The Ultimate Vancouver Rumour Thread!

[GenWhy?]

"Awesome, more affordable rentals to come down in favour of pricey condos and (un)affordable rentals. Vision Vancouver’s cold dead corpse reaching out from the grave."

This building is not at "affordable rental" rates of any kind of one's definition. They're about the rate of the DCL waiver rates, which are used to measure "more affordable than a mortgage". Rentals are not coming down in favour of expensive condos. This building is (probably/maybe) coming down with rental replacement units in addition to condos. The rents in this building will follow what the area dictates. They will be "affordable" (make sense) for the area. There are not a lot of long term tenants in this building, or paying "cheap" rents.

I never mean to nit-pick or berate, never my intent or tone, but in this industry details and words I hold dear. I didn't see Feather Friend knew and posted that in advance. I forget they know quite a big early on. I jumped on the gun on where info was coming from.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

A small and helpful document in this conversation on the issue of rental replacement:

Rental Housing Stock Official Development Plan - https://bylaws.vancouver.ca/odp/RHS.pdf

Hey Genwhy?, are you certain the bylaw applies to this site? I think it's in DD zoning. Obviously in order to get Council approval for a rezoning it would be a wise move to ensure there's no loss of rental, but I'm not sure they couldn't replace to existing zoning as a condo building; the rentals here might not be protected?

[GenWhy?]

I may be thinking under a rezoning to CD-1 with the post-May updates... now I'm unsure myself.

[Feathered Friend]

City Duo Settles in for a Long Winter’s Nap – Two Week Break Ends January 7th, 2019
When the month started, Hannah and I were already facing a backlog of posts to write, and expected it to worsen as public consultation would ramp up before the holiday break...

We still have a backlog too. This includes our experiences at the open house for the new St. Paul’s Hospital open house, and the long delayed Urban Design Panel review of the proposal at 708 Renfrew Street. Of course, we’ve managed to find out some information about unannounced projects, and a couple pre-application events we’ve missed too.

However, that will have to wait until the new year. We’re committed to taking a break, as since we started City Duo in February, we’ve written almost 200 posts, which have been viewed tens of thousands of times. That said, we still plan to pop up on Twitter, and reply to some emails that have been sitting for the last couple weeks, but there won’t any new blog posts until January 7th, 2019.

https://cityduo.wordpress.com/2018/1...uary-7th-2019/

Broadway - Kerrisdale -Kingsway - Kitsilano
Merry MIRHPP-mas, and a Happy New Year

[Vin]

Originally Posted by BodomReaper

Very sad. This is the insanity of confining apartment development to virtually the same portions of residential land as we have since the 1920s - we're just going to keep tearing down buildings once they become affordable, while continuing to reserve 80% of residential land for $$$$$ single family homes. And it's only going to get worse with this total disaster of a council that can't even handle duplex zoning.

Can't agree more. Totally stupid that the city is adopting this trend. I suppose one day in 30 year's time the Shangrila will also have to be demoshed if an 80 storey building is allowed on the site rather that 2 blocks away.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Vin

Can't agree more. Totally stupid that the city is adopting this trend. I suppose one day in 30 year's time the Shangrila will also have to be demoshed if an 80 storey building is allowed on the site rather that 2 blocks away.

Yeah Shangri-la is going to be torn down in 30 years to add eighteen floors. Genius.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Yeah Shangri-la is going to be torn down in 30 years to add eighteen floors. Genius.

And a very merry christmas to you too, my friend.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Yeah Shangri-la is going to be torn down in 30 years to add eighteen floors. Genius.

Ain't you suppose to be jolly as your namesake implies?

[Feathered Friend]

What better way to celebrate not being sick as a dog than creating some rumors on the Skyscraperpage.

1. Two major proposals/ properties in Vancouver are undergoing significant revisions from what was originally proposed.

2. The Broadway Corridor has hit a "critical mass" of office space, so look forward to seeing a few more hotel proposals in the area.

3. A new large format retailer will be triggering a wave of redevelopment somewhere in Vancouver that may surprise some people.

4. What does the increased demand on the rail lines to the port, and falling ridership numbers, mean for the future of the West Coast Express?

5. At least one large project may be shelved due to constraints from the city, while several others are struggling with CAC negotiations.

I expect to see some of these explored in more detail on City Duo, but others may never come to fruition. Of course some details, like off the record information, will have to be kept secret Suffice to say, it's exciting times in Vancouver, and we wish we could say more, but we protect our sources.

[Metro-One]

1, 4, and 5 all sound like potentially negative rumors.

1 could be hieght reductions / value engineering of previous proposals. I worry / suspect one of those is the Nelson on the Park tower which likely means a major height reduction because of the lame shadowing policy on Nelson Park (despite the city planting as many “shade” trees as they can in these very same areas.....)

4 could mean reductions in service rather than needed expansions (again, which should be focused east of Coquitlam Station. It was obvious that the Evergreen Line would reduce WCE ridership west of Coquitlam Station, but with the most constrained /expensive portion of the WCE’s run regarding expansion now no longer in need for increased services, such expansion could be completely focused on the stretch between Coquitlam to Mission).

