An industrial and office building designed for life sciences laboratory uses could be built within Vancouver’s protected Mount Pleasant Industrial Area.
Oxford Properties, the real estate investment arm of the pension fund for Ontario’s municipal employees, is proposing to redevelop 11-15 East 4th Avenue into a 146-ft-tall, eight-storey building with 78,000 sq ft of office space, another 78,000 sq ft of industrial space, and 6,800 sq ft of ground-level retail/restaurant space.
The entirety of the industrial space component will be dedicated to laboratory use, which necessitates special design and spatial considerations for extensive equipment. However, 100% of the office space could also be used for functional laboratory purposes.
Currently, the property — situated at the northeast corner of the intersection of Ontario Street and East 4th Avenue — is occupied by a three-story warehouse building built in 1948.
Site of 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
Existing condition:
Site of 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
Future condition:
Concept for 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
“The project vision is to develop a market-leading, sustainable, commercial/industrial building to support the research and development needs of life sciences tenancies,” reads the application. “The proposed building has been designed with purpose, to meet the unique needs of life sciences tenancies, while responding to the critical shortage of purpose-built lab space required to support the growth of the life sciences community in Vancouver.”
“The proposal requests relaxations to accommodate the unique needs of a life sciences tenancy. The building will better support the City’s innovation economy than a fully policy-compliant development by creating space for an under-served market, aligning with best practices for lab and R&D facility design, and consistent with other approved developments in the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area.”
Records show the property changed hands in a deal worth $30.5 million in September 2021. According to BC Assessment, as of July 2023, the property carries a value of $25 million, with $24.94 million coming from the land and $64,800 from the structure.
Upon completion, it is expected the life science tenants in the building will support 500 to 750 jobs.
Concept for 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
Concept for 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
Concept for 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
The building is about one city block east of AbCellera’s new headquarters and laboratory complex at 110-150 West 4th Avenue, and immediately adjacent to PCI Development’s redevelopment proposal of building 480,000 sq ft of office, creative industrial, and retail/restaurant uses at 5 West 4th Avenue.
The new St. Paul’s Hospital campus in the False Creek Flats is also spurring demand for new purpose-built office, clinical, laboratory, and research and development space in Mount Pleasant.
It is strategically located about a 10-minute walk from SkyTrain’s future Mount Pleasant Station and about a 15-minute walk from SkyTrain’s Olympic Village Station, Main Street-Science World Station or future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.
Concept for 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
Concept for 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
Concept for 11-15 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Chernoff Thompson Architects/Oxford Properties)
Oxford Properties’ project is designed by Chernoff Thompson Architects and B+H Architects, which have used Mount Pleasant’s industrial heritage character as inspiration for the building’s concept. The building is also set back from the sidewalk to create extensive privately owned publicly accessible spaces.
Two underground levels will accommodate 80 vehicle parking stalls. The total building floor area is about 163,000 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 6.7 times larger than the size of the 24,200 sq ft lot.