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There’s going to be a new housing co-op in East Vancouver.

It will be in one of the most transit-friendly locations in the city.

The six-storey co-op is about a five-minute walk to Joyce-Collingwood SkyTrain Station, and transfer hub for bus numbers 26, 27, 28, 41, and 43.

Proposed for construction at a City of Vancouver property, the 102-unit project will be developed by the Community Land Trust, the real-estate arm of the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C.

Thom Armstrong is the executive director of CLT and CHFBC.

According to Armstrong, the proposed co-op at 3279-3297 Vanness Avenue will be part of CLT’s housing portfolio.

Unlike stand-alone co-ops, this housing project and others belonging to the pool will have “more financial security”, Armstrong said.

“That means that there’s more economies of scale in things like investing replacement reserves, insuring the asset, and also in doing the long-term asset management,” Armstrong told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “That’s something that can be done professionally by the land trust, so that people know that the property is going to be maintained to a certain standard over the long term.”

CLT co-ops will pay the land trust a negotiated percentage of monthly housing revenues.

This will allow the CLT to meet its financial obligations, which include debt service, insurance, building maintenance and asset management, according to Armstrong.

“So there’s more financial security, and more security in the maintenance of the asset,” Armstrong said. “But beyond that, in terms of creating the community, that’s left in the hands of the co-op, while the land trust takes care of the buildings.”

COHO Management Services Society, also a creation of CHFBC, will provide other management services to the co-ops for the first three years, Armstrong said.

After that period, the co-ops either continue their contract with COHO or hire their own management companies, he said.

SkyTrain and a bus transfer station are two blocks east of the Vanness Avenue development.

On May 4, 2018, Vancouver announced that it has chosen CLT as developer of seven city-owned properties for affordable rental housing.

The partnership between CLT and the city’s Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency is projected to produce around 1,000 new homes for singles and families earning between $30,000 and $80,000 per year.

Using 30 percent as affordability threshold for housing need, this means that rents will range from $750 to $2,000 a month.

Currently vacant, the property at 3279-3297 Vanness Avenue is one of the seven city properties.

A rezoning application has been filed for the site situated at the northwest corner of Vanness Avenue and McHardy Street.

Located north of the SkyTrain’s elevated guideway, the co-op will have its lobby on McHardy Street.