025 and is heading for receivership, as reported by Daily Hive Urbanized this week.

That this development may never proceed doesn’t really matter in Vancouver’s development universe.

It’s already magnificently fulfilled its real purpose, making many millions of dollars for development site flippers, based on the West End Community Plan and rezoning entitlements. And it’s provided lots of work and income for consultants and real estate agents.

That all contributes to British Columbia’s GDP, of which 28.5 per cent is real estate and development — far higher than in other provinces and countries.

Revised concept of The Curv at 1059-1075 Nelson St., Vancouver, with the completed The Butterfly tower also depicted. (WKK Architects/Bravia Group)

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