Downtown Vancouver’s continued renaissance appears likely to include a long-awaited fourth Vancouvercenter building.
The first three buildings and a parking garage on the east side of Esther Short Park were built in 2004 on the former Lucky Lager brewery site. But development of a fourth building, at the corner of West Sixth and Washington streets, languished, in part because of the Great Recession.
Efforts by former property owner Vandevco to build the fourth building sputtered. Vandevco sold the property last year to Vancouver-based Holland Partnership Group. Holland and its associates have been in talks with city officials to build the fourth building, including a presentation earlier this year to the City Center Redevelopment Authority, complete with architect’s drawings.
A city hearings examiner last week approved a request from Ankrom Mosian Architects for a right-of-way permit to allow the proposed building design to proceed. Hearings examiner Sharon Rice issued her opinion approving elements that would overhang city sidewalks. The city, meanwhile, expects construction to begin in March, based on its latest communication with Holland, said Chad Eiken, the city’s director of Community and Economic Development.
Eiken acknowledged the fourth building would look different than the previous three, designed by Kramer Gehlen & Associates of Vancouver, and city design officials were OK with that.
“There was consensus that the building didn’t have to be identical in design to the other three towers,” Eiken said. “In our minds, the scale is more important — getting that density there. It should be complementary, but it shouldn’t be identical.”
Representatives for Ankrom Mosian and Holland could not be reached Monday.
The proposed fourth building would be six stories tall, featuring 116 residential units and approximately 2,000 square feet of retail space.
Last November, the potential for a fourth building picked up steam again after years of stagnation. Holland originally explored building a 10-story tower with 194 units, but concerns over a new steel framing technique not allowed under city building codes further postponed the project.
Now, the first two levels would be concrete construction, the final four would be wood-framed.
Under an agreement reached last November with the city, Holland will not have to pay property taxes for 12 years — an arrangement that had been in place with previous owner Vandevco. The tax break for Holland requires that 20 percent of the units be rented at no more than 60 percent of the area median income; the previous agreement called for 20 percent rented for no more than 115 percent of the AMI.
That agreement also allows Holland to enter a license agreement with the city for up to 278 parking spaces in the Vancouvercenter garage. The city owns the 750-space garage, but the agreement gives Holland the option to purchase the facility.
Vancouvercenter currently includes 224 units — studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments — in two six- and seven-story residential buildings. Rent costs between $1,305 and $3,045. The 2 1/2 block property also includes an 11-story tower with space for offices, restaurants and retail.
The Vancouvercenter project is expected to use Block 10 — the city-owned vacant lot across the street — for construction staging for six months. The timing is expected to precede Gramor Development’s plans to build an 11-story multi-use tower that would bring apartments and a full-service grocery store to the heart of downtown Vancouver on Block 10.
