CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun Judith Hall has bought into phase one of ‘university town’ at UBC. The development is geared towards students, faculty and staff.

It’s no surprise that a university professor would have an abundance of books and the problem of where to store them.

But for UBC professor Judith Hall storage is no longer a problem at her new townhouse in Hawthorn Green, UBC’s latest residential project. Her spacious unit features custom-designed bookcases lining the walls.

“Owners got to say what they wanted and we wanted lots of storage,” she said, of the 10 townhouse complex that opened recently mid-campus, just south of Thunderbird Boulevard between East Mall and Marine Drive.

Ensuring there was adequate storage was just one of the benefits of being involved in the home’s planning stages, said Hall, a professor of pediatrics and medical genetics at UBC.

She said another benefit was the 10 owners deciding the townhouses would have downstairs suites that help with the mortgage. Most rent them out to students, while a couple of homeowners have chosen to keep the extra space.

Hall’s own tenant is a medical undergraduate student, who enjoys a well-designed, 645-square-foot space at ground-level just a 10 minute walk from her classes.

“It’s really fun to have a student that is your specialty,” she said, adding her corner townhouse is one of the larger units with about 2,200 square feet in total.

The 10 townhouses are part of UBC’s “University Town” — a housing concept expected to boost UBC’s population to 20,900 by 2020. It’s expected that about 50 per cent of the people living on campus will either be working or attending classes.

Hampton Place, completed in 1999, was the university’s first foray into real estate. It generated $81 million for UBC’s endowment fund. UBC officials believe that figure could rise to $500 million for the same fund over 25 years, with the eventual development of 7,000 new housing units in eight new residential neighbourhoods.

In the mid-campus area, where Hawthorn Green is located, up to 709 new residential units will be built by 2021, housing approximately 1,500 new residents. Of these units 213 will be rental housing; 496 will be market housing and 213 will be ground-oriented family housing.

“All of the proceeds from developments go into the university’s endowment fund, which provides bursaries, scholarships and research funds,” said Linda Moore, associate director of external affairs for University Town.

What’s unique about Hawthorn Green is it is the first residential “co-development” project which was built specifically to meet the needs of UBC faculty, staff and students.

Besides the 10 townhouses at Hawthorn Green, which each sold for about $600,000, another 61 townhouse development is under way nearby. It is called Logan Lane, and once again is being built strictly for staff, faculty and students. Logan Lane is expected to be ready for occupancy by June, 2005.

“I would expect whatever remaining units at Logan Lane will go quickly and within no time we will be embarking on a third co-development project,” said Moore.

Moore said the university is trying to get the message out to staff, faculty and students that they are willing to work with them to

CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun Judith Hall relaxes on the patio. CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun The grounds surrounding the development have been finished so all residents can enjoy them.

create sustainable housing specifically to meet their needs on campus.

In the $6-million Hawthorn development it was staff and faculty who could afford to buy into the project, but a few students benefited because the owners are encouraged, although they are not obliged, to rent their “mortgage helpers” to students. (The average cost for the land, which is on a pre-paid, 99-year lease, was $210,800. The average cost to design and construct the units was $393,000.)

“It benefits us from a sustainability concept because it gets people out of their cars,” said Moore.

She added it is believed this is the first co-development project in North America, and definitely the first within the confines of a major university.

The concept involves a group of people, associated with the university, applying to lease land, at market rate, from UBC to create new townhouses or apartment condominium complexes.

Moore said because the group is not paying any overhead on marketing they save anywhere from 15 to 20 per cent of what they would normally be paying for housing in the area.

On behalf of the co-developers, UBC Properties Trust acts as the project manager and does everything from arranging for the purchases of the leased land, to hiring the construction crew to providing guarantees to the bank.

Moore explained while co-development projects are specifically for staff, faculty and students University Town also includes market and rental housing.

Such properties already exist, such as the development of Chancellor House and the construction happening now to create Argyll House near the historic Iona building.

It’s a common sight these days to see bulldozers and construction crews on campus.

The idea of creating a “University town” was first proposed at UBC in the 1914 community plan, but it wasn’t until the early 1990s when the university began in earnest to try and make the vision a reality.

Moore said good housing is also necessary to attract top academics to come and teach at the university.

“One of the things about being a great university is we need to be able to recruit the best faculty and staff,” she said.

“A professional coming from a less expensive city comes to Vancouver and very much wants to join UBC’s faculty, but in the past we’ve lost some of those people because of the cost of housing.”

Moore said the co-development projects and on-site rental property are a “good tool” to recruit people now, adding it was only five years ago that no rental housing existed at all on campus.

She said the cost to rent on campus is about $1.45 per square foot while the typical market rent off campus would be in the $2 per square foot range.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

The Big W now stands for Woodward’s, Westbank and Winner.
   Woodward’s finally got a saviour last night after 20 perilous years for the Downtown Eastside landmark.
   After fine-combing the three final bidders, city staff have chosen the Westbank Projects/Peterson Investment Group proposal, and are recommending it for council’s approval next week.
   “It’s a momentous occasion for us,” said Michael Flanigan, the city’s project manager, as he announced the winner inside the old department store.
   “We feel that the Westbank project offers the best overall package for the city. It’s going to be a wonderful legacy for the city.”
   Coun. Jim Green, who has spent two decades trying to save Woodward’s, called it a landmark moment.
   “This is it, this is the takeoff spot now,” he said. “The design was very big. The response to community needs was the highest. Social housing was very good. The way it fits into the community is very good.” Project architect Gregory Henriquez said his design keeps the old Woodward’s look, while creating a community-based vision for the future. “This building is about the Downtown Eastside and really includes the community,” he said. His design includes: Restoring the original 1908 building and keeping the Big W. Starting a day and night market for local retailers. Building between 100 and 236 socialhousing units.
   Adding as many as 236 low-income units, ranging from one to four bedrooms. 31,500 square feet of community services and city offices. Public indoor spaces and a rooftop daycare. The project, due to start next year, will train local youth to work on the building site. Local groups ranged from cool to hotunder-the-collar in their reactions, but all are united that there needs to be much more social housing than the 100 the city’s guaranteeing. Jim Leyden of the Woodward’s Social Housing Coalition said there should be more than twice that number of the cheaper suites. Kim Kerr, executive director of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, said there should be 250 socialhousing units. “This community has fought over 10 years to see social housing here,” he said. “We’ve got to get housing.” A key tenant will be Simon Fraser University, which needs 180,000 square feet for its Contemporary Arts School.
   On Tuesday, staff will tell council why it chose Westbank. Council will hold a special public meeting on Wednesday to hear from delegations and vote on the Woodward’s proposal.
   The city then has six months to iron out the details with the developers, while keeping the other two proposals as possible fallback options.
   Some of the outstanding issues will include choosing an operator for the social-housing units and deciding which community groups get space in the project.
   [email protected] retailhistory
1903: Woodward’s Department Store opens at 101 West Hastings St. 1908: Woodward’s brick building completed. 1956: Rooftop searchlight on top of the mini-Eiffel Tower replaced by “The Big W.” 1993: Woodward’s goes bankrupt. Hastings store closes on Jan. 31. 1995: Fama Holdings buys property for a condo and retail complex. 1996: B.C. Premier Mike Harcourt promises 200 social housing units for the project. Both sides fail to conclude the deal. 2001: B.C. government buys building from Fama for $22 million, but can’t find a commercial partner. 2002: Homeless protesters start “the Woodward’s Squat,” which lasts four months, to campaign for social housing. 2003: City of Vancouver buys building from the province for $5 million. 2004: City unveils three designs for Woodward’s. Staff recommends Westbank Projects’ proposal. 2006: Work scheduled to begin. 2007: Woodward’s redevelopment completed.

— The Province. The Westbank Projects/Peterson Investment Group design for the Woodward’s building is seen in an artist’s drawing.

VANCOUVER – The developer of Vancouver‘s two tallest towers and an award-winning architect have been recommended to transform the long-vacant Woodward’s store into a landmark complex aimed at rehabilitating the troubled Downtown Eastside.

That’s even though the proposal by Ian Gillespie’s Westbank Projects for the $149-million commercial and resident complex offers the city less money than it would have received from either of the other two bidders.

But the city’s steering committee said in its report that “money alone could not buy a favourable decision.”

Instead, the committee said, the Westbank project, designed by architect Gregory Henriquez, who has won awards for his social-housing projects, provides more “social goods.”

The committee said the design, which followed intensive consultation in the neighbourhood, provides spaces closely tailored to local needs, including a large daycare and spaces for seniors, aboriginals and other groups.

The committee used as its consultant the Portland Hotel Society, a dynamic non-profit group in the Downtown Eastside that houses some of the area’s most difficult residents, manages the city’s safe-injection site, runs a local credit union and operates an art gallery for locals.

Its design also allowed for the inclusion of as many as 237 social-housing units, if the money becomes available. The provincial government has agreed to pay for 100 units as part of its sale agreement with the city.

Finally, the team said, Westbank’s financial proposal does not create any risk for the city, even though it asks for a 10-year break on property taxes.

Westbank’s Gillespie has been involved in developing the under-construction Shaw Tower at the north foot of Burrard Street and the 600-foot Shangri-La tower at Georgia and Thurlow that is about to begin construction.

Gillespie, like everyone else connected with the three bids, did not want to comment before council makes a final decision next week.

The Westbank project, which proposed a 335-foot flatiron tower that would echo the nearby Dominion Building and an indoor courtyard, barely edged out a popular proposal from Concert Properties.

Concert, the union-pension-fund development powerhouse, and Ron Yuen, the architect who has spent 10 years working on Woodward’s, came in second on the team’s rating system by only a couple of points.

“Any of the three bidders would have been Concert was just a breath away,” said Coun. Jim Green, who has fought for more than a decade to see Woodward’s developed as a community-oriented project and who worked with Yuen for many of those years. “I’m heartbroken that they didn’t make it. But I believe this is the best choice.”

He emphasized that council still has to decide whether to approve the staff recommendation next week and that the city still has 180 days to work out a deal with whoever is chosen.

“So it’s not over until it’s over.”

The recommendation was made by a five-member evaluation committee at city hall that included the city’s influential central-area planning director, Larry Beasley, the city’s housing director, Cameron Gray, and the director of real-estate services, Bruce Maitland.

The recommendation was then unanimously approved by a larger steering committee that included Green and city manager Judy Rogers, among others.

Concert’s proposal, with a lower tower, more preservation of the heritage and a large open public square, got the most support from the community, a high rating from the urban-design panel, and the most favourable assessment on its preservation of Woodward’s heritage. But the team said the terms of its deal created too much risk for the city.

Concert, which worked together with Simon Lin of the Holborn Group, which owns property next to Woodward’s, proposed that about $40 million worth of the buildable space allowed on the site be transferred to another piece of property it owns at 1133 West Georgia, where the profits from that site would help pay for the cost of Woodward’s. As well, part of its payment to the city was based on the city sharing in profits from the sales of the market condominiums in Woodward’s. And lastly, the Concert proposal gave the city 57,000 square feet of space for its own uses, but would have required the city to take on the heritage and upgrade costs.

All of that was just too dicey, the team said.

The third bidder in the competition, Millennium, offered the city the most money for the land, but it rated the lowest in other important areas. As well, some of that money would have come from being allowed to build a much taller tower — 535 feet — than the other two.

That would have given the project about 150,000 to 200,000 square feet more than is currently permitted. View space on the top floors of downtown city towers currently sells for between $400 and $800 a square foot.

Millennium’s design, by architect Stuart Lyon, was the most talked about because it was so unusual, with a tower that looked like three buildings — one of them a glass cube — stacked on top of each other.

It also proposed to build a 17,000-square-foot native healing centre, a component that was strongly supported by Squamish Chief Gibby Jacob.

The competition has generated fierce rivalry among the proponents, with each of them lining up different casts of supporters and being quick to phone city hall if they thought one bidder was being favoured over others.

There were some complaints that the Concert Properties bid was allowed to include a design that went beyond the Woodward’s site to include the Holburn Group site next door. That space allowed it to create the large public plaza, one of the features that attracted many observers.

The project will be presented to councillors next week and they are supposed to make a decision on whether to accept a staff recommendation on Wednesday, Sept. 29, after hearing from the public.

The future of Woodward’s has been debated since even before the department store finally shut down in the early 1980s. Its closure accelerated the already noticeable deterioration of Hastings Street and the Downtown Eastside, and it was always seen as key to any attempt to bring the area back to life.

Under the NDP, then-premier Mike Harcourt tried to work out a deal to put 400 units of social housing in partnership with a private developer. That developer, Kassem Aghtai, walked away from working with the government and finally sold the building to the province for $20 million. The province tried to find a private buyer, but gave up and sold it to the city for only $5 million in 2003, shortly after the Coalition of Progressive Electors swept into power.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Chuck Russell, Vancouver Sun Leanne Chan, of Beringa Communications Inc., works on preparations for the Living Shangri-La exterior plaza for today’s opening. The Shangri-La will be the city’s tallest building at 60-storeys.

Walking into Vancouver‘s Shangri-La Hotel upon its opening some time in the first quarter of 2008 will be like walking into the Island Shangri-La in Hong Kong, or Shangri-La Valley Way in Singapore, only on a more “intimate” scale.

Shangri-La is renowned across Asia and the Middle East as one of the most luxurious of five-star hotel brands. Its properties feature soaring atriums and pampering service.

The standard and style of accommodation in Vancouver, said Stephen Darling, Shangri-La’s vice-president for North America, will be “commensurate with the best of the best” in Asia, with sincere hospitality delivered “in a way that works in Western Canada.”

However, while Hong Kong Shangri-La’s 565 rooms rise 56 stories, and Singapore‘s 755 rooms sprawl across three wings, Vancouver‘s 120 rooms will be neatly contained in the first 15 floors of a 60-storey tower at the corner of Georgia and Thurlow.

The remainder of the tower will be apartments and live-work spaces.

Darling said the size relates directly to the Shangri-La brand’s level of service.

“To deliver the Asian standard of hospitality and style in a Canadian environment is a whole lot easier to accomplish in an intimate hotel,” Darling said.

To accomplish the same service in a facility of 400 rooms or more “would be nearly impossible.”

Darling added that basic services will be available to the building’s residents and be included in their strata fees. That will allow the Shangri-La to offer amenities such as a 5,500 square-foot fitness centre and 6,500 square-foot spa and large swimming pool, that wouldn’t be found in a 120-room hotel.

Room service, housekeeping and laundry services will be made available to building residents at market rates.

Though ground for the building won’t be broken until January, Darling anticipates he will start with a staff of 125 — approximately one staff person per room.

He added that a one-to-one ratio is typical of the “top end of the market” in Canada.

In Hong Kong and Singapore, Darling added, the ratio is closer to 1.25 to 1.5 staff per room, and in developing countries staff ratios can be as high as 2.5 to three per room.

Beth Walters, a hospitality-industry consultant with Panel Kerr Forrester, said that labour costs and regulations in North America make it difficult to maintain the highest level of service.

In her experience in travelling in Asia, service can include stationing staff members at either end of the corridor on guest floors whose job it is to tidy up rooms any time a guest leaves, 24-hours a day.

“In North America, that’s not common practice, necessarily,” she said. “It’s partly a function that the North American audience may have different needs, but also of just the fact labour rates are considerably higher.”

Walters said one-to-one “would not be an uncommon number” for a five-star facility, and in North America it is not uncommon for the five-star facilities to be smaller.

In Vancouver, only the Sutton Place and Pan Pacific Hotels have five-star ratings, though Walters noted that the five-star rating can be incredibly difficult to hang on to for reasons unrelated to staffing.

CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Chuck Russell, Vancouver Sun Architect James K.M. Cheng with a model of the Shangri-La hotel-residential development.

Darling added that the level of food and beverage services adds a big qualification to staff ratios. He said the bigger Asian properties — destinations unto themselves — will have five or six restaurants and much more demand for staff.

Darling said labour costs are higher in Canada, but he said the Shangri-La compensates through training and in “empowering” staff to make decisions that typically fall on another layer of management that exists at facilities in developing countries where education levels and English proficiency are not as high.

The cost to hotel guests to maintain Shangri-La service, Darling added, will depend on the market at the time the hotel opens in 2008, but he anticipates it will be competitive.

“Our goal is to be the rate leader,” he said.

Currently, Darling added, the average room rate for a five-star property in Vancouver is just under $200 per night, but to state what they expect it to be by 2008 would “be premature.”

However, on the residential side of the project, developers have found the Shangri-La brand name to be a significant enticement.

The developers, Westbank Projects Corp. and Peterson Investment Group, have opened a display centre at 1166 Alberni St. Rennie Marketing Systems is handling sales.

Approximately 75 per cent of the development’s residential units, comprising 227 live-work condos on floors 16 to 42, and 66 estate suites on floors 43 to 59, sold in the first 10 days of pre sales, said Ian Gillespie, president and CEO of Westbank Projects. He said buyers are indeed buying the Shangri-La brand.

“What we’re finding is that people are coming out and saying ‘I stayed at the Singapore Shangri-La, and it was the most amazing experience,” Gillespie added.

They understand, he added, that it is a quality of service that isn’t available to apartment dwellers elsewhere in Vancouver.

Bob Rennie, of Rennie Marketing Systems, said service and security were key selling points.

“For world travellers, [Shangri-La] has an amazing following,” he added. “How much more people are willing to pay is hard to equate.”

However, Rennie admitted he was caught off guard when those invited to preview the suites started snapping them up.

“It’s not like Yaletown where people spend eight weeks looking and then line up to buy,” Rennie said. “Everybody who came in early to preview before our opening wrote the cheque, and our average unit [price] is a million and 50,000 [dollars].

“I know the market is sustainable, but when you see it, it still catches you off guard.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

CREDIT: Peter Battistoni, Vancouver Sun Monika Hobbs, with daughter Carina outside Elsie Roy elementary in Yaletown, says safety for kids is not an issue.

Jennifer Taylor is one of the Yaletown mommies. She’s so Yaletown mommy that not only does she walk with her kindergarten kid Andrew in tow — she’s also got her highland terriers, Murphy and Robbie Burns, to tie up outside the Urban Fare supermarket, or Urban Stare or Urban Glare, as she calls it.

“I moved here because I love living a cosmopolitan lifestyle. I just can’t seem to do the ‘burbs. Not good at it at all,” said Taylor.

“But I also need the safety of a neighbourhood because of my son.”

Taylor, a 40-year-old communications consultant, lives in Aquarius Mews, a perfectly named Concord Pacific highrise condo complex.

She has a bird’s-eye view of the epicentre of Vancouver‘s new downtown residential lifestyle. But it’s not all leisure. Outside Urban Fare, business deals are made over cellphones or an espresso. Other participants in the scene discreetly cock their ears.

“And the ears are burning,” said Taylor. “This neighbourhood is a treasure chest of stories. And Urban Fare has become the quintessential point of Yaletown. It’s our gathering spot.”

Taylor‘s so Yaletown mommy, she’s pitching a TV series on her shiny, happy ‘hood of glittering towers — pitching it in L.A.

One group of Americans already aware of the new Yaletown and the megaprojects along the north shore of False Creek and Coal Harbour are urban planners.

They’ve heard the buzz about what’s been called the Vancouver Miracle. About how Vancouver has the fastest-growing residential downtown in North America. Close to 40,000 people — people like Taylor — have moved downtown within the past 10 years.

Since the late ’80s, said former councillor Gordon Price, more than 150 highrises have risen within a mile radius of the central business district.

Downtown condo fever is so feverish that developers now market lifestyle as much as units. “Developers can be selling the same projects but they will market them differently by suggesting they represent dramatically different lifestyles.

“They are selling the cultural premium that’s based on the neighbourhood.”

He recalled a condo development on Georgia Street with a brochure that featured a mock-Soviet-realism photo of two young couples wearing bicycle helmets, looking upwards to a bright future of downtown living.

That future is now the present for Paul Lafontaine who lives in the Metropolis, a 29-storey Yaletown tower on the site of the venerable Canadian Linen building. Lafontaine grew up in a Toronto suburb, “and I’ve never wanted to live in a suburb since.” He takes the bus or walks to work downtown where he works as investor relations manager for a silver mining company. Lafontaine’s apartment, full of beautiful primitive art, is small at 775 square feet, but the northeast view of the downtown gives it an expansive feel. From his 16th-floor Yaletown condo, Lafontaine can see the suburbs in the distance, beyond the downtown highrise forest that surrounds his own tower.

He shops at Choices Supermarket which is just next door, has coffee at Triggiano’s, which is just around the corner, eats at the nearby Glowbal Restaurant and enjoys walking through the new and peaceful Emery Barnes Park just across the street.

CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun Shane Nelken is a musician who loves living in Gastown.

About the downtown, Lafontaine says: “Vancouver is not a world capital. But the sense of vibrancy that one feels walking in downtown here is similar to some of the areas I’ve seen in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.”

LOOKING EASTWARD

That vitality has been sudden. Development in Vancouver‘s central city has escalated at a pace far exceeding the expectations of city hall. The Yaletown/Downtown South area, for instance, is 10 years ahead of its original schedule. The Concord Pacific and Coal Harbour communities have also developed at unexpected rates.

There are 80,000 people living in the downtown peninsula — a figure expected to rise to 120,000 by 2021. The densification of the downtown has helped make the Greater Vancouver metropolitan region about 100-per-cent denser than Seattle.

The rhythm of downtown development has been so rapid that city hall fears the astronomic rise in residential land values — if not moderated — could bring redevelopment and gentrification to the West End and prompt conversion of many commercial buildings into condo towers.

To cool the pressure on the West End and the central business district, Vancouver‘s chief planner Larry Beasley has told the development industry to shift its gaze eastward and help create an extended metropolitan core that would include redevelopment in Gastown, the Downtown Eastside, Chinatown, False Creek Flats and Southeast False Creek.

Ex-councillor Price said the downtown’s “centre of gravity will shift eastward so that the Grandview neighbourhood on the east side will eventually seem as close to downtown as Kitsilano.”

The mayor of San Francisco has heard so much about Vancouver’s vibrant inner city that’s he’s been trying to lure planner Beasley to his city so he can revitalize the troubled downtown there. So far he’s been unsuccessful.

Beasley has other downtown Vancouver neighbourhoods to help transform, including the Downtown Eastside, the impoverished, troubled neighbourhood that stands in vivid contrast to livable inner city neighbourhoods just blocks away. The success of the new megaprojects and Yaletown has exacerbated the problems in the Downtown Eastside by causing land speculation and disinvestment in existing buildings in the low-income neighbourhood.

In American cities, said Beasley, areas like the Downtown Eastside are either gentrified or become no-go ghettos. City hall wants to avoid both approaches and, using the lessons learned in developing other downtown neighbourhoods, bring a mix of housing and incomes to area.

“We now have experience in making mixed-use work with all kinds of people. And we know how to provide community infrastructure, and we can apply that knowledge to meet the needs of the Downtown Eastside. Plus our experience downtown gives us the nerve to go into the Downtown Eastside and work through the issues with the strong community that exists there.”

CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun Paul LaFontaine has a billion-dollar view from his 16th-floor apartment in Metropolis, a 29-storey tower in Yaletown.

AN URBAN RENAISSANCE

In a recent book on the subject, The Vancouver Achievement, British author John Punter said Vancouver is no longer a setting in search of a city.

He described the False Creek North and Coal Harbour projects as the most ambitious high-density residential neighbourhoods on the edge of any downtown in North America in the ’90s.

Punter said that Vancouver has achieved “an urban renaissance more comprehensively than any other city in North America.”

Renaissance or not, Yaletown mommy Taylor, who has lived in Toronto and Penticton, said she feels more at home in her new neighbourhood than in any other place she’s lived.

“I feel safer here because it’s a community. The shopkeepers – they know our kids. They know my dogs. It’s very dog-oriented. It’s almost like you have to own a little dog to live here.”

Price, who until recently lived in Yaletown, said False Creek North initially seemed like a “giant stage set with nobody there.” This all changed with Urban Fare, which he said provided a place for locals to run into one another.

Kids and dogs. Neighbours meeting neighbours at the local supermarket and park. To Beasley, director of central area planning, the man most responsible for the Vancouver Miracle, they are all signs of the sense of community he hoped would evolve amid the highrises and townhouses in the new downtown neighbourhoods.

Beasley is aware of the knock on Vancouver’s residential mega-projects — that they cater to affluent and buff yuppies, have fetishized the cult of the view, promoted conspicuous consumption (see the occasional sale of $100 watermelons at Urban Fare) and created a high-density version of the Truman Show, the Jim Carrey movie set in an all-too-perfectly manufactured town.

But Beasley dismisses this criticism that the new neighbourhoods are too faux. “Every place was new once and every place shakes down in terms of the way people use it. Transformations occur over time and the environment becomes more organic.”

So he’s delighted that the new Concord Pacific and Yaletown neighbourhoods are increasingly less like resorts and more like real communities — not unlike those in other Vancouver neighbourhoods or in some suburbs.

Beasley is delighted that the downtown is having a baby boom and that city staff say there are more children now in the inner city than in Point Grey. He’s happy that a new school — Elsie Roy elementary — has opened in Yaletown. After all, when was the last time a new school opened in a Canadian downtown?

He’s pleased there are fewer cars commuting into the city every day than 10 years ago, with more than 60 per cent of all downtown trips now by transit, bike or on foot.

Beasley is also pleased with all the people he’s seen walking their dogs in the area around his townhouse near Beach and Hornby.

“Dogs are great generators of community. You have to take dogs out. This is how people meet.”

It’s how Taylor has met many of her neighbours. Which is something that shaped her answer when the prominent Canadian television mogul, Moses Znaimer, asked her for her take on Vancouver.

CREDIT: Peter Battistoni, Vancouver Sun John Whistler has lived in the West End for 25 years and loves the area because it’s a ‘traditional neighbourhood.’

“I said it’s a small town with tall buildings. And that’s what my neighbourhood is.”

EMBRACING THE TOWER

Not so long ago, tall buildings, were not in favour — especially in Vancouver. Highrises, as popularized by the legendary French architect LeCorbusier and others, were seen as part of the modernist nightmare, a dystopia of skyscrapers, declining inner city neighbourhoods and car-clogged freeways.

Adverse reaction to highrises and freeways was what led to the mid-’70s demise of the Non-Partisan Association at city hall and the reign of the reformist TEAM under mayor Art Phillips.

Young activists like Mike Harcourt and Darlene Marzari helped stop the construction of a freeway that would have cut through Strathcona. Neighbourhoods were downzoned to protect them from developers seeking to erect highrises for super-profits.

“It was still possible to build some towers but it wasn’t easy,” recalled Price. “The cliche was that they were little concrete boxes filled with lonely, alienated people above crime-ridden streets.”

But over time, a perfect storm of factors led the descendants of the ’70s reform movement to embrace the tower as the form best suited to create a livable downtown in Vancouver.

There was an intense demand for housing in the period after Expo 86. Sprawl was limited by geography — the Pacific Ocean to the west, mountains to north and east, the U.S. border to the south. So it was natural that city planners looked towards the inner city.

Around the same time, there was a glut of office space throughout North America, and developers returned to housing.

Some began tearing down low-rise apartments in established neighbourhoods like Kerrisdale, prompting a public outcry.

Sensing an opportunity to meet the housing demand and protect single-family neighbourhoods, the city in the early 1990s developed its “living first strategy” to develop the margins of the downtown and waterfront megaprojects. The West End had prospered through the ’80s, showing that highrise living could thrive in the downtown.

Critical to the success of this shift was Vancouver‘s deepening connection to Asia-Pacific markets and countries. Asian investment and immigrants helped accelerate the transformation of the downtown through the ’90s. The role of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing in purchasing the former Expo 86 site and turning it into Canada‘s largest real estate development project was the most obvious example of the Asian impact. Vancouver‘s rise as a post-industrial world-class city attracted affluent off-shore buyers of high-end condos, many of them becoming second-homes in a postcard setting.

Gradually, condo developments proved popular with a new middle class of white-collar professionals who rode the economic boom of the ’90s. Professional people became over-represented in the inner city and under-represented in the suburbs — the reverse of what happened in most other North American cities.

CREDIT: Mark Van Manen, Vancouver Sun Elizabeth Atmore says living in the Coal Harbour neighbourhood is ‘like living in a resort next to a big city.’

DEVELOPERS GET RICH

The dominant architectural form in Vancouver‘s new downtown — the tower with two- or three-storey townhouses at street level — was also unique. When pedestrians walked by they didn’t see the blank wall of a monolith — they saw a townhouse door or window or a shopfront. It was high-rise living with a human face.

Beasley said the tower-townhouse prototype — developed by local architects like Richard Henriquez, Paul Merrick and James Cheng — was a modernist form that provided the mixed-use vibrancy in Vancouver sought by anti-modernists such as urban theorist Jane Jacobs, who is a huge fan of Vancouver‘s downtown.

The sky-high house prices on Vancouver‘s west side also prompted many young professionals to look downtown.

“People were back into sleekness again,” said Price, “and into the image of modernity.”

The growing demand made condos the popular form for developers who then whipped the demand up further with successful marketing.

“Developers successfully changed the image of the apartment unit. Now they were selling granite countertops and lifestyle in a unit that was an investment as well as a home.”

Demand for downtown condos is on the up-escalator to this day, said Beasley, as “success begets success.”

Developer Michael Geller, who moved to Coal Harbour, finds the rise in values breath-taking. “I never believed that my old car dealership would be worth about $4 million.”

Among the factors cited by Geller are low interest rates, West End renters looking to own, investors looking for good return, and the “herd instincts” of developers.

“Someone once said developers make sheep look like free thinkers,” said Geller.

“Once one or two credible people go into an area, everybody follows. I met a fellow from Indonesia who’s developing in Downtown South. He heard everyone else was there and so he felt he should be there.”

The huge land appreciation that took place on the megaprojects, land previously zoned light industrial, gave the city leverage to use development-cost charges to extract money from developers for a host of amenities, including seawalls, parks, daycares and community centres. The taxpayer didn’t have to pay a dime but gained a more livable downtown.

“The basic reality of the economics of the Vancouver Miracle,” said Beasley, “is that the large development sites were originally of very low value and then, through public decisions, became very high-value.

“So the land-lift was huge and because of that we could leverage a lot of public goods and the developers could still get rich.”

And because much of the redevelopment occurred through megaprojects, the amenities came on stream quickly without having to be built up incrementally.

The downtown beat goes on and on. There’s money to be made by housing the tens of thousands of people who will want to live close to ground zero in the coming years. And so city hall has told the development industry to switch direction.

“I’ve been telling developers that the world is moving east and that’s going to be where your opportunity is,” said Beasley.

CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun Jennifer Taylor lives in Yaletown and walks her West Highland terriers Robbie Burns and Murphy around Urban Fare and the Roundhouse Community Centre.

He sees the downtown — or the metropolitan core, as he prefers to call it — spreading incrementally east, through Gastown, Chinatown, the Downtown Eastside, the False Creek Flats and Southeast False Creek.

Beasley rolled out his vision of the downtown’s future in April during a speech to the Urban Development Institute. He told the developers there are fewer and fewer available sites for development in the downtown peninsula.

And he said the city intends to clamp down — at least in the short-term — on the conversion of commercial buildings to residential in the downtown core.

Beasley said the city currently has five inquiries from developers wanting to convert commercial buildings into housing to take advantage of the demand for residential.

Vancouver, Beasley said, cannot afford to lose its ability to provide commercial space when that market rebounds. The city’s strategy of providing both jobs and housing downtown would be undermined if commercial space dried up, creating a “downtown- as-resort” scenario.

Beasley said Gastown is the new Yaletown — a historic area being steadily transformed by new residential development.

“Water Street is already showing signs of its revival and within 24 months from today, Gastown will look and feel very much better than it does now.”

Beasley said Chinatown “is where Gastown was 18 months ago.” The city is expecting 10,000 new people to live in Chinatown — in both market and non-market housing.

Nevertheless, added Beasley, the city will allow the development of some market housing – probably “modest-cost” units and live-work units. The Woodward’s project is expected to be harbinger of what’s to come.

“There’s a lot of fear there because it’s a very fragile community. We will not support the wholesale displacement of that community. I mean, it’s not going to happen on my watch, and I don’t think it will happen on the next watch.”

Beasley said he believes the city can protect the Downtown Eastside’s low-income community while allowing a controlled amount of market and non-market gentrification to occur in the beleaguered neighbourhood.

“I believe you can, if you decide to. In most cases, people either don’t make a decision about it and so let the world unfold. Or they explicitly want it [widescale gentrification] to happen.”

Beasley said there is a market in the Downtown Eastside for “consumers who are more interested in living in an environment that is perhaps a little more edgy” — people who don’t want to live in highrise towers, prefer a historic setting and are willing to put up with irritants that many middle-class people might not tolerate.

‘PEOPLE CRASHING TOGETHER’

Developer Michael Geller said the future of the Downtown Eastside will affect the downtown’s move east. “The problems in the Downtown Eastside — its drug addiction, panhandling and property theft — are affecting downtown living. Not just in the Downtown Eastside but in other areas.”

The key is the arrival of young middle-class professional people into the area. “I actually think by having more of a mix that you have potential to dilute the concentration of very low-income people without having to reduce the number of very low-income people.”

The next area for development is Southeast False Creek, where the city plans to house 15,000 residents. One-third of these residents will be on low-income, another third middle-income and another third high-income.

This development will allow the downtown to wrap around False Creek with dense residential development on all sides. An official development plan is expected later this year.

The last section of the future downtown is the False Creek Flats, an area whose unstable geology restrained development pressure in the past. The two main anchors on the site are the Finning Lands parcel, which will become the focus for post-secondary institutions, and the area north of the Pacific Central Station, much of which has been purchased by St. Paul‘s Hospital for future relocation.

Beasley said what will go between these two focal points has yet to be decided. Should it be a high-tech complex, a new live/work neighbourhood, a soccer stadium and sports centre, or a casino? All these proposals have been put forward.

While there will be debate over the future shift east, few will argue that density in these areas slated for redevelopment is a bad thing. There is a strong consensus in Vancouver now about density, which isn’t the case in other North American cities where, said Beasley, “people hate high density because it’s been badly done.”

The lesson of the Vancouver Miracle, says its main promoter, is that high density works — if done right. “I’m still a great believer that it’s just people crashing together that creates energy and ideas.”