Downtown Vancouver’s largest building project will be significantly scaled down after the city approved a developer’s request Monday night for several key changes to the design.
Plans have long been in the works to start construction this summer on a fourth tower at Vancouvercenter — three mixed commercial and residential towers located immediately east of Esther Short Park between Sixth and Eighth streets. But the developer, Vandevco, said in order to get the ball rolling, the fourth building — known as the South Tower — needed to be smaller, and it would have to include less retail space than set out in a development agreement dating back to 2010.
On Monday, the Vancouver City Council granted Vandevco’s request, voting 5-0 in support of the amendments after a hearing that garnered both praise for expanding housing in downtown and criticism for the new design.
Councilor Jack Burkman was out sick, and Mayor Tim Leavitt was in Washington, D.C., on business.
The move will lower the minimum height of the building from eight to six stories while cutting retail space requirements from 10,000 square feet to just 2,200. The decision will also give crews more time to break ground on the site, moving back the deadline to start construction from July 1 to Dec. 31.
Without the extension, Vandevco would have been slapped with an $800,000 fine for missing the July 1 deadline.
Chad Eiken, the city’s community and economic development director, said the city isn’t opposed to delaying construction as long as it means the project will actually happen at some point. The three current towers on the property were completed by 2004, and Vandevco held off on the fourth, facing economic strains in an overbuilt market.
Eiken also noted that the new agreement imposes a completion date of March 1, 2017.
The revised plan cuts construction costs by about $3 million down to $13.5 million. While the three original Vancouvercenter towers are made of brick, the South Tower would save money on materials with a wooden frame built above two levels of steel and concrete, a plan that didn’t sit well with some in the audience.
