The Port of Vancouver has begun to meet with potential developers and investors to answer questions and outline its vision for the development of its Terminal 1 site. The outreach comes a few weeks after the port posted an announcement seeking development proposals for the 10-acre parcel.
Mike Schiller, the port’s business development director, hosted a developer Q&A and site tour on Tuesday, offering an overview of the port’s plans and showing off 3D concept renderings of the completed site.
The goal is to replace the existing WareHouse ’23 building with a new public marketplace akin to Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and to redevelop the nearby six blocks that line Columbia Way, most of which are undeveloped or covered by surface parking lots.
The two western blocks are leased to Gramor Development, Schiller said, and the southern central block is slated to be developed as the AC Hotel by Marriott. The southeast block is also reserved by the port for future development.
“The real focus here is on the back blocks — block A and block C,” he said, referring to the blocks next to the BNSF Railway tracks.
The port’s Request for Qualifications outlines a plan to develop blocks A and C as two mixed-used projects with a public walkway between the buildings, connecting to a plaza near the marketplace.
Block A will be available for development immediately after a lease is signed, Schiller said, while block C will be available after serving as a staging area for the AC Hotel project, which is planned to break ground later this year.
The audience at the briefing included about two dozen potential investors, and several asked questions about the timeline, financing and project details.
Schiller said that the marketplace project will be one of the last components to be built, due to the time needed to gather money. The wharf that supports WareHouse ’23 will be removed and replaced with a new wharf to support the market and the surrounding plaza, he said.
Several attendees had questions about Terminal 1 parking, particularly for the marketplace. The concept rendering of the riverside structure showed an access driveway for delivery trucks, but no visible customer parking area.
Schiller replied that the port expects the block developers to include internal parking in their buildings. The AC Hotel, for example, will include a second-story parking garage and Schiller said he hoped a similar arrangement could be reached for the marketplace.
The port also hopes to work with the city of Vancouver and Gramor Development — the lead developer of the nearby Waterfront Vancouver — to examine a comprehensive parking strategy for the area.
“The challenge with parking is everyone wants to talk about it but no one wants to really lead it,” he said.
After the presentation, Schiller and port commercial and industrial sales manager Chrissy Lyons led attendees on a tour of blocks A and C. The redevelopment won’t require a large amount of advance site work, Schiller said. Both parcels are covered by a parking lot and the port has not found evidence of significant underground contamination.
Some of the properties closest to the water will require soil stabilization, he said, but that won’t be as much of an issue on blocks A and C, which are the farthest from the river.
There will be one casualty when the current site is leveled: a large Turkish walnut tree at the center of the parking lot is slated to be removed. The tree is estimated to be around 100 years old, according to port communications manager Abbi Russell, but it’s heavily infected with the dramatically named “thousand cankers disease,” a fungus that targets walnut trees.
“The plan is to take it down, salvage the wood and hopefully reuse it in Terminal 1 at some point,” Russell said.
Schiller encouraged investors to submit additional questions and said the port would try to have them answered by Wednesday. The deadline to submit responses to the RFQ is 5 p.m. March 21.
One of the attendees, Vancouver developer Elie Kassab, called the Terminal 1 development “wonderful,” but said he hoped it would avoid competing with waterfront projects and businesses.
He also expressed strong concerns about parking, particularly at the marketplace. The plan is frequently compared to Pike Place Market, he noted, but Pike Place has several nearby public parking options.
“Parking, in my opinion, is essential,” he said. “You’re going to have families coming to the public market — where are they going to park?”
