Vancouver city council to vote on referring downtown tower application to a public hearing

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      Another Vancouver parking lot is on the verge of being converted into an office tower.

      A Vancouver staff report recommends that council refer an application for a 31-storey building on the southeast corner of Granville Street and Cordova Street to a public hearing.

      VIA Architecture submitted the documents to the city on behalf of Granco Holdings Ltd. (Carrera Management Corporation) to increase the floor-space ratio from 9.0 to 24.24. The proposal includes retail space at street level.

      In the report, city manager Penny Ballem comments that the application "aligns with the Metro Core Jobs Strategy, the Vancouver Economic Action Strategy, and the Transportation 2040 Plan in that it involves the creation of significant job space adjacent to a major transit hub".

      Waterfront Station is across the street from the parkade.

      From the water, a planned tower can be seen in the middle of this image.
      City of Vancouver report

      According to CityHallWatch, there's been speculation that the super-secretive owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps, Greg Kerfoot, owns the site.

      The senior property manager at Carrera Management Corp., Trish Knight, has not returned a call from the Straight to confirm this.

      Carrera's office is in The Landing at 375 Water Street, which is the same building occupied by Vancouver Whitecaps office staff.

      From Cordova Street, the proposed tower is roughly the same height as Harbour Centre minus the rooftop restaurant.
      A parking lot at the corner of Granville and Cordova streets will be history if VIA Architecture's application is approved by council.
      Charlie Smith

      Comments

      19 Comments

      Just a Voter

      Jun 20, 2014 at 4:54pm

      Is there any question this will be referred to public hearing? Any question it will be approved? And why is Penny Ballem writing Planning Dept. reports? A floor-space ratio of 24.24 is obscene and unnecessary.

      Alan Layton

      Jun 20, 2014 at 8:45pm

      After so many years of residential construction on the downtown peninsula, I'm glad to see more office space being built. Vancouver was starting to look too much like a resort city and needed to attract more businesses to the core. I'm assuming internet and software developers are the main clients they want to attract and building close to a major transportation hub makes a ton of sense.

      Hazlit

      Jun 21, 2014 at 12:26am

      Killing parking lots is good for everyone! My hero has long been Inglot Man--the guy who removes -ing lot from "parking lot." Hurrah for all developers who take over a parking lot. Those who insist on not having parking get a kiss from me. :)

      Meathead

      Jun 21, 2014 at 5:01am

      Only 30 measly floors? What's with this town and their fear of heights? Why not 60? Heck, 80 would be a nice. And the location for an new office tower couldn't be more perfect. Time to start digging!

      Just a Voter

      Jun 21, 2014 at 8:28am

      There are 132 parking stalls proposed in the new buildling - this is not a "car-free" development.

      JF

      Jun 21, 2014 at 12:22pm

      It's kind of strange that there seems to be a need for a tower and yet all throughout downtown and particularly on Robson and commercial streets - there are for lease signs everywhere. Some spaces on and around Robson have been empty for months.

      JS

      Jun 21, 2014 at 5:23pm

      This is one ugly parking lot. No one will be missing it.

      Alan Layton

      Jun 22, 2014 at 7:51am

      JF - most of those empty spaces are for small retail and the new tower will most likely concentrate on a particular type of business, and in this case I'm willing to bet it will be high tech, since there has been tremendous growth in this area, in the downtown core - Amazon, Sony, Microsoft etc.

      Save Vancouver

      Jun 22, 2014 at 9:13am

      @Meathead - maybe because some of us still treasure what makes Vancouver special, the view of the mountains and the sea. If you want non-stop highrise crap move to Shanghai.

      Done deal

      Jun 22, 2014 at 12:08pm

      The decision has already been made: the donations to Vision greased the wheels and we will get yet another ridiculous building. Does anyone know how Telus got the OK to build over the street on Seymour & on Richards? How much does one need to give Vision before they OK one roofing over the sidewalks? Watch out Cambie Street: you are going to get the Metrotown treatment thanks to Robertson and his Middle-aged rich white guys. Aunt Penny will make sure to declare this entire development is wonderful and heralds a brave new world.