Plan calls for three towers to rise above old Vancouver post office

John Mackie
The Vancouver Sun

The plan for the old Vancouver Post Office has been unveiled, and it’s a shocker.

The design by Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership calls for three new glass-faced towers to be added on top of the heritage building at 349 West Georgia, including a 17-storey office tower and two residential towers of 18 and 20 storeys.

The towers would form a big glass wall along Georgia and Dunsmuir, but would taper in between, like a big U. The building looks like it would be oriented toward the plaza of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to the east.

A rezoning application on the city’s website says there will 799 residential units in the complex, of which will be 427 market rental and 372 condos. This works out to 795,886 sq. ft. of residential.

The existing seven-storey building will become a “podium” for the towers with a mix of retail, office and residential space. A sign on the building dubs it “The Post.”

There will be 273,829 sq. ft. of retail space in the podium, and 90,016 sq. ft. of offices. There will be another 413,147 sq. ft. of offices in the towers, making for 512,336 of office in the overall project.

There will be six levels of parking in the project, with 1,004 to 1,474 parking stalls and 1,038 bicycle stalls. There will also be a 49-space child care facility.

The main floor will be redeveloped with a glass facade, which means that the famous bas-relief of a postman at the southwest corner of the building will be moved.

A handsome mural by Orville Fisher depicting “early transportation methods in British Columbia” will also be cut out and moved.

The developer and city will be holding an open house on the project on Tuesday, Nov. 22, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Hotel Vancouver at Georgia and Burrard.

The old post office was designed by McCarter and Nairne architects, and opened in 1958 on a full block bounded by Georgia, Homer, Dunsmuir and Hamilton streets. It is an example of the International modern style, and pretty much looks the same today as when it was constructed.

In 2013, the federal government sold the building for about $130 million after paying out land claims brought by four First Nations. The new owner is to BCIMC, a pension fund.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc

But while Clark claims First Nations leaders are supportive, at least one did not participate today

Richard Zussman, Yvette Brend
other

Premier Christy Clark said LNG in B.C. is one step closer to becoming a reality with First Nations backing and funding in place, during a special announcement about the Woodfibre LNG project today near Squamish.

She expects the $1.6-billion project will start shipping gas to Asian markets in 2020.

The company’s plan is to process natural gas — shipped by pipeline from Northern B.C.— into liquefied natural gas if permits are all secured.

The company first proposed a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant after buying the site in 2015, but plans to convert the historic pulp mill sparked loud environmental concerns.

The province has chartered a boat and a helicopter to transport media including CBC News to the site, which has no road access.

But while Clark claims First Nations leaders are supportive, at least one did not participate today.

Chief Ian Campbell of the Squamish Nation did not attend the event today saying, “It’s too early to celebrate.”

The Squamish Nation set out 25 conditions to protect sensitive land and marine habitats near the project and they are still working “hard at” coming to an agreement to have them met, he said.

“Put simply, our Woodfibre LNG work simply isn’t finished,” said Campbell in a statement on Friday morning.

Environmental approval already granted

Federal Minister of Environment Catherine McKenna already approved an environmental assessment for the proposed project in March. 

That was described as a “big milestone” by the company’s vice president Byng Giraud.

That assessment was done by the province on behalf of both levels of government and was subject to certain conditions.

At the time, McKenna called the environmental assessment “thorough and science-based,” and said the LNG plant is unlikely to cause significant harm.

Project raises concerns in Squamish

Woodfibre LNG Ltd. — which is owned by Singapore-based RGE Pte.Ltd — estimates the proposed LNG export facility would create 650 plus jobs per year during two-year construction period and approximately 100 full-time shift jobs for more than 25 years once it is running.

But the project has also attracted a number of protests and petitions since it was first proposed.

According to the group My Sea to Sky, the proposed facility will damage the Howe Sound environment, hurt tourism, and doesn’t fit into the future of Squamish.

The group says nearly 9,000 people signed a petition against it, and hundreds of residents voiced opposition at town hall meetings last spring.  

“[It] will exude give or take 800,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases that will affect B.C.’s ability to meet climate change targets,” said group member Eoin Finn.

“The 60,000 tonnes of LNG aboard each of those tankers present a small but significant safety risk to the population of Bowen and West Vancouver.”

