Waterfront Vancouver apartment complex Rediviva announced Tuesday that it is lowering rental rates to fill its building before winter.
It’s a move that comes four months after a neighboring apartment complex, RiverWest, opened with cheaper rental rates and more than three times the number of units.
Rediviva, which opened in December, has leased 88 percent of its 63 luxury apartments, according to Barry Cain, owner of Gramor Development.
“Now that we’re going into winter we’re running a promotion to fill up the final few,” Cain wrote in a statement to The Columbian on Friday.
Following Thursday’s announcement, Rediviva’s rental rates for a basic studio dropped from $1,826 to $1,541. Its two-bedroom apartment prices now start at $2,691, compared with $3,283 formerly, according to the announcement.
RiverWest’s 207 apartments are at 56 percent capacity, HSP Properties project manager Josh Oliva said Friday. Its studios start at $1,396. The lowest rate for a two-bedroom is $1,712.
“RiverWest absolutely impacted the availability in the area,” wrote Cain, “but there is such a demand for the waterfront that at the end of the day, the more doors the better.”
In the coming years, about 500 more apartments will open up at The Waterfront Vancouver.
In 2020, another apartment complex will break ground on Block 20 on the western side of the waterfront property. That complex will hold 239 apartments in its seven-story building. A 250-unit apartment house is also slated to open in Block 3, which will have its view of the river blocked by Hotel Indigo.
Rediviva also announced Thursday that it changed its management company to Atlas Management, a Wilsonville, Ore., company. Cain said that he made the switch to consolidate the companies managing Gramor’s projects.
Cain wrote that current Rediviva residents did not receive any retroactive compensation because of the promotion.
Despite the competition, Cain was optimistic about Rediviva’s occupancy rate with the additional incoming apartment complexes.
“What this project has proven is that Vancouver has a real appetite for a higher caliber of housing and we are proud to have been able to provide that at The Waterfront,” he wrote.
