Buy, demo, build
While heritage advocates express concern about the threat to older properties in Vancouver, be they so-called “hobbit houses” or Craftsman-style homes, numbers from the city indicate some clear trends that link at least some of the activity to the upswing in post-2009 purchasing.
Between 2005 and 2012, the city issued an average of 829 demolition permits a year.
But following the sharp downturn in real estate markets at the end of 2008 and their dramatic rebound in 2009, demolition increased significantly.
The issuance of demolition permits in Vancouver increased 38.1% between 2005 and 2012, but during the latter half of the period – between 2009 and 2012 – they jumped 84.7%, or twice as much.
The increase was driven by activity on Vancouver’s Eastside.
While the pace of demolitions was steady in the Renfrew-Collingwood, Sunset and Victoria-Fraserview neighbourhoods at between 60 to 90 a year, Grandview-Woodland, Hastings-Sunrise and Kensington-Cedar Cottage saw increases of 180%, 140% and 106.5%, respectively.
The single biggest concentration, however, was in the Dunbar-Southlands area, where demolitions spiked a stunning 332.3% between 2009 and 2012. During those four years a total of 354 demolition permits were issued.
“For a city the size of Vancouver, there’s a lot of demolitions,” remarked Don Luxton, a heritage consultant and president of the Heritage Vancouver Society. “The character of the neighbourhoods changes significantly.”
A comparison with the transformation in the late 1980s of the Arbutus Flats area from bungalows to monster homes isn’t out of the question for Luxton, but he’s reticent to link the demolitions to the wave of foreign buyers credited with the surge in deals for $2 million-plus properties on Vancouver’s Westside in 2010-11.
Luxton instead attributes it to an improved economy and an opportunistic impulse.
“People feel there’s potential to build, or put more on the lot, and correspondingly they’re seeing what their neighbours are doing,” he said. “It’s a good way to make some money – whomp down something and build something bigger.”
In the plan
Victoria developer Bob Evans is finally seeing his long-term vision for a marina at the entrance to Victoria Harbour realized.
Evans, in partnership with WAM Development Group of Edmonton through Community Marine Concepts LP, recently began driving piles for the project in the Songhees neighbourhood near Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub. The project spent almost a decade receiving the necessary approvals and was originally part of Evans’ vision for the 90-unit Royal Quays condo project, which sits on the shore adjacent to the planned marina. The condos were built in 1989, but a development permit for the marina wasn’t approved until 2011.
Larry Halgren, project lead for Community Marine Concepts, said the original plan for the marina envisioned approximately 55 slips for small boats. That was reduced to a marina with 29 slips ranging from 65 feet to 150 feet.
The lower number of slips aims to reduce daily traffic, while the larger vessels will ensure their visibility on what is a busy seaplane route.
Halgren said pile driving for the marina will take up to 16 months, respecting closures for fish and eagle habitat. The entire project will wrap up within two years. •
