A significant rental housing project has been proposed for the 3600 block of East Hastings Street, immediately west of Boundary Road, is being considered by the City of Vancouver.

PCI Developments has submitted two rezoning applications to redevelop two sites that are located at the ends of the southern side of the city block — just across from the Kootenay Bus Loop.

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The western corner lot at 3600 East Hastings Street spans approximately 10,700-sq-ft and is currently occupied by a one-storey commercial building, while the eastern corner lot at 3680 East Hastings Street spans about 14,000-sq-ft.

The applications do not call for a redevelopment of the middle portion of the block, which is currently occupied by three buildings up to three storeys.

Altogether, both 14-storey towers designed by BHA Architecture will create 212 new rental homes combined, with 20% of the residential floor area dedicated to moderate income households under the municipal government’s Moderate Income Rental Housing Pilot Program (MIRHPP).

This translates into 94 rental homes (75 market units and 19 non-market units) for 3600 East Hastings and 118 homes (94 market units and 24 non-market units) for 3680 East Hastings, with the former tower reaching a height of 158 ft and the latter tower slightly higher at 164 ft.

Retail and restaurant spaces totalling close to 18,500-sq-ft are planned for the lower floors of the towers.

With only slight variations in form, massing, and height, the architectural designs of the towers are near-mirror images of each other.

Each tower will also have three underground levels of parking, with 41 vehicle stalls in the western tower and 57 vehicle stalls in the eastern tower.

Altogether, the floor space ratio densities of the towers are 7.1 times the size of the lot for the western tower and 6.9 times the size of the lot for the eastern tower. The combined total floor area is 172,286-sq-ft, with 76,083-sq-ft for the western tower and 96,203-sq-ft for the eastern tower.

To date, this is one of the largest rental housing proposals in the city under the MIRHPP, which establishes new rental units with significantly lower rents to serve moderate income households making between $30,000 and $80,000 annually.

Up to 20 rezoning applications will be selected in this pilot program, which began early last year and will end on July 1, 2019. Under MIRHPP, all residential space in the project must be secured rental housing.

This area of the city has also recently seen a number of rental housing projects approved under the Rental 100 Secured Rental Market Housing Policy.

Earlier this month, Vancouver city council rejected a motion that proposed the removing Rental 100’s developer waivers, and instead requested city staff to include recommendations on policy changes in its housing update later this year.

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