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Developer Reliance Properties said the City of Vancouver has issued the development and building permits it needs to go ahead with a large-scale overhaul of Berkeley Towers, an older rental building on a prime corner overlooking English Bay in Vancouver’s West End.

The company said the massive renovation will take three years and require the building be vacated. It will be issuing eviction notices to remaining tenants in the next month and this will set off a four-month countdown to tenants having to be out of the building by March 31, 2020.

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About half of the tenants in the 58-unit building have left, said Reliance.

On Friday, when Postmedia spoke to several tenants who still live in the building, all were considering their options and declined to speak on the record.

Tenants may choose a compensation offer based on the City of Vancouver’s tenant relocation plan, which offers cash based on length of tenancy and stipulates the developer identify three alternative rental units of the same size in Vancouver or in the same area at rates comparable to what they were paying or what the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation records as the average rent in the area for the previous year.