5 is just straight negative news.

[Galaxy]

4. I could see the province and Translink look at shifting the service of the Westcoast Express so that it would terminate in Coquitlam Centre Station and then extend the eastern terminus further east maybe all the way to say like Hope. There is a growing population further out than even a few years ago and so an eastern expansion may help to increase ridership perhaps. That's what I think...

[csbvan]

5 sounds more like the impacts of a market in freefall than anything to do with the city, but OK.

[Tetsuo]

RE: 4

Hunter Harrison is dead, no longer at CP, the company's grandstanding over using CP resources for the WCE has relatively died down.

CN's twinning of Grandview and Strathcona will help with train pressures.

Eliminating the stretch to downtown would take out a huge chunk of revenue paying higher end commuters.

[SpongeG]

With West Coast express they only run in the morning to downtown and evening back to Mission, could they try running just between Coquitlam Centre and Mission during the day and Evenings? and still keep the morning and evening runs as is.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

With West Coast express they only run in the morning to downtown and evening back to Mission, could they try running just between Coquitlam Centre and Mission during the day and Evenings? and still keep the morning and evening runs as is.

CP would almost certainly be unwilling to make the tracks available for passenger trains outside the current window they theoretically allow Translink to operate. There were more frequent delays to the WCE service last year as CP prioritized freight trains over WCE trains. Ridership dropped between 2016 and 2017 by 5.5%, but apparently it came back last year - although the numbers haven't yet been published, as far as I know. Negotiations to even maintain the track time that Translink currently has may not be easy. CP are using the tracks more, and current Port expansion will increase that use. Over 80% of the containers that are docked in Vancouver travel by rail, and Centerm are already constructing an expanded footprint to move from 900,000 TEUs annually to 1.5 million.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Suffice to say, it's exciting times in Vancouver...

Thank you for sharing the rumours. You don’t see anything posted in this thread that much anymore these days, so it’s much appreciated.

But, from what you say, it doesn’t sound like the exciting times a city of Vancouver’s size and status should be experiencing. (Relative to Toronto over the last decade, Vancouver has almost looked like a deer caught in headlights.) Indeed, I don’t think Vancouver will ever see genuinely exciting times again as long as the city’s current restrictive policies remain in place and city council continues to acquiesce to anti-development and anti-big city politics.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Changing City

CP would almost certainly be unwilling to make the tracks available for passenger trains outside the current window they theoretically allow Translink to operate. There were more frequent delays to the WCE service last year as CP prioritized freight trains over WCE trains. Ridership dropped between 2016 and 2017 by 5.5%, but apparently it came back last year - although the numbers haven't yet been published, as far as I know. Negotiations to even maintain the track time that Translink currently has may not be easy. CP are using the tracks more, and current Port expansion will increase that use. Over 80% of the containers that are docked in Vancouver travel by rail, and Centerm are already constructing an expanded footprint to move from 900,000 TEUs annually to 1.5 million.

Centerm is currently serviced, on average, by up to two trains a day. The length of trains can vary based on a number of factors; but are in the order of 6,000 ft long. For the terminal to reach the full proposed capacity it does not necessarily require an increase in the number of trains received each day. This is due to the expansion of the intermodal yard, which will allow the terminal to service longer unit trains; in the order of 12,000 ft.

https://www.portvancouver.com/wp-con...g_Plan-CEP.pdf

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

Thank you for sharing the rumours. You don’t see anything posted in this thread that much anymore these days, so it’s much appreciated.

But, from what you say, it doesn’t sound like the exciting times a city of Vancouver’s size and status should be experiencing. (Relative to Toronto over the last decade, Vancouver has almost looked like a deer caught in headlights.) Indeed, I don’t think Vancouver will ever see genuinely exciting times again as long as the city’s current restrictive policies remain in place and city council continues to acquiesce to anti-development and anti-big city politics.

I was also feeling a bit dejected when I was taking pics of the skyline today from Lonsdale Quay. Same old, same old. It's been looking largely the same for years now (since Trump Tower was topped out). When is the profile from this angle going to noticeably change again? I know we have the special towers like Vancouver House and the towers around West Georgia and Cardero going up but when are we going to get the next really big one to break the old table top or become the new tallest?

The two big towers (Shangri La and Trump) that broke up the flat profile are getting kind of old. Remember how many years it took for the Trump tower to complete after it got started. I'm a little jealous of Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto because every time I see some new skyline pics you can see the latest big changes. Oy...



Vancouver as seen from Lonsdale Quay, March 10 '19, my pic

[mcminsen]

Compare to adrianroam95's pic from March 6 '15, around the time Trump topped out. Four years between these photos.

Originally Posted by adrianroam95

Vancouver as seen from Lonsdale Quay, March 10 '19, my pic

[mcminsen]

There's a very slight difference in angle. I think Adrian's pic was from the boardwalk in front of the market. My pic was from the roof of the Seabus terminal.

I think to the right of Harbour Centre you can see the appearance of Telus Garden. And then there's the disappearance of the Landmark tower on Robson. Other than that...


March '15


March '19