Little Mountain's third social housing building now built, with all of Holborn's promised units reaching 100% completion this fall

For many years, local developer Holborn Group has been dogged by controversy over the sluggish progress of the social housing component of its 15-acre Little Mountain redevelopment in Vancouver.

The issue has become a lightning rod for criticism of the developer and has frequently resurfaced in discussions among politicians, housing advocates, the media, and the general public surrounding other projects Holborn Group has sought to advance at other locations.

During a press conference and site tour on Friday, July 31, 2026, it became highly apparent that the social housing component of Little Mountain is finally approaching the home stretch, with all 282 units of new social housing across five buildings — first promised nearly two decades ago — now on track for 100 per cent completion before the end of 2026.

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Upon completion of all the social housing later this year, BC Housing will own the lion’s share — four buildings with 234 of the 282 units — while the City of Vancouver will own the remaining 48 units in the most recently completed building.

To date, only social housing buildings have been built at Little Mountain. Construction has yet to begin on any of the market residential buildings that will make up the vast majority of the redevelopment’s other major housing tenure.

The first two of five social housing buildings containing a combined 115 units have been completed and occupied, opening in 2015 and 2025, respectively.

The fourth and fifth social housing buildings, containing the remaining 167 units, are now expected to reach completion by Fall 2026.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday for the third completed social housing building — the six-storey, 48-unit building at 167 East 36th Ave. (designed by Stantec Architecture) within the southeast quadrant of the site. Its completion brings the total number of finished social housing units at Little Mountain to 163.

The remaining two buildings are a six-storey, 70-unit building at 4902 James St. (designed by Arcadis) at the northern end of the site and a six-storey, 49-unit building at 137 East 37th Ave. (designed by Stantec Architecture) at the southern end. Both are clearly visibly approaching substantial completion, with mainly interior finishing work remaining, and are expected to be finished over the coming months, before the end of this year. Construction crews were seen actively working on both buildings on Friday.

Inside the newly-built third social housing building with Little Mountain Neighbourhood House

As for the completed third building that was the focus of Friday’s press conference, it is now owned by the City of Vancouver, after Holborn Group handed over the property in a turnkey condition.

This building’s 48 units will be operated by S.U.C.C.E.S.S. Affordable Housing Society. It has a unit size mix of 12 studios, eight one-bedroom units, 16 two-bedroom units, and 12 three-bedroom units. The rents will be divided between shelter-rate units, income-based rents, and low-end of market rental housing. The non-profit housing operator will begin filling the homes with residents soon.

“Housing is not simply about providing a roof over someone’s head. It provides the foundation for health, security, connection, and opportunity. When individuals and families have stable housing, they are better able to build their futures, contribute to community, and achieve their full potential,” said Queenie Choo, the CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. during the press conference.

“What makes the Little Mountain Project especially exciting is its vision of creating a complete and inclusive community. This redevelopment will bring together people of different ages, cultures, and backgrounds, creating opportunities for neighbours to connect, support one another, and build a strong sense of belonging. These are the kinds of communities that help people thrive, and that strengthen the social fabric of our city.”

A major component of this latest building is the permanent new home of Little Mountain Neighbourhood House, which now occupies the first two floors and provides substantially expanded space for community programming.

Its services include programs for families with young children, youth, older adults, newcomers to Canada, and other residents of the surrounding neighbourhood, along with a community kitchen.

Little Mountain Neighbourhood House will also operate the building’s childcare facility with a capacity for 69 kids. The childcare facility has 7,800 sq. ft. of indoor space on the ground level, plus expansive outdoor play areas.

Demand for this brand-new childcare facility is already significantly exceeding the available capacity.

Little Mountain Neighbourhood House executive director Joel Bronstein said more than 160 registrants signed up for the childcare centre within just the first few hours of the opening of applications.

“I’ve been with the organization for almost 40 years, and we’ve waited a long time for this to happen,” said Bronstein.

“It is an exciting moment and we are very excited to get ready to fully serve the community.”

Little Mountain Neighbourhood House anticipates its new facility will open to the public in early Fall 2026.

Immediately outside this building’s entrance is a newly completed public plaza that will be operated by the Vancouver Park Board. It includes a major public art installation called “Sacred Balance” by Musqueam First Nation artist Susan Point.

