Proceeds of parking-lot sale will pay for renovations to centre
John Bermingham
Province
Concord Pacific Group’s artist rendering looks ahead to 2008 and the completion of the developer’s TV One and TV Two condo towers complementing the architecture of the CBC.
CBC’s Ken Golemba is managing renovations to the public broadcaster’s 32-year-old Vancouver facility. SAM LEUNG – THE PROVINCE
CBC is making its own version of reality-TV these days, converting its Vancouver real estate into a lucrative cash cow.
The Mother Corp. has sold off the staff parking lot at its downtown building at 700 Hamilton to Concord-Pacific for approximately $34 million. The downtown developer’s plan is to build two highrise towers on a TV theme.
CBC will use the revenue to fund a new Vancouver Production Centre for its 550 employees, at a time of scarce federal support for the “corp.”
Construction has just begun with a scheduled completion in 2009.
“What we were looking for were offers to sell our density and airspace rights to that property, to allow condo development, “ said Ken Golemba, CBC’s project manager yesterday. “In return, we would get money which we would use to renovate our 32-year-old facility.”
Access to the plaza will be switched from Hamilton Street to 775 Cambie next month.
Plans call for integration of all television and radio operations into a single, three-storey newsroom.
Golemba said it will make staff more effective and better able to swap digital information, working from a common assignment desk.
The project will also showcase several public features:
-A promenade, so that people can watch the newsroom at work.
-A 4,000-square-foot plaza, featuring a courtyard garden and outdoor stage.
-8,500 square feet of community space for non-profit uses.
Project architect Kate Gerson said the look will be glassy, with the newsroom standing at Georgia and Hamilton.
“We’re doing our best to not hide the existing building, but certainly liven it up,” said Gerson, of Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden.
“We’re completely redoing the plaza, and adding the glassy newsroom on top of the new plaza. You’ll be able to see the activity going on in there.”
It’s also something of a branding fit with the Concord-Pacific Group, which is calling its buildings TV One and TV Two.
David Negrin, senior vice-president development, said it’s been a nice fit of downtown living with a TV-broadcast theme.
“What was really important for us was to tie it into the newscast theme, which we thought would appeal to younger people and middle-aged people,” he said.
Ground-breaking on the condo towers, which both face onto Robson Street, begins next week.
The 21-storey and 31-storey towers are nearly all pre-sold, with only 60 units remaining out of 450.
Move-in is planned for 2008.
“I think it’s worked very well for both parties,” said Negrin. “It’s been a great fit. The CBC theme is the biggest thing about the project.”
“People always see that as one site,” he added. “We wanted to keep that, so the towers tie into the actual architecture of the CBC.”
The union representing CBC workers said it’s been a longtime strategy at the corporation to convert its real-estate holdings into operating dollars.
Similar overhauls have already been done in Toronto, Ottawa and Edmonton.
But what’s seen as the salvation for the broadcaster has ended up squeezing staff into smaller working-spaces that resemble call-centres.
“They’ve had a policy of squashing employees into as little square-footage as possible,” said Canadian Media Guild president Lise Lareau.
“At a certain point it’s a false economy,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with getting money, especially when money isn’t flowing from the feds, but they’ve gone too far in many cases.”
© The Vancouver Province 2006
