Although development along Vancouver’s waterfront has received well-deserved attention in recent years, residents and visitors would be remiss to ignore the transformation of the city’s core.
A downtown landscape once dominated by a brewery has morphed into a hub of restaurants, small shops and residences over the past 20 years, creating a vibrant city that is well-positioned for a prosperous future.
The latest example can be seen on the block between 12th and 13th streets, along the east side of Main Street. There, a seven-story mixed-use building is in the works, with plans for 20,000 square feet of commercial space and 198 multifamily units.
That adds to an impressive renovation of the downtown area. Around the beginning of the 21st century, a heavily wooded and rundown Esther Short Park was reinvented. That was followed by new construction on all four blocks surrounding the park, starting with Heritage Place to the north.
In subsequent years, what had long been a vacant lot northeast of Esther Short Park has been developed, as have the blocks to the east of Vancouver Convention Center. Meanwhile, much time and expense has gone into a renovation of the former Vancouver City Hall.
The new development along Main Street contributes to that transformation and further enhances the city, even as it removes a bit of downtown’s past. The block long was home to Vancouver Funeral Chapel, a residential-style building dating to the early 1900s. According to The Columbian’s archives, it was converted into a funeral home in 1930, but Vancouver Funeral Chapel closed in 2021.
While some residents will lament the demise of a familiar building in the downtown area, the change adheres to planning that has revived cities throughout the country. In the 1950s and 1960s, when modern highways and the United States’ car culture led residents to leave downtowns in favor of the suburbs, downtowns lost their vibrancy. In many cases, all that remained were offices and manufacturers surrounded by block-sized parking lots.
But a revival occurred. Cities reimagined their waterfronts, turning them into destinations rather than industrial hubs, and they started building mixed-use developments that combine housing with retail space. Reports of the death of the American city were greatly exaggerated.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, doubts about the future of urban spaces have been revived. Many cities are struggling to fill existing office space, and many Americans are reevaluating whether they desire to live in a densely populated area.
While those questions remain, the development of a seven-story building near Vancouver’s downtown core is beneficial. It adds much-needed housing along Main Street, a narrow corridor that not long ago had traffic heading in one direction — out of town. And it helps connect downtown with the bustling Uptown Village a few blocks north along Main Street.
It is notable that our downtown can be discussed in a context typically reserved for major metropolitan areas. While Vancouver does not fall into that category, well-planned development can help the region define itself as a residential and economic hub.
The Waterfront Vancouver development has contributed to that independence; Terminal 1 and riverfront development to the east of the Interstate 5 Bridge will add to it. But for those hopes to be fully realized, it is essential that the downtown area also create amenities that add vitality to the city.