The building and its amenities were delivered by Holborn Group as part of the community amenity contribution attached to the rezoning of the Little Mountain site. According to the City, the developer’s contribution for the project is valued at $26.7 million, plus the value of the land. As well, the municipal government provided about $14.5 million in funding to help support the building’s construction, and the provincial government provided $2 million for the neighbourhood house component.

“Today is about celebrating a milestone for the Little Mountain Neighbourhood, and more importantly, for the people that will soon call this place home. This new City-owned building represents what thoughtful city building should look like… These aren’t just new amenities, these are the building blocks of a strong, connected community,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim during the press conference.

“Now, as we all know, housing is one of the biggest challenges facing our city, and we know that building complete communities means thinking beyond just homes. Families need childcare. Neighbours need places to gather. Community organizations need spaces where they can connect people with the services and support that they need. And this project delivers all of that. It’s also an excellent example of what can be achieved when different parties work towards a shared goal. And so, I would like to thank Holborn Properties for delivering this community amenity as part of the Little Mountain redevelopment.”

What is currently built at Little Mountain

The first social housing building to reach completion was City Heights — the 2015-built, five-storey, 53-unit building at 155 East 37th Ave. at the southern end of the site, for seniors and people with disabilities. It was built to a turnkey condition for BC Housing before the completion of the site-wide rezoning. It is operated by More Than A Roof Housing Society.

The second social housing building was finished in 2025 at 5155 Main St., which is an eight-storey, mixed-use building that is also operated by More Than A Roof, with 62 family-sized units (two- and three-bedroom units). Its ground-level commercial space is tenanted by C Market Coffee — deemed to be one of Vancouver’s largest cafes, spanning over 5,000 sq. ft. — and Domino’s Pizza.

“Holborn has advanced all this in a period where development in the province has stalled and have done so ahead of any construction of the market housing,” said Joo Kim Tiah, the CEO of Holborn Group, during the press conference.

Little Mountain’s first strata market ownership condominium project — a six-storey, 87-unit concrete building known as Vesa — has nevertheless been launched for pre-sales. This initial condominium building will be built at the centrally located parcel of 5098 James St. A temporary presentation centre has also been built at the north end of the site.

To date, all of the new building development activity has been focused within the eastern parcels of the overall Little Mountain site. The western parcels remain vacant with temporary uses.

But significant infrastructure work has been taking place across the property, which is roughly framed by Queen Elizabeth Park and Ontario Street to the west, West 33rd Avenue to the north, Main Street to the east, and East 37th Avenue to the south.

The redevelopment involves building brand-new underground utilities, including new water, sanitary sewer, stormwater, electrical, and telecommunications systems.

New internal public roads — segments of James Street, East 35th Avenue, and East 36th Avenue — are also being built through the property, along with pedestrian sidewalks, bike lanes, streetlights, and landscaping.

All underground utilities are now complete, while the remaining public roads and landscaping are targeted for completion in Fall 2026.

A permanent community garden is also expected to open in September 2026. A temporary garden with 100 plots is already operating at the southeast quadrant of the property, while the combined land area of two temporary dog parks account for a majority of the site’s interim uses before the developer begins building the bulk of its market residential developments.

Another major future public amenity will be Wedge Park. Construction on this 0.5-acre public park is expected to begin in Summer 2027.

Between 2018 and 2021, a portion of the southeastern corner of the site was also occupied by a three-storey temporary modular building containing 46 supportive housing units. The footprint of that temporary structure has since seen the construction of 137 East 37th Ave. — the permanent six-storey social housing building with 49 units that is set to be completed this fall.

More than two decades in the making

The recent construction progress represents a major change for a property that remained largely vacant for years and became one of Vancouver’s most frequently cited examples of a stalled redevelopment.

In 2007, BC Housing and the City reached an agreement under which the replacement of 224 social housing units at Little Mountain with 282 new units would satisfy the site’s social housing requirement through the future rezoning.

Holborn Group purchased the property from the provincial government through BC Housing in 2008, although the developer did not own the property until five years later in July 2013, when the title was transferred.

Between 2007 and 2012, BC Housing relocated tenants from the 1950s-built social housing complex, demolished all of the old buildings, and remediated the site. Many residents were reportedly told they could move back into brand-new modern social housing buildings as early as 2010. All the while, the City and BC Housing prepared the Little Mountain Policy Statement that would guide the future rezoning application process. Vancouver City Council approved the policy statement in July 2012.

Holborn Group’s rezoning planning process then stretched from 2012 through 2018, including approximately four years of review by City staff and City Council consideration followed by another two years before the rezoning bylaw was enacted. The formal site-wide rezoning application was submitted in October 2015, and the City’s Urban Design Panel (UDP) initially did not support the proposal during its first review in December 2015. A revised application was submitted in April 2016 in response to feedback from City staff and the UDP. City Council approved the rezoning application in principle in June 2016, about a month after the revised concept was unanimously endorsed by the UDP.

The developer’s progress was further delayed from 2020 to 2022 by the pandemic, which was also a period of extraordinary global inflation resulting in sharply increased construction costs, with this inflationary period also culminating in the start of a prolonged period of high borrowing costs.

Then in 2023, Holborn Group informed the municipal government it was unable to secure financing from lenders for its next Little Mountain residential buildings because of an option-to-purchase hold registered on the property’s title. This was impacting the developer’s ability to borrow money needed to cover the construction costs for additional social housing buildings and the first condominium buildings. The City subsequently approved removing holds from the first three market residential buildings.

When asked Friday about accountability given the Little Mountain delays and City Council’s rezoning application approval last week of the developer’s massive Downtown Vancouver project of the Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment and the associated Gastown social housing tower as a major public benefit, Mayor Sim asserted his administration’s focus has been on getting housing built.

“This [Little Mountain] project was stuck for a long time, before our administration came in and, you know, like, we made this happen,” said Sim.

ABC city councillor Mike Klassen added, “Projects of this scale don’t move forward because of any one person or organization. They move forward when partners recommit. Governments do their part, difficult decisions are made, and everyone stays focused on the outcome.”

The delays stemmed from a combination of different factors both within and beyond the developer’s control.

Moreover, while the project’s slow pace was partly attributable to the lengthy City-mandated master-planning, rezoning, and development-entitlement processes, BC Housing had also provided the developer with highly favourable financial terms and limited safeguards from the outset.

Over the years, blame has also fallen on the former BC Liberals-led provincial government that was in power in the 2000s, which has been accused of granting the developer an exceptionally favourable deal for the property. In 2021, a freedom of information request by former MLA David Chudnovsky revealed that the provincial government’s 2008 agreement set the sale price of the Little Mountain site at $334 million, while allowing the developer to pay the purchase price incrementally over an extended period — based on proceeds from the progress of the redevelopment’s condominium component. The developer also received $211 million in interest-free provincial loans on an 18-year term, with no interest payments required until 2026. Full repayment of the loans is due by the end of 2031.

Amid renewed scrutiny and criticism, a 2021 memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Holborn Group, the BC NDP-led provincial government, and the City set a non-binding target of having all of the social housing completed and ready for occupancy by the end of 2024. Although the developer missed that target, the MOU appears to have played a part in spurring Holborn Group to accelerate the fulfillment of its remaining social housing commitments.

Based on the approved master plan and site-wide rezoning, upon complete buildout, Little Mountain will have a dozen buildings up to 12 storeys, with a combined total floor area of about 1.7 million sq. ft., containing 1.32 million sq ft of strata market ownership condominium uses and 330,000 sq. ft. of social housing — a total of roughly 1,500 homes, with the vast majority being condominiums — as well as 33,000 sq. ft. of local-serving retail/restaurant space.

Holborn Group’s next social housing project is in Downtown Vancouver

In recent weeks, the developer’s controversial history at Little Mountain became one of the main arguments cited by opponents of its rezoning application to redevelop the former Hudson’s Bay parkade site at 501-595 West Georgia St. with three tall towers. That plan , now approved, includes what would become Western Canada’s tallest tower, featuring a hotel and conference centre topped by a major observation deck tourist attraction, along with two mixed-use towers containing strata market ownership condominiums, secured purpose-built rental housing, and retail/restaurant space. Following a public hearing, a majority of City Council approved the application last week.

In exchange for the market condominium uses at the Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment, Holborn Group has committed to a public benefits package valued at $305 million, comprising a combination of cash payments and in-kind contributions. Much of this comes from the $184-million, in-kind value of both the land and construction of a 25-storey social housing tower on a separate property it owns at 388 Abbott St., next to the Woodward’s complex at the southern edge of Gastown.

In late 2024, the developer also found itself amid a new controversy, after City inspectors determined that the Dunsmuir Hotel SRO at the northeast parcel of the Hudson’s Bay city block required an emergency demolition. Before that unplanned demolition, the developer had intended to preserve and integrate the building’s heritage facade — fronting Dunsmuir Street and Richards Street — into the broader redevelopment of the block.

The dilapidated SRO building had been vacant for well over a decade, after its last residents moved out into new modern purpose-built housing due to the building’s poor condition even at that time. Over the year leading up to the demolition, the pace of the building’s deterioration greatly accelerated.

The developer will completely fund and build the separate City-owned, 25-storey social housing tower. There will be 237 social housing units, a 37-space childcare facility, and about 5,000 sq. ft. of commercial/cultural space. Of the 237 social housing units planned for the new Abbott Street tower, 167 would replace the SRO units lost through the Dunsmuir Hotel SRO’s demolition.

With the lessons of Little Mountain being a key consideration, extensive legal guarantees and protections have been incorporated into the project by City staff. As a condition of rezoning, this social housing tower will be legally timed with the first phase of the Hudson’s Bay parkade block redevelopment.

Before Holborn Group can receive an above-grade structural permit for the residential portion of the Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment, it would have to provide the City with a letter of credit or other security worth approximately $184 million — the assessed value of the in-kind CAC of the Abbott Street social housing tower.

The City would hold that security until the completed Abbott Street social housing tower is transferred to municipal ownership. Over time, the value of this security would also be adjusted for construction-cost inflation.

If the developer does not obtain a building permit for the Abbott Street social housing tower project within four years of receiving the above-grade structural permit for the residential towers of the Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment, or if the completed social housing building and property are not transferred to the City within eight-and-a-half years, the municipal government could cash the security of $184 million.

An option allowing the City to purchase the Abbott Street property for a nominal price of $10.00 would also be registered on its title before the rezoning is enacted.

As a public benefit tied to the Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment, Holborn Group had originally proposed a much larger social housing project on the Abbott Street site: a 38-storey tower containing 378 social housing units, along with childcare and community and cultural space, which was unchanged. However, during the review process by the City’s planning department over the past year, City staff sought a shorter tower with fewer units and preferred that the reduced social housing component be supplemented by a direct cash payment to the City.

When asked Friday whether the project delivered a sufficient net increase in social housing, given that most of the new units would replace rooms lost through the demolition of the Dunsmuir Hotel SRO, ABC Vancouver city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung said it did, pointing to the broader public benefits package considered by City Council.

Kirby-Yung said the value of the project should not be judged solely by comparing the number of new units with the 167 rooms lost at the Dunsmuir Hotel. The new tower would provide 237 self-contained homes — a net increase of 70 units — while replacing aging SRO rooms with more complete and dignified housing.

“It’s also important to note that when we’re looking at SRO replacement, that is a goal for our Council, collectively, to provide more dignified housing,” Kirby-Yung said. “So, it’s not always a one-to-one replacement. We’re looking at providing quality rooms that are self-contained, that people can build lives and live in dignity.”

She said the childcare facility and roughly 5,000 sq. ft. of commercial or cultural space were also included in the City’s assessment of the overall social value. The latter could potentially be used as an Indigenous artist space or art gallery.

“We’re providing rooms, but we’re also trying to build community and build homes,” she said.

Kirby-Yung added that City staff and City Council conducted a detailed assessment of the package and attached conditions intended to ensure the social housing is completed before residents can move into the market residential uses at the Hudson’s Bay parkade redevelopment.

“I cannot recall recently, and I’ve been on Council for two terms, where we will have an entire building of that scale delivered as a community amenity in addition to the other public benefits that are part of the package,” she said.

Beyond the Abbott Street tower, the $305-million package includes new large event-friendly public plaza, along with free access for Vancouver residents to the observation deck attraction planned for the top of the hotel tower.

“The public benefit package on that, because they’re tied together, the social housing building and the overall Holborn rezoning is very substantial,” said Kirby-Yung. “So, it’s a very comprehensive package.”

The provincial government’s experience with Little Mountain — and the criticism surrounding its approach — has also prompted BC Housing to adopt a different model for other properties and existing social housing sites.

For example, BC Housing is planning the redevelopment of Skeena Terrace, a similar 1960s-era social housing complex in East Vancouver, spanning 11 acres. In that case, the provincial government will retain ownership of the property while redeveloping it with higher-density housing offering a range of affordable units.

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