Nearly an entire city block of car dealerships — with The BMW Store being the most visually distinct — at the northeast corner of the intersection of Burrard Street and West 5th Avenue will be renewed through a new redevelopment.
A development permit application has been submitted by OpenForm Properties to redevelop the various two-storey dealership properties at 1755 West 5th Avenue and 2040 Burrard Street into a new 95-ft-tall, six-storey, mixed-use building that spans most of the city block, containing commercial retail, office, and industrial uses.
This will provide new replacement and expanded car dealership space for BMW and Mini, as well as Motorad and Rolls Royce.
Location of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
Location of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
Existing condition:
Existing location of The BMW Store and Mini dealerships at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Future condition:
Artistic rendering of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
The ground level will be dedicated for two separate showrooms, with additional showroom space on portions of the second and third levels fronting Burrard Street, including a “display box” on the third level. The remaining dealership spaces on the second and third levels will qualify as industrial uses.
Levels four, five, and six will be purposed as office space, which may have multiple tenants on each floor plate. Outdoor amenity spaces are provided on the rooftops of all three upper floors.
Down below, three-and-a-half underground levels will provide over 300 vehicle parking stalls for the car merchandise storage capacity needs of the dealerships.
Floor plate uses of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
Artistic rendering of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
Artistic rendering of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
Artistic rendering of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
The project aligns with the City’s Broadway Plan, which stipulates no residential uses for the site due to Metro Vancouver Regional District’s land use designation for mixed employment lands. The area plan prescribes industrial, office, retail/service, cultural, and/or institutional uses within buildings up to 10 storeys and a floor area ratio (FAR) density a floor area that is no more than 4.5 times the size of the lot.
As outlined in the application, the total building floor area will reach 206,000 sq ft, establishing a FAR density of 4.49 times larger than the size of the 46,000 sq ft land assembly. The project’s design firms are Shape Architecture and Connect Landscape Architecture.
This section of the Burrard Street corridor within Burrard Slopes and Fairview is one of Vancouver’s main hubs for car dealerships, especially higher end cars. The most recent addition to the area is the Land Rover and Jaguar dealership within a 2021-built, four-storey building immediately to the north at 1788 West 4th Avenue, replacing an Esso gas station.
Artistic rendering of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
Artistic rendering of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)
Artistic rendering of the new car dealership complex at 1755 West 5th Avenue (2040 Burrard Street), Vancouver. (Shape Architecture/OpenForm Properties)