Council approves towers with 1,000 homes at Granville Bridge's north end

City Council approves four towers with 1,000 homes at Granville Bridge's north end

Concept for 625-777 Pacific Street and 1390 Granville Street, replacing the north loops of the Granville Bridge in downtown. (City of Vancouver)

The pair of road ramp loops on the north end of the Granville Street Bridge in downtown Vancouver will be coming down to create new city blocks for building development.

Earlier this year, the City of Vancouver signalled it is looking to begin the demolition process as early as September, following the selection of a construction contractor.

What exactly will replace the loops was up in the air, until this week, when Vancouver City Council approved the City of Vancouver’s self-submitted rezoning application by the Real Estate and Facilities Management (REFM) department, which oversees City-owned lands and assets including the Property Endowment Fund.

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City Council approved the rezoning application Tuesday in a 7-3 vote, with NPA Councillor Melissa De Genova, COPE Councillor Jean Swanson, and ABC Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung opposed. TEAM Councillor Colleen Hardwick was absent.

By removing the loops, 2.7 acres of land will be opened up for new uses. But after reconfiguration and dedication of the new streets to create the city blocks, 1.9 acres is available for building development. The existing loops link both directions of the bridge’s vehicle lanes with Pacific Street below, and such vehicle movements will be replaced in the future by new streets that meet Pacific Street with signal-controlled intersections.

625-777 Pacific Street Vancouver Granville Loops

Footprint of the Granville Street Bridge’s north loops. (City of Vancouver)

625-777 pacific street 1390 granville street granville loops vancouver

Concept for 625-777 Pacific Street and 1390 Granville Street, replacing the north loops of the Granville Bridge in downtown. (City of Vancouver)

There will be six buildings — two towers each reaching 395 ft with 40 storeys, two shorter towers each reaching 275 ft with 27 storeys, and two mid-rise buildings each reaching 105 ft with 12 storeys. These building heights and forms will be configured in a mirrored way to enhance the gateway into the city centre from the bridge.

A total floor area of 930,000 sq ft will now be permitted, with 606,000 sq ft being strata-titled condominium uses, 126,500 sq ft as market rental housing, and 166,000 sq ft for social housing. This is enough residential space to generate about 1,050 homes.

Another 26,000 sq ft will be for ground-level retail and restaurant space, while 5,000 sq ft will be dedicated to a childcare facility with a capacity for 37 kids.

The resulting floor area ratio density is a total floor area 11.5 times larger than the size of the lot.

Concept for 625-777 Pacific Street and 1390 Granville Street, replacing the north loops of the Granville Bridge in downtown. (City of Vancouver)

During the meeting, City staff explained the vast majority of the uses will be condominiums due to the need to cover the high infrastructure costs of demolishing the loops and building the new street network.

Theoretically, the municipal government could technically engage in such a major development on its own, but REFM’s decision to pursue a rezoning also gives the City some certainty on what can be achieved on the City-owned property if it were to work with a developer. This would allow the City to extract the most value from a developer through a direct sale or long-term lease arrangement, usually 99 years.

In 2017, the municipal government estimated the cost of the removal of the loops and the construction of a new H-shaped street grid would reach $18 million.

Today, under the rezoning, this cost figure has risen to $32 million, which will be completely covered by the revenues generated from the strata-titled condominiums.

“In my mind, we need to remove the loops, and we’ve committed to that. How to cover the cost of the removal of the loops, we have to decide City Council. Do we increase the taxes of the citizens of Vancouver or do we build some buildings with strata to do it? There’s always a push and shove around what public benefits we want to achieve for developments that do deliver community amenity contributions,” said Green Party Councillor Adriane Carr.

Concept for 625-777 Pacific Street and 1390 Granville Street, replacing the north loops of the Granville Bridge in downtown. (City of Vancouver)

REFM’s approach to pursue a City-spearheaded rezoning follows the previous controversy over its handling of the adjacent 601 Beach Crescent property, which is now set to be developed by Pinnacle International into a 535-ft-tall, 55-storey tower with condominiums, social housing, and retail.

Concord Pacific transferred 601 Beach Crescent to the municipal government in the late 1990s for the purpose of building social housing. But in 2016, the City sold the property to Pinnacle International for a base acquisition price of $20 million, which is deemed by some critics to be a low-end of market base price. However, the deal provides the City with further revenues on an incremental scale based on the approved project size based on the developer’s rezoning application, which was approved by City Council in September 2020. For instance, the municipal government will receive an additional $73 million if the buildable floor area is 200,000 sq ft and $127.75 million at 350,000 sq ft.

By pursuing and completing the rezoning step, REFM removes this process from the potential future buyer of the properties.

However, De Genova took issue that any future decisions for approval on this City-owned site, ironing out the precise details of the new buildings, will be made by City staff through the forthcoming development permit application process instead of returning to City Council.

Concept for 625-777 Pacific Street and 1390 Granville Street, replacing the north loops of the Granville Bridge in downtown. (City of Vancouver)

Kirby-Yung asserted that the outlined uses of the properties do not provide enough public benefits.

“If the removal of the loops is predicated on opening up prime city land on a landlocked peninsula, then to me that should be for the benefit of utilizing that asset for the greatest opportunities for affordable and innovative housing,” said Kirby-Yung.

“I think it’s very far from perfect. To me, this decision is fundamentally around the notion of the City land and how we should use this precious resource, which is now very difficult to achieve based on land cost today to acquire new land, especially with this location.”

With the height restrictions of two mountain view cones that cross through the site (View Cone 3 emanating from Queen Elizabeth Park, and View Cone 12 from the middle of the Granville Bridge deck), the City’s own policies limit the potential added density that would otherwise enable more public benefits, affordable housing, and/or condominiums to help pay for the site’s infrastructure costs.

Swanson opposed the project over the lack of affordability of the units, specifically the inclusion of more social housing. The approved rezoning will provide between 120 to 152 units of social housing on the site. But City staff, in response, reiterated that 100% of the land lift is going towards the cost of removing the loops and building the new streets.

Concept for 625-777 Pacific Street and 1390 Granville Street, replacing the north loops of the Granville Bridge in downtown. (City of Vancouver)

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