Today they finished clearing up the remainder of the debris, gave everything a good sweep, and then erected a tall, sturdy - and not particularly temporary - chain link fence around the open basement.

That doesn't seem to suggest that excavation is happening any time soon.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...psc859e92b.jpg
Photo credit: me

I agree, this doesn't look like the actions of a company moving straight into excavation.

Oh jeeze! This is just so sad....the first of many long awaited office building projects to stand idle and a sign of things to come from May 14 onwards.... :(

This building is standing vacant regardless of who wins the election. There is just too much U/C for the market to absorb right now.

That said go Christie go!

What was the point in demolishing the bank if they aren't going ahead with the project anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to continue collecting rent for another 1-3 years than leaving the lot vacant?

I don't think they anticipated not going ahead....although its not like we did not know the BC NDP would win.

As for too many projects already in the pipeline, the thing is all these years, downtown Vancouver hasn't really been building that much office space to begin with, so all indicators are commercial developers must catch up. Even those underconstruction today, are still underconstruction, so we haven't really had any significant office space increase since Bentall V.

The frustrating thing about this is any further delay on office building projects mean that by the time the BC NDP is gone, we will be in another situation were office vacancy is tight once again, making doing business in Vancouver prohibitively expensive. There has to be a healthy amount of inventory. With Telus, MNP, Bentall stub, pretty much leased up, the only big project were you can get some allowance is Nordstrom (the Rogers arena ain't that much).

So its a never ending cycle of office tightness. While this may seem good for landlords, if tenants have no where to set up shop downtown, where would they go? To those high vacant sprawling office parks in the burbs. Now who would want that?

Just look at Calgary. The developer of Eight Avenue Place too a huge gamble, building a million square feet despite the Bow and other office towers being built at the same time. No tenants lined up, nada. But because their building was available, other companies that needed to set up shop was able to find space in their building just when it was finished. So despite the tightness of office space in Calgary, the supply is able to keep up with demand.

This particular building ain't exactly as big as Eight Avenue Place...I'm sure this would land tenants even with the BC NDP (for all we know, this could end up a government building).....as long as its built.

They started demolishing like 2 months ago, are you saying that things changed so much in 2 months? They obviously knew they wouldn't go ahead with this when they tore the bank down.

Who knows, the company that demolished is likely different than the company that will excavate. They could be going ahead in a couple months or something but just couldn't leave an open hole on the property.

Maybe it is a positive sign that they put a fence around the hole. If they really weren't going to move ahead anytime soon you would think instead they would have filled in and paved over the hole in order to expand the parking lot and make some money in the mean time.

Anyways, at least this crappy one storey cinder block building is now gone. Now if only the the owner of the crappy two storey cinder block building to the north of this would come around and join the 980 Howe Office development...

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...0-982howe2.jpg

Maybe that's what they're waiting for? (fingers crossed!!!)

They took a gamble and got absolutely creamed.

Real estate development isn't a charity to benefit urban growth, it's a business.

We already had one (2 if you count the Nordstrom office space) building go up on spec in this cycle and I wouldn't expect another. The ~2 Million sf we are seeing built this cycle represents the largest office boom since the 80s, so I can't quite understand why anyone would be surprised several of the proposals will not be built this time around. That's how real estate works.

They put up big Ellis don signs. Kinda weird they did that now and not at all before/during demo

The probably hired a different company to do the demo. Putting up an Ellis Don sign may be a good thing.

One would think they would level the whole lot as a parking lot if they would be planning to shelf this project for a long time. That having not happened is hopefully good news. :shrug:

thats the way I see it as well. the Ellis Don signs scream construction to me. not an asbestos removal/demo with a hole in the ground left as is.

plus if it was to be left for the next few years (next cycle) as a parking lot .... it would make most sense to fill in the hole and max out the parking capacity.

I think we will see a full site fence off at the end of this month perhaps and then a full on clearing with digging and shoring to follow. :cheers:

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...ps933810e4.jpg
Photo credit: me

No change except that parking lot is now reopened.

New (?) model pics from the Endall Elliot architects website.

Much improved, in my view. No pic of the alley side though...

http://endallelliot.com/endall_ellio...apeimage_2.png
http://endallelliot.com/endall_ellio...rner_view.html

http://endallelliot.com/endall_ellio...apeimage_2.png
http://endallelliot.com/endall_ellio...elevation.html

http://endallelliot.com/endall_ellio...apeimage_2.png
http://endallelliot.com/endall_ellio...howe_elev.html

http://endallelliot.com/endall_ellio...apeimage_2.png
http://endallelliot.com/endall_ellio...owe_views.html

Officedweller stop!!! You're making me sad with these updated beautiful renderings! :(

Even though this building is a groundscraping filler, its much much prettier than that abomination that is "Credit Suisse office tower" (The Exchange)! And the sad part is, while the status of this beautiful building is in doubt, as you mentioned, the Exchange seems to be going through. Ah the horror!!! :yuck:

Form of development approval is scheduled for next week's council hearing:

http://former.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/...s/motiona1.pdf

This is really just a formality and doesn't guarantee it will proceed, but they also can't move forward without it.

I guess we will find out next week if this building really is a go, if you know what I mean.... :sly:

Nothing in life is fair, we all know. Here is further evidence to back that statement up. :facepalm: