New push to redevelop 11.5-acre City-owned site at Main Street SkyTrain station | Daily Hive

New push to redevelop 11.5-acre City of Vancouver-owned site at Main Street-Science World SkyTrain station into the 'Innovation Hub'

Existing condition of the City of Vancouver-owned future Innovation Hub site. (Google Maps)

Eight years after the approval of the False Creek Flats Plan, the City of Vancouver is making a new effort to identify the potential redevelopment options of a significant property it owns immediately southeast of SkyTrain’s Main Street-Science World Station.

Under the False Creek Flats Plan, the 11.5-acre, City-owned site bounded by Main Street to the west, Terminal Avenue to the north, Station Street to the east, and Industrial Avenue to the south is identified as the “Innovation Hub” of the area plan.

For this particular Innovation Hub site, the area plan envisions a mix of innovation economy uses, such as laboratories, research and development, creative/light industrial, tech offices, arts and cultural facilities, local food economy spaces, some residential uses, and the active ground-level uses of retail and restaurants.

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A year after the area plan was approved, the municipal government in 2018 set aside a small portion of the Innovation Hub area — the 1.5-acre city block parcel on the north side of Southern Street — for an international design and development competition. This was part of the wider “C40 Reinventing Cities” open source international competition, involving 19 participating cities offering urban sites for new developments that will be global model examples of green and resilient urban “regeneration.”

Under the competition, the successful proponent would lease the 1.5-acre site from the City over a 99-year term.

In 2019, Daily Hive Urbanized reported that the City cancelled its participation in the competition. It withdrew its parcel of the Innovation Hub from the competition after determining it was no longer feasible to make the land available within the international design competition’s timeline.

false creek flats innovation hub vancouver site

The City of Vancouver-owned future Innovation Hub site outlined in red. (Google Maps/Daily Hive)

False Creek Flats Plan, with the City-owned Innovation Hub site highlighted. (City of Vancouver)

Currently, the highly under-utilized, centrally-located, transit-oriented development site is used for light industrial and commercial purposes, and largely occupied by dilapidated warehouse buildings and other structures. Much of the parcels fronting Main Street are also occupied by Vancouver’s first temporary modular housing building, which is a three-storey structure constructed in 2017, as well as additional single-storey modular housing structures, which were built in 2023.

According to BC Assessment, as of July 2024, the dozens of individual properties within the entire 11.5-acre Innovation Hub have a collective assessed value of over $520 million.

Last week, the City closed its bidding process seeking a contractor to conduct a feasibility study identifying the potential development options for the 11.5-acre site.

“The City has issued an Request For Proposal (RFP) for consultant services to conduct a servicing feasibility study for the area known as the Innovation Hub in the False Creek Flats. The site is currently zoned under the FC-2 District Schedule for a mix of light industrial, commercial and residential uses. The feasibility study is part of ongoing efforts to explore the potential for development that is feasible, sustainable and aligned with City priorities,” the City told Daily Hive Urbanized last week upon inquiry.

The consultant is expected to align its possible development concepts with the False Creek Flats Plan’s aims of fostering innovation, economic growth, and job creation.

It was also noted that this effort and property are not connected to the activities of the City’s Vancouver Housing Development Office, but an exercise led by the City’s Real Estate Services Department.

“Overcoming geotechnical challenges, such as a relatively high-water table and soil contamination, are among the key considerations being studied,” continued the City.

The Innovation Hub is located at the westernmost end of the False Creek Flats, with its land area created by infill reclamation a century ago to expand Canadian National’s railyard. Previously, False Creek’s waterway extended as far east as Clark Drive, with the False Creek Flats — east of where Science World is now located — being a tidal marsh.

Some of the buildings that currently exist within the Innovation Hub were built shortly after the False Creek Flats were filled in.

false creek flats innovation hub vancouver

The City-owned Innovation Hub site in the False Creek Flats. (City of Vancouver)

Existing condition of the City of Vancouver-owned future Innovation Hub site. (Google Maps)

The RFP provides further detail on the site’s challenging conditions, indicating that the soils are not only contaminated by past industrial uses but also contain upper layers of fill material that offer poor structural support. Additionally, much of the area lies below the recommended minimum flood construction level of 4.8 metres.

The selected proponent will return to the City later in 2025 with a completed feasibility study that outlines potential development density and use scenarios, road network and public realm concepts, parking and commercial loading layouts, utilities and servicing strategies, and construction cost estimates.

It should also be noted that City Council’s July 2024 revisions that relaxed the protected mountain view cone guidelines have enabled significantly greater density through additional building height on this site.

The forthcoming work by the contractor will build on the City’s previous highly preliminary studies. Within over a dozen low- and mid-rise buildings, this previous concept envisioned 1.56 million sq. ft. of total building floor area — generating a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 5.74 times larger than the size of the land area — including 718,000 sq. ft. of residential uses, 480,000 sq. ft. of office uses, 278,000 sq. ft. of production uses, and 83,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant/flex uses. There would be a pedestrian-friendly design — including some car-free streets — and Industrial Avenue would be reconfigured to retain the possibility of a future streetcar route.

false creek flats innovation hub vancouver preliminary concept

Previous highly preliminary concept for the Innovation Hub site of the False Creek Flats Plan. (City of Vancouver)

Some major developments are already planned immediately adjacent to the Innovation Hub site.

Just to the west, Vancouver City Council has now approved the privately led and owned redevelopment of the longtime McDonald’s restaurant property at 1527 Main St. into two towers up to 21 storeys with 371 market rental homes and a new flagship replacement McDonald’s.

Immediately north of the McDonald’s site, the City’s Vancouver Housing Development Office is proposing to redevelop its municipally-owned property of 1405 Main St. and 1510 Quebec St. into two towers up to 42 storeys with 780 rental homes and 14,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant space.

Immediately north of the Innovation Hub site, there is also a private proposal to redevelop 1220 Station St. into two 28-storey towers with about 400 rental homes, office space, and retail/restaurant space.

Just to the east of the Innovation Hub site, an eight-storey, 236,000 sq. ft. laboratory and office building is privately planned as an additional infill structure for the property of 1628 Station St.

And to the south, the rental housing, office, and creative industrial complex known as Archetype at 220 East 1st Ave. has now reached completion.

1527 main street vancouver mcdonalds rental housing

Concept for the McDonald’s restaurant redevelopment at 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Dialog/Greystar Real Estate Partners)

1405 Main Street 1510 Quebec Street Vancouver rental towers

Concept of 1405 Main St. and 1510 Quebec St., Vancouver. (HCMA/Archeology/City of Vancouver)

1220 station street vancouver gwl realty advisors

December 2024 concept for mixed-use rental housing towers at 1220 Station Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/GWL Realty Advisors)

2022 concept artistic rendering for 1628 Station Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Low Tide Properties)

September 2020 artistic rendering of Archetype at 220 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver. (GBL Architects/Hungerford Properties/QuadReal Property Group)

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