Ahead of the second anniversary of the City of Vancouver’s approval of the Broadway Plan now approaching, there are now a total of 22,469 homes proposed within the six square kilometre area plan spanning about 500 city blocks.
This is the area that will be anchored by SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway extension starting in 2026, with significant residential and job space density forthcoming to turn the area into Vancouver’s second city centre or what is essentially a southward expansion of downtown Vancouver.
According to newly released complete statistics by the municipal government, as of the end of March 2024, a total of 150 projects of all types of uses are in various stages of the development pipeline, including 120 projects with at least some residential uses, with 50 projects being 100% residential use and 67 projects being mixed-use with residential as one of the types of uses.
The mix of the types of homes in the pipeline entails 17,076 secured purpose-built market rental housing units, 3,694 secured purpose-built below-market rental housing units, 1,436 strata condominium units, and 263 social housing units.
The remaining 30 projects are 100% non-residential — such as offices, hotels, retail, restaurants, and/or industrial.
The total amount of non-residential space in projects that are 100% non-residential or mixed-use residential is 9.3 million sq ft. This includes 5.56 million sq ft of office space, 794,000 sq ft of hotel space, 748,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant space, 694,000 sq ft of industrial space, and 230,000 sq ft of various other types of non-residential uses.
Artistic rendering of a rental housing tower proposal at 2535 Carolina Street and 557 569 East 10th Avenue, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/HAVN)
Artistic rendering of TransLink’s rental housing tower proposal at 2096 West Broadway and 2560 Arbutus Street next to the future SkyTrain Arbutus Station. (MCMP Architects/TransLink/PCI Developments)
With all that said, the vast majority of these homes and non-residential uses are still in the early stages of the City’s review pipeline.
Over 14,000 homes are still in the City’s pre-application letter of inquiry stage, which is the step prior to the submission of a formal rezoning application. This includes 10,357 market rental units, 2,247 below-market rental units, 1,198 condominium units, and 239 social housing units.
Nearly 8,000 homes have entered the formal rezoning application stage, including 6,356 market rental units, 1,361 below-market rental units, and 24 social housing units.
In terms of breaking down these residential uses as number of projects, 78 projects are in the pre-application letter of inquiry stage, including six condominium projects, three condominium projects with some rental housing uses, two condominium projects with some social housing uses, nine market rental housing projects, 57 market rental housing projects with some below-market rental housing uses, and one social housing project.
There are currently 39 residential projects in the formal rezoning application stage, including one condominium project, one condominium project with some social housing uses, two market rental housing projects, and 35 market rental housing projects with some below-market rental housing uses.
Artistic rendering of the 2023 revised design of the former MEC Broadway store redevelopment into rental housing and commercial space at 130 West Broadway, Vancouver. (NSDA Architects/IBI Group/Reliance Properties/QuadReal Property Group)
Artistic rendering of a rental housing and childcare proposal for 816-860 West 13th Avenue and 2915-2925 Willow Street, Vancouver. (Francl Architecture/PC Urban Properties)
Artistic rendering of an office and industrial space proposal at 2224 Alberta Street and 210-220 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver. (Proscenium Architecture & Interiors/Nicola Wealth/PC Urban)
About 6.3 million sq ft of non-residential uses are in the pre-application letter of inquiry stage, including 4.76 million sq ft of office space, 545,000 sq ft of hotel space, 500,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant space, 377,000 sq ft of industrial space, and 134,000 sq ft of other non-residential uses.
Another 1.85 million sq ft of non-residential uses are within the formal rezoning application stage, including 805,000 sq ft of office space, 283,000 sq ft of hotel space, 247,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant space, and 417,000 sq ft of industrial space.
The remaining 1.18 million sq ft of non-residential uses are in the various latter stages of rezoning approval, development permit, building permit, or occupancy permit.
As of the end of March 2024, there were 94 pre-application letters of inquiry and 46 active rezoning applications under consideration, including proposals that progressed from the pre-application letter of inquiry. According to City staff, this is a significant number, considering the municipal government saw an annual average of 76 rezoning application submissions over the last five years for all of Vancouver.
Broadway Plan: Number of residential or mixed-use residential projects by tenure and stage of rezoning and development, as of the end of March 2024. (City of Vancouver)
Broadway Plan: Total non-residential floor area (sq ft) by stage of rezoning/development and use, as of the end of March 2024. (City of Vancouver)
Broadway Plan: Non-residential floor area (sq ft) by stage of rezoning/development and use, as of the end of March 2024. (City of Vancouver)
The location, design, and details of the vast majority of these projects are not publicly known.
In mid-April 2024, Daily Hive Urbanized reported that the publicly known rental housing proposals now total about 7,000 rental homes across at least 35 high-rise towers.
Some of the largest publicly known projects are located on vacant and/or under-utilized industrial sites along Great Northern Way on the southern edge of the False Creek Flats, with PCI Developments, Low Tide Properties, and Onni Group leading various high-rise tower projects in the area with a combination of mixed uses including significant rental housing. These various multi-tower projects reaching up to 35 storeys are situated immediately adjacent to the future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station and the existing VCC-Clark Station.
The vast majority of the publicly known high-rise tower rental housing projects are within close proximity to SkyTrain’s future subway stations of Mount Pleasant and Oak-VGH, and especially South Granville, Arbutus, and the existing Broadway-City Hall Station, which will be turned into an interchange hub between the Canada Line and Millennium Line.
The largest publicly known non-residential project is PCI Developments’ rezoning application to redevelop 5 West 4th Avenue within the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area into a complex rising up to 11 storeys with 480,000 sq ft of total building floor area, including 240,000 sq ft of creative/light industrial space, 171,000 sq ft of office space, 60,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant space, and a 9,400 sq ft childcare facility.
The hotel project’s calculation includes the recently revised major proposal to redevelop Park Inn & Suites and the Fairview Pub at 888 West Broadway — located next to the future Oak-VGH Station — into the Hilton Tapestry Hotel and Hilton Homewood Suites.
Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of 485 Great Northern Way, Vancouver. (Perkins&Will/PCI Developments/Low Tide Properties)
Artistic rendering of the redevelopment at 5 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver. (Perkins&Will/PCI Developments)
2024 artistic rendering of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)
2024 artistic rendering of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)