Four Vancouver condo tower projects delayed due to weak market

Four condo tower projects in downtown Vancouver delayed due to weak market conditions

From left to right: Artistic renderings of 1450 West Georgia Street (Wesgroup Properties), 1157 Burrard Street (Prima Properties), 1640-1650 Alberni Street (Landa Global Properties/Asia Standard Americas), and 1668-1684 Alberni Street (Westbank).

Due to continued weak market conditions, four separately approved condominium tower projects in downtown Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood will see continued delays in their progress towards construction.

This was made evident in a new City of Vancouver staff report, which makes the recommendation to Vancouver City Council to enable the four developers behind these various project to further delay their cash community amenities contribution (CACs) payment to the municipal government by up to two years through Spring 2026.

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As a condition of the rezoning approval, the four projects have a combined outstanding cash CACs payment total of more than $89 million, based on their varying progress in the development pipeline. This funding to the City in exchange for the market uses and higher density would go towards covering the costs of the City’s public benefits strategy under the West End Plan.

Altogether, these projects account for a combined total of 808 condominium homes, 228 secured purpose-built rental homes, and various non-residential mixed uses.

Three projects saw their rezoning applications approved by the City Council in the third quarter of 2021, while one project was approved in Spring 2022. Typically, the first set of conditions and deadlines for the rezoning bylaw enactment are met within 24 months.

A decision was previously made by City Council in October 2023 to provide a six-month deadline extension for the rezoning bylaw enactment and initial cash CACs payment for the three projects that were approved in 2021.

However, the three projects that previously saw an initial six-month extension have lapsed in their rezoning conditions and deadlines in recent weeks. This entails Wesgroup Properties’ project of 1450 West Georgia Street for a 49-storey, mixed-use building with 193 condominium homes and 162 rental homes, Prima Properties’ project of 1157 Burrard Street for a 47-storey, mixed-use tower with 289 condominium homes, retail space, a childcare facility, and an arts and culture hub, and Landa Global Properties and Asia Standard Americas’ project of 1640-1650 Alberni Street for a 43-storey tower with 198 condominium homes and 66 rental homes.

For these three projects, the outstanding cash CACs payments are $8.9 million for Wesgroup Properties, $10.6 million for Prima Properties, and $32.7 million for Landa Global Properties and Asia Standard Americas.

As for the fourth project, Westbank owes $37 million for the rezoning bylaw enactment of their project at 1668-1684 Alberni Street, where the developer will build a 40-storey tower with 128 condominium homes. Unlike the other three projects, this will be the project’s first extension. It is located immediately adjacent to the aforementioned project by Landa Global Properties and Asia Standard Americas.

1450 west georgia street vancouver 2022 design

2022 revised design of 1450 West Georgia Street, Vancouver. (Yamamoto Architecture/Wesgroup Properties)

Model of the tower at 1157 Burrard Street, Vancouver. (Merrick Architecture/Prima Properties)

Artistic rendering of 1640-1650 Alberni Street, Vancouver. (SOM / IBI / Landa Global Properties / Asia Standard Americas)

Artistic rendering of the proposed tower at 1668-1684 Alberni Street in downtown Vancouver. (Bing Thom Architects / Westbank Projects)

Under City staff’s recommendations, the deadline to meet the conditions for all projects will be pushed to May 31, 2026.

“The applicants have all requested extensions or modifications to this requirement citing continued challenges in strata market conditions, escalating construction costs, more stringent lending criteria, and higher interest rates,” reads the City staff report.

“The recommendations to grant a further two-year extension into Spring 2026 is supported pursuant to the considerations noted in the report and the broader macroeconomic conditions that may continue into 2025.”

City staff and the developers negotiated the CACs package and other public benefits these projects will provide in 2019 and 2020. Market conditions took a nose dive beginning in March 2022.

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