©2016 CBC/Radio-Canada.

Australia?s real estate system has many consumer protections that Canada?s lacks

Saman Malik ? Tiffany Foxcroft
other

In Canada’s hottest real estate markets, bidding on a house can feel like a competitive sport. But is the property game as fair as it could be?

Perhaps not – at least not compared to Australia’s way of doing things.

Like Canada, many of the real estate markets Down Under are in overdrive, with multiple prospective buyers often competing for a single home.

But Australia’s preferred method of selling property – where buyers stand out front and openly bid through an auction – couldn’t be more different than the system here.

The Australian system also includes some key consumer protections that Canada’s lacks. 

CBC Marketplace recently investigated how Canadian consumers can be at a disadvantage when buying a home, as bids are kept secret, allowing for possible manipulation. Using hidden cameras, Marketplace documented real estate teams in the Greater Toronto Area breaking the real estate act and its code of ethics.

Would a system similar to the one operating in Australia change things for the better for would-be homebuyers here? You be the judge. Here are three key differences between our two systems.

Consumers have more information in Australia

What do you think you need to make an informed choice when it comes to buying a home?

Australians have access to a lot more real estate data than we do in most parts of Canada. Buyers can obtain home inspection results, sale-price histories and information on recent sales of comparable and neighbouring homes — without going to an agent to get the information.

The result? Most buyers don’t use agents.

Almost six million Australians — about a quarter of the country’s population — access one of the country’s most popular real estate information websites every month. Realestate.com.au is a free site that provides a wealth of data to help assess value or determine a potential bid.

Most Canadians aren’t so lucky.  

In Nova Scotia, homebuyers can access sales and price history for properties on their own. But in the rest of Canada, that information is held close by agents.

For years, Canada’s Competition Bureau has been unsuccessfully fighting to get more information into the hands of consumers. In June, the federal Competition Tribunal ordered the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) to let brokers release more sales data to the public.

TREB is appealing the decision.

More transparency around multiple bids

Property data isn’t the only thing that’s open in Australia.

If you want a house in a hot market, you usually have to bid for it — but that bidding war takes the form of an open auction, a practice that’s been in place since the 1800s.

Bids are kept secret in Canada and no would-be buyer knows what the others have offered. In Australia, the process is transparent.

Over about a four-week period leading up to the auction, interested house-hunters can schedule visits and inspections on the home in order to prepare their bids.

Then on bidding day, typically a Saturday, interested buyers gather on the sidewalk outside the home and place their bids out in the open, in an auction led by the seller’s agent.

The process usually lasts about 10 to 15 minutes and the spectacle often attracts an audience who just come by to watch. It’s not uncommon for house-hunters to attend multiple auctions in one day, quickly moving onto the next property on their list if they fail to win a home.

“We love it because it’s really transparent,” says Melbourne real estate agent and auctioneer Elliot Gill. “Buyers can see exactly what the competitors are doing, and they can decide whether they want to keep going or not.”

Since all bids are public, no one bidder has an advantage.

Better rules about pricing, conflicts of interest

Canada and Australia both have codes of conduct that require real estate agents to act honestly, fairly and reasonably in their dealings with clients.

But Australia’s laws go further when it comes to consumer protection.

Agents are forbidden from double-ending deals, meaning they are not allowed to represent both the buyer and seller in any one transaction.

Such deals are legal in most of Canada and result in a lucrative double commission for agents. But they can also be a conflict of interest and, as the Marketplace investigation reveals, may cause some agents to break the rules.

The system there isn’t perfect. Despite the protections, some first-time homebuyers in parts of Australia still feel shut out, due to rising prices and intense demand.

The law doesn’t prevent an eager buyer from making an early bully bid in an attempt to skip the auction and buy early.

And just this past year, Australia introduced reforms to prevent sellers from “price-baiting,” where properties are listed for well below market value in order to drive up interest.

©2016 CBC/Radio-Canada.

Seasons showcases unique touches

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

Seasons

Where: 5460 Broadway, Burnaby (Broadway townhomes: 5418 — 5498 Broadway, Burnaby; Lougheed townhomes: 5413 — 5493 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby)

Project size: 89 apartments, 12 townhomes

Developer and builder: Ledingham McAllister

Residence sizes and prices: One-bed; one-bed and den; two-bed and den; townhomes,  483 – 1,065 square feet, from mid-$300,000s

Sales centre: 1710 Gilmore Avenue, Burnaby

Hours: noon — 5 p.m., Sat — Thurs

At the display space for Seasons, Ledingham McAllister’s low-rise project in Burnaby, Janine Wilson and the team at The Mill Design show how simple design decisions — the showcasing of geometric patterns or the introduction of a unique piece of décor — can stimulate conversation or transform a room.

The exterior of the Brentwood-area building reflects a West Coast contemporary style, but The Mill Design introduced contemporary esthetic interiors inspired by geometric themes and a playful tone. In one bedroom, the designers chose a tone-on-tone pattern to work with the changing nature of light, says Wilson, principal at The Mill.

“Gold-on-white is really nice because it fades in different lighting and therefore changes the look of the room during different times of the day,” she says.

In a second bedroom, they used a chevron pattern wall covering that emulates wood, in a neutral tone that blends with the kitchen cabinetry and floor.

The living room furnishings channel a similar vibe, playing on a linear theme. There’s a light, airy feel to the room, thanks to the space Wilson has allowed under the furnishings with slender legs, and with the eye-catching lines in the coffee table, side tables and artwork.

“The black metal details on the tables give the contrast that’s needed to keep the space interesting,” she says. “We mixed modern geometric art with some landscape paintings to keep the space warm and to reference the trees and nature outside.”

The open-concept kitchen and dining area reflect the same linear esthetic, with the slender high cabinetry reaching to the ceiling, sort of conversing with the skinny pendant lights over the dining table for a powerful illusion of height and space in an otherwise narrow area.

“The light fixture definitely does emulate the vertical elements, but was a happy accident in that sense,” says Wilson.

“We were focusing on finding a linear black fixture for the most part that was classic and minimal.”

Yet another “happy accident” for The Mill Design team resulted in a playful touch in one bedroom. On a shopping trip at West Elm decor boutique, Wilson and her colleagues stopped short when they saw a unique sconce featuring multiple circles, shaped to mimic the Big Dipper. One on each side of a bed blends well with the artwork’s circular images and contrasts with square bedside tables.

“We were pretty excited to find that sconce!” she enthuses. “Lamps are really important and can change the tone of a room completely.

“This is a fairly bold choice, but a fun and playful addition, we thought, to a fairly neutral room.”

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

Project one of first in North America to put multi-uses on the same site

Evan Duggan
The Vancouver Sun

Sales have begun for the commercial component of a mixed-use residential-industrial project on East Hastings Street that the developers claim is one-of-a-kind in the city and is part of a transformation taking place in Strathcona. 

The WorkSpaces at Strathcona Village is a three-tower, 350-unit complex by Wall Financial in the 900-block of East Hastings. The project is a mix of 280 condos, 70 social housing units, 12,000 square feet of office space, and 60,000 sq. ft. of industrial-retail units.

The project is under construction now and is expected to open next summer. The residential units sold out long ago in the towers that will sit atop a two-level section containing 18 flexible commercial spaces suitable for light manufacturing and retail sales.

“We’re just pouring the second floor above grade now,” said developer Bruno Wall in an interview last week. “You really have four distinct uses within the development as a whole,” he said.

“This is one of the first projects (like this) in the city, and one of the first, as a matter of fact, in North America that combines industrial-use spaces with residential space,” he said. “It’s a pioneering-type space in that sense.”

He said the commercial space would ideally house small manufacturing facilities with a retail outlet component. It could also work well for art studios, digital tech firms, showrooms or tasting rooms.

The city’s well-documented shortage of strata industrial space led Wall Financial to planning the units, Wall said.

Wall Financial bought the Alex Gair mill-working site at 955 East Hastings for $5 million in 2011. The land values in Strathcona remained relatively low, Wall said. “We were able to get it at a reasonable price with the intent that we could then sell, especially the residential condos, at a fairly low price,” he said.

Much of Strathcona remains single-family homes south of Hastings and gritty industrial buildings north of it, but the area is ripe for more diverse projects, Wall said. “There are a fair number of amenities in the area.”

He said it’s near downtown with good transportation links. “You have amazing views, and also you have a lot of buyers who don’t want to live in a sanitized community like Yaletown,” he said. “I’m not besmirching Yaletown in any way, but it’s just a different way of living. It’s a different lifestyle.”

The Strathcona Business Improvement Association supported the rezoning application for Strathcona Village when it went before council, said Joji Kumagai, the organization’s executive director. “We’re looking forward to seeing it get fully built.”

He said Strathcona is being transformed. “When I started, it was predominantly local property owners and we’re seeing a lot more larger entities purchasing property and a … certain number of developers buying up multiple properties,” he said.

He said more changes are coming. “We’re seeing more retail coming in, obviously there’s a new library coming in,” he said “We have some buildings being renovated, some long-time businesses and we’ve had some new businesses come in.”

He said it will be interesting to see how the industrial businesses and new residents blend together. “We’re pretty excited to see how that plays out.”

One of the newest businesses in the area is Strathcona Beer Company, a craft brewery next to the Strathcona Village site.

“This is my old neighbourhood. I lived two blocks away from the brewery location and have always wanted to start a business in the area,” said Tim Knight, the president of the brewery. “When I did live there we were always challenged to find a place where we could eat, have a drink and felt it was the right time to start something.”

Subtle changes are taking place in the area, with trendy restaurants like the Mackenzie Room opening on Powell Street, and Cuchillo at 261 Powell Street attracting nighttime patrons to points further east.

Knight said he’s optimistic the new businesses opening up in the area will blend well with the existing neighbours, businesses and charitable organizations.

“If you walk inside the heart of Strathcona, it looks like it always has,” he said “Communities always change over time but the heritage component will never change, and although demographics will shift, the essence of the neighborhood is diversity and respect for the different interests.”

Knight said their customers seem to be a mix of locals and people commuting to the area to enjoy the many new craft breweries that have opened in Strathcona, Rail Town and the East Village.

The commercial part of Strathcona Village will repurpose what used to be 100 per cent industrial space without losing the manufacturing capacity, said Dan Jordan with Colliers International — the sales agency for the WorkSpaces. “It’s a way for us as a city to retain that commercial space, retain those job spaces, but also increase housing,” he said.

The uniqueness of the project became even clearer when a graduate student from the U.K. travelled to Vancouver to interview him and the developers about Strathcona Village for his master’s thesis, Jordan said.

“It was the first of its kind that he could find in the world that really incorporated industrial, retail, office and residential all together,” he said.

Jordan agreed that Strathcona is seeing a lot more interest from heavy-hitting property owners — a list that also includes Onni and Chip Wilson’s property company. “It seems that almost every major developer in town owns a site along that corridor of Hastings right now,” he said.

© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

REP

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says home sales plunged 38.8 per cent last month compared with October 2015.

The board says 2,233 properties were sold in October of this year, down from the 3,646 home sales recorded in the same month last year.

Board president Dan Morrison says changing market conditions combined with a series of government interventions in the real estate market contributed to the decline.

Both the B.C. and federal governments have brought in a number of measures to address soaring housing costs, particularly in Vancouver.

In August, the provincial government implemented a 15 per cent tax for foreign nationals buying property in Vancouver in a bid to stabilize the city’s housing prices, which have been among the highest in North America.

Last month, the composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver was $919,300 _ a 24.8 per cent increase compared to October 2015, but a 0.8 per drop from September of this year.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Ephraim Vecina
Mortgage Broker News

Canadian real estate will not suffer from a crash anytime soon despite the expected moderating influence of last month’s new federal mortgage rules, according to a recent analysis by Moody’s.
 
The report forecast a mere 3 per cent decline in the average price of the detached market in Vancouver over the next few year, where detached homes are estimated to be 60 per cent overvalued. Moody’s assured that Toronto would see no declines, however, despite the city’s detached properties being 30 per cent overvalued.
 
“While there has been much concern in Canada about an overheating housing market, we expect national house prices to avoid a significant correction,” Moody’s economist Andres Carbacho-Burgos stated in the report, as quoted by CBC and The Huffington Post Canada.
 
Petroleum markets would prove to be the exception to this overall brighter picture, however, as the value of homes in Edmonton, Newfoundland, and Saskatchewan is expected to plummet in the next few years due to weaker oil.
 
Earlier this year, Moody’s warned that the “systemic vulnerabilities” inherent in the Canadian mortgage system would lead to potentially $12 billion in losses should the country plunge into a U.S.-style financial crisis.
 
Moody’s noted that the Canadian system’s level of exposure to risk stems from the fact that nearly nine-tenths of the country’s mortgage holders loan from banks or co-operatives. Complicating matters is that Canada’s six biggest banks currently hold around 75 per cent of outstanding mortgage debt.
 
While the ratings agency stated that these institutions will not suffer a “catastrophic” impact from such a downturn, house prices could decline by 25 per cent nationwide and fully 35 per cent in the hottest markets due to the resulting aftershocks on borrowers’ purchasing power.
 
“In the event of a housing downturn, [the] riskier loans could exacerbate price declines,” Moody’s said, adding that a vicious cycle of defaults and mass selling would feed into the rapid fall in prices.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Steve Randall
REP

Five housing markets have been identified as the ones to watch in the coming year but not all of them are listed for positive reasons.

As well as current hot markets of Vancouver and Toronto, a new survey by the Urban Land Institute and PwC Canada predicts that Ottawa, Winnipeg and Montreal will be noteworthy in 2017.

Vancouver has been named as the top market for investment, development and housing market, with the rental market showing demand, especially from millennials, while tight inventory is pushing up prices.

“While Calgary continues to redefine its market, Vancouver continues to be a positive outlier in the West and outpace the country in terms of growth,” says John Bunting, Partner and BC Real Estate Leader, PwC Canada.

Toronto is also under pressure from tight inventory, increasing home prices. The report says that renovations are strong due to the high cost of moving. Poll respondents highlight government land use policies as a key barrier to construction growth.

Ottawa will remain a slow market with falling demand for new homes and housing starts declining amid shelved development plans.

Winnipeg’s outlook is for the residential sector to slow despite a growing economy. The non-residential real estate sector will see short term growth.

Montreal is absorbing its condo stock and mixed-use developments are increasingly prolific, especially around transit hubs.

“The Quebec market continues to be quite varied by region but what remains consistent is strong economic growth in Montreal and Quebec City – two of the provinces most active markets,” says Annie Labbé, Chartered Appraiser, Senior Vice President, Real Estate Advisory Services at PwC Canada, PwC Canada.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Justin da Rosa
REP

Broker fears were confirmed Tuesday, with one big bank raising its prime rate less than a month following new mortgage rules.

TD Canada Trust announced in a note to brokers Tuesday that it is changing its mortgage rates, including increasing its prime rate to 2.85%.

The prime rate has been held at 2.70% for more than a year, according to the broker who shared the announcement with MortgageBrokerNews.ca on condition of anonymity.

“When a bank changes their ‘version’ of bank prime it also serves as an invitation for the other banks to join in and do the same,” the broker said. “Naturally if they all change the public is screwed and all the banks make more profit.

“You see by effectively changing the goal posts on the rate the bank can continue to say: ‘we are prime less 0.50% which is a good deal.’  So as you can see this a clever move if it works.”

The announcement also confirms what one economist speculated – that big banks could influence the market by altering its posted rates.

The new mortgage rate stress test, which forces all holders of insured mortgages to qualify at the Bank of Canada’s benchmark five-year rate.

The Bank of Canada’s benchmark rate is closely tied to big bank posted rates. And that relationship could allow lenders to tinker with their posted rates in a bid to influence the BoC’s, thereby allowing them to also influence the ease with which homebuyers can qualify for an insured mortgage.

“Another possible solution is that posted rates could fall, reducing the impacts of the stress tests. Since they are not set by the market, lenders could decide to lower them if, for example, they find that they are saying “no” to too much good business,” Will Dunning, chief economist of Mortgage Professionals Canada, wrote in a research paper entitled Slamming on the Brakes: Assessing the Impact of Changed Criteria for Mortgage Qualification. “The posted rates are set administratively by the lenders, based on their assessments of what is in their best interests, and their assessments could change.”

 Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd