May 24, 2016

Quote: Upzoning and Rewarding Speculation

From Metro Vancouver & TransLink Update

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Concord Pacific Developments has purchased the Vancouver Molson Coors brewery and disclosed plans to transform one of the city’s last remaining industrial sites into a “mixed-use residential neighbourhood.” The developer bought the site for $185-million and the deal closed March 31, according to real estate information service RealNet.

The three-hectare property is assessed in documents at $49,019,400. The City of Vancouver, which has repeatedly said it has no plans to rezone the site for anything other than industrial use, sent an e-mail to the Globe & Mail stating it had not received a rezoning application for the site.

“Any change to that would require a regional amendment by Metro. The city’s policies for these lands are set and staff are not contemplating any changes to current policies,” it said.

Tom Davidoff, economics professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, is in favour of the Concord Pacific plan, but not necessarily the approach. Davidoff told the Globe and Mail that “the city has to be careful. My understanding is that land prices are going nuts and developers buy assuming [there will be] upzoning. Arguably, the city shouldn’t reward such behaviour – it’s critical that paying a lot for land should not entitle the owner to demand city action.”

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  1. It happens all the time be it big projects like this or small single family subdivisions in the burbs. You pay too much, you whine and call your local councilor enough and bang, you’ve got your required number of lots/units. It’s naive to think it doesn’t happen.

  2. Wait long enough and any property will be upzoned.

    I don’t think there should be a witchhunt for developers making a profit.
    (if that were the case, would single family home owners who reap a windfall also be subject to such criticism?)

    The determination as to whether the site is suitable for additional density (whether it be industrial density, commercial office/hotel density, residential density or institutional density) is site-specific.

    There’s not much in the way of “rapid transit” planned near Molson’s.
    Real estate marketers may say the Broadway Subway will be close by – but the Molson’s site is just north of 1st Ave – Broadway is 9th Ave. (much more than the typical 400m catchment radius for a station).

    Now, if the Downtown Streetcar were actually built and extended to the site from the 6th Ave. RoW (and to the Planetarium), that could support some extra density.

    1. The streetcar line is still alive? The last estimate I read was in the $70 million range just for the shortest first phase, money that the city (not TransLink) would have to commit on top of the $55 million is has already committed to for the land.

      Let’s say it did go ahead eventually. The likely routing would take it from 5th x Fir to the Lamey’s Mill track crossing 4th Ave somewhere in between, or hanging a very sharp right from the Fir St alignment into mixed traffic on 2nd, bypassing the Starbucks. Either route places a station near the entrance to Granville Island within 500m of the back of the Molson’s site. No need for an extension to the Planetarium where the ridership, even with medium density residential at Molson’s, would probably never justify the cost.

  3. I’m curious to know what the City’s threshold is for patience on this site. How long will it hold out for (or how hard are they currently working to assemble) an agreement for industrial development here? The likelihood of a single, industrial, magical tenant to take over the site wholesale is negligible. It seems it would have to be an urban industrial park akin to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, though on a smaller scale. Tricky to negotiate, especially with a hodgepodge of different working spaces and rents guaranteed to be several miles higher than in Langley.

    But someone wants to put money in for mixed use commercial/residential development right now. If I were a betting man I’d put $500 on the City caving within 18 months and agreeing to rezone.

    1. The City’s patience?
      SDhouldn’t that be the developer’s patience / frustration?

      As a side note, Concord did back away from a development project several years ago – It was called Greenwich – that empty lot on Hastings Street near Woodward’s.
      Concord wanted to develop market condos on the site (lowrise/midrise) – there was public outcry / uproar and Concord killed the project.

      The bare land was later donated to the City for social housing in relation to the One Pacific (Cambie Bridgehead) rezoning.

  4. This happened all over Cambie Street and in Norquay Village… old news, but it should stop. Hopefully this is high enough profile, and close enough to la creme de la creme to make the City take a stand.

  5. Susie Strain visiting Vancouver 26th to 28th May transport planner from Melbourne Australia with Metropolitan Transport Forum. In 2014 hosted Gordon Price with speaker from Committee for Melbourne debating the transport merits of two liveable cities. Would be interested to gain insight or view current transport planning issues in Vancouver

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