3701 – 3743 West Broadway
When Westbank’s proposal for a 6 floor, 94 rental home building was made public early last year, I was extremely excited. Like anyone that has ever had to attend class at UBC’s Point Grey Campus, I would have loved to live nearby instead of trying to study while riding the bus, a task that was usually impossible on the 99.
Though Darren was unable to come with me to the open house as he was sick with the flu, I was even more disappointed to learn the building would only be 6 floors tall. I thought that was depressingly short for a rental building at an intersection that not only hosts a stop for the 99, but would one day see a station for the eventual Skytrain extension to UBC. Worse yet is that there are already several buildings north of the intersection that are quite a bit taller.
–That sadness turned to excitement when I leaned that Henriquez Architects had skillfully designed the building so that more floors could be added to it at a future date. After the open house, the application was amended to reduce the amount of parking provided, and it even won the support of the UDP in April of 2017. As it has been over a year with no news, Darren and I decided to do a little bit of digging.
It’s not the first time we’ve pursued information on a stalled proposal. Before the recent Heritage Commission meeting, Darren had tried calling the contact for the 555 Cordova proposal several times to see if there was an update. While none of those attempts met with success, we had better luck this time.
Expansion Plan
– Source
In reaching out to Henriquez Partners, we learned they’re also in the dark about this project’s status. They explained that, as they have several projects they are designing for Westbank (including the impressive Oakridge Mall redevelopment), they mutually decided to part ways on this proposal. Since then, we’ve learned that the new firm on the project is OMB (previously known as McFarlane | Green | Biggar).
There is also the City’s new moderate income rental housing policy (MIRPS) to consider. This pilot program allows for buildings between 6 – 14 floors at key intersections throughout the city. The conditions are that the entire building must be rental, and that 20% of the floor area is secured at rents which are affordable for those earning 30 – 80 thousand dollars a year. While that rate may be out of reach for many students, it would be a real advantage for UBC. Rents at that level could help the university become even more successful, as it would help attract teachers, hospital staff, service workers, and the many other research personnel that are needed at the campus.
Current Proposal
When you combine all these factors, it’s easy to see why Darren and I strongly believe Westbank will cancel this proposed 6 story “transformer” rental building and proceed with an amended application under the MIRPS policy instead. We reached out to try and confirm our suspicions, but after a couple weeks we still haven’t received a call back. That’s not surprising, as we don’t work in the industry, and we’re obviously not professional media. Still, while a lot of work would have to be done to make it successful, we think it would be a great idea for the City and the developer to pursue the option of a 14 floor rental tower at this location. As the contact information listed on the application page is out of date, we suggest you make your thoughts known by contacting either Vancouver’s chief planner, Gil Kelley at gil.kelley@vancouver.ca , or Westbank’s contact for general inquiries, Hweely Lim at hweely@westbankcorp.com . Only time, and public support, will determine if our theory is right.
City Duo 