The city of Vancouver received a pre-application on Oct. 24 for a new five-story, multifamily affordable housing complex near Vancouver Mall.
The complex, called Golden Tent Redevelopment, would have 100 units of affordable housing at 4902 N.E. 94th Ave., the current site of Golden Tent Mongolian BBQ.
The privately funded project is still in preliminary stages, according to the city. Applicant Aidan Willis now must wait for the city to review the proposal for compliance with Vancouver’s regulations.
Willis is also in the process of purchasing the property from the Mongolian restaurant owners, who put the property on the open market.
The project needs a land use approval, an engineering approval and a building permit before development can begin, according to Vancouver Senior Planner Keith Jones. The approval process may take between three to eight months or longer.
For parking, Willis wrote in the application that he plans to enter into a long-term lease with the Vancouver Housing Authority to secure spots through Bertha’s Place, a homeless shelter adjacent to the site.
“This will allow us to maximize the density of this parcel and deliver more affordable units to the community,” the application says.
If approved, Willis expects it will take two to three years to complete the development.
Projects like this could help address Vancouver’s underproduction of affordable housing. In a housing strategies workshop last summer, city officials reported that Vancouver must produce 750 new affordable housing units per year to close the deficit between supply and demand within the next 10 years.
