PC Urban Properties believes its latest secured purpose-built rental housing project within the City of Vancouver’s Broadway Plan could be suitable for many people who work in the nearby medical precinct anchored by Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and BC Cancer.
The local developer has submitted a new rezoning application to redevelop 1088 West 12th Avenue at the southeast corner of the intersection of Spruce Street and West 12th Avenue — situated about one city block west of VGH, and a 10-minute walk from SkyTrain’s future Oak-VGH Station.
Currently, the property is occupied by a 1969-built, three-storey building with 65 apartment units.
PC Urban is looking to turn this site into a 262-ft-tall, 25-storey mixed-use tower with secured purpose-built rental housing and some neighbourhood-serving commercial uses.
Site of 1088 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, in relation to its walking distance from SkyTrain’s future Oak-VGH Station. (Google Maps)
Existing condition:
Site of 1088 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Future condition:
Concept of 1088 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver. (Francl Architecture/PC Urban Properties)
The application notes that the property has a very long street frontage length of 250 ft, spanning half the city block. Technically, due to its length, the developer asserts this property could fit two high-rise towers, but they are choosing to propose one tower to respect City staff’s preference for “maintaining future development flexibility on the remaining portion of the block” — given the Broadway Plan’s policies that limit the number of towers per block.
The concept, designed by Francl Architecture, also provides the tower with a six-storey base podium, with the upper two levels of the base podium terraced, creating slightly smaller floor plates.
Additionally, supplementing the taller base podium (as opposed to a four-storey base podium), which is permitted by the Broadway Plan, the proponents explain that they are pursuing slightly larger floor plate sizes for the tower to meet the site’s allowable density and achieve the project’s resulting feasibility. The tower floor plate size above the base podium is 7,520 sq ft — slightly over a 10% increase from the Broadway Plan’s recommendation of 6,500 sq ft.
“This adjustment is necessary to meet the allowable FSR, with only one tower, while accommodating new seismic structural requirements and providing the necessary core structure for three elevators,” reads the application.
Concept of 1088 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver. (Francl Architecture/PC Urban Properties)
The total number of secured purpose-built rental homes would reach 295 units, including 241 market rental units and 54 below-market rental units, based on the Broadway Plan’s requirement of setting aside at least 20% of the rental residential space for below-market rentals.
The unit size mix is 75 studios, 114 one-bedroom units, 75 two-bedroom units, and 31 three-bedroom units. Residents would have access to various shared indoor and outdoor amenity spaces, including major facilities on the rooftops of the base podium and tower.
Two retail/restaurant units would be situated at the property’s corner with the intersection, providing a total of nearly 3,000 sq ft of commercial space.
The proposed total building floor area is about 212,000 sq ft, establishing a floor space ratio (FSR) density of a floor area that is 6.8 times larger than the size of the 31,242 sq ft lot.
A total of 119 vehicle parking stalls would be provided, spread across two underground levels and car share stalls on the building’s rear at ground level, fronting the laneway. There would also be 550 secured bike parking spaces.
Concept of 1088 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver. (Francl Architecture/PC Urban Properties)