Tower with rental, supportive housing and mental health hub for Commercial Drive | Daily Hive

22-storey tower with rental and supportive housing and mental health drop-in centre proposed for Commercial Drive

2025 concept of 485 Commercial Dr. and 1683 East Pender St., Vancouver. (DYS Architecture/The Kettle Society/Cressey Development Group)

About five years after the complete collapse of its previous partnership with Boffo Properties on the controversial Kettle-Boffo project, The Kettle Society — formerly known as the Kettle Friendship Society — has partnered with a new developer to pursue a high-density, mixed-use housing project with a new replacement and expanded community mental health drop-in centre for Vancouver’s Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood.

A new rezoning application has been submitted by Cressey Development Group and The Kettle Society to redevelop the site of 485 Commercial Dr. and 1683 East Pender St., located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Commercial Drive and East Pender Street — just one block south of East Hastings Street.

The proposed Kettle-Cressey development site sits about three blocks north of the former Kettle-Boffo site, which is a City-owned parking lot. That site is now the focus of a municipal-led redevelopment plan, approved in 2024, to build a 15-storey social housing tower. The City advanced its own concept after the Kettle-Boffo partnership dissolved, citing community amenity contribution (CACs) requirements that were deemed prohibitively expensive by the former partnership. As well, Boffo Properties has standalone plans to achieve a four-storey rental housing project on a portion of the land assembly it owns from the previous Kettle-Boffo site.

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In 2022, Cressey had previously proposed redeveloping 485 Commercial Dr. and 1683 East Pender St. into three four-storey buildings, featuring 40 strata condominium and townhome units, 10 secured purpose-built market rental units, and space for offices, retail, and restaurants. However, the new partnership with Kettle has shelved that earlier concept in favour of a far more ambitious proposal — one that draws on nearby high-rise, mixed-use tower projects as precedents for what could be achieved on the site.

This site has long been under-utilized; its existing 1950-built, two-storey manufacturing building incurred significant fire damage in 2013, and it was never fully repaired, leaving it in its current dilapidated condition. It was the longtime production hub for Pine House Chinese Bakery’s locations, and then briefly used as the Woodhouse Smokehouse commissary kitchen, until the fire.

Site of 485 Commercial Dr., Vancouver. (Google Maps)

The 2012 pre-fire condition of 485 Commercial Dr., Vancouver, when it was used by Woodhouse Smokehouse & Commissary. (Google Maps)

The 2022 condition of 485 Commercial Dr., Vancouver, nearly a decade after the 2013 fire and after some repair works were made, but never finished. (Google Maps)

485 Commercial Drive 1683 East Pender Street Vancouver

Site of 485 Commercial Dr. and 1683 East Pender St., Vancouver. (DYS Architecture/The Kettle Society/Cressey Development Group)

2025 concept of 485 Commercial Dr. and 1683 East Pender St., Vancouver. (DYS Architecture/The Kettle Society/Cressey Development Group)

According to the new application, the Kettle-Cressey project is proposing to build a 233-ft-tall, 22-storey tower with secured purpose-built market rental housing and a six-storey building with supportive housing and the new mental health drop-in centre. The six-storey building will front Commercial Drive.

There will be a total of 280 homes, including 239 secured purpose-built market rental homes, with a unit size mix of 105 studio units, 47 one-bedroom units, and 87 two-bedroom units. Residents will have amenity spaces on the tower rooftop.

All 41 supportive housing units will be studio units, with an amenity space situated on the top floor. Kettle’s new 14,000 sq. ft. Mental Health Drop-In and Resource Centre will be situated on the first two levels of the six-storey supportive housing building, complete with the staffed presence of a nurse, an identification bank, advocacy services, supported employment programs, and homeless outreach services — for people who are “at risk or transitioning out of homelessness.”

This new purpose-built and expanded centre will finally achieve Kettle’s long-planned replacement of its nearby existing 7,000 sq. ft. facility at 1725 Venables Street, just off Commercial Street. Kettle will also operate the supportive housing units.

“This new project will allow us to meet the increased demand for daytime drop-in spaces and provide much-needed supportive housing that will benefit the entire neighbourhood,” said Wayne Leslie, Executive Director of The Kettle Society.

“The Kettle believes that this type of housing works best when it is combined with wraparound supports. For this reason, we provide 24/7 on-site staff and support services at all of our housing facilities and will be doing so at this location as well,” continued Leslie.

Kettle was founded nearly half a century ago in response to the provincial government’s initial downsizing of Riverview Hospital, which released many individuals with mild to severe mental health challenges into the community without the care and supports they needed.

Julian Kendall, Vice-President of Development at Cressey Development Group, added, “Our partnership with The Kettle represents an ideal alignment, strengthened by their longstanding commitment to the Grandview-Woodland community. Through this joint development, we are proud to support The Kettle in continuing their meaningful work while bringing our shared vision for thriving communities to life.”

2025 concept of 485 Commercial Dr. and 1683 East Pender St., Vancouver. (DYS Architecture/The Kettle Society/Cressey Development Group)

Eventually, after the rezoning is achieved, the existing single lot will be subdivided into separate lots owned by Cressey for the rental housing tower and The Kettle for their supportive housing and mental health facility.

In contrast, the cancelled Kettle-Boffo project at 800 Commercial Dr. would have produced a 12-storey building with 200 strata market ownership condominium homes, 30 units of supportive housing, 18,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant space, and a new replacement and expanded mental health facility. At the time, this previous concept faced various obstacles, such as the City requesting between $6 million and $16 million in cash CACs payments in exchange for the market condominium density, and fierce neighbourhood opposition to the height and size of the project.

The Kettle-Cressey complex will have up to three underground levels, providing 111 vehicle parking stalls. There will also be 509 secured bike parking spaces, with much of the ground level of the tower dedicated to such uses.

The total building floor area will reach 196,000 sq. ft., establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 7.9 times larger than the size of the 24,000 sq. ft. development site. DYS Architecture and landscape architectural firm Perry & Associates are behind this project’s design.

Just kitty corner to the southeast of the site, Lu’ma Native Housing Society and Aboriginal Land Trust are planning to build an 18-storey social housing tower for Indigenous people, and immediately to the north, there is a proposal by Urban Native Youth Association to build two towers with social housing and an Indigenous community centre. There are also various other proposals in the vicinity on East Hastings Street by Westbank and BC Housing.

2025 concept of 485 Commercial Dr. and 1683 East Pender St., Vancouver. (DYS Architecture/The Kettle Society/Cressey Development Group)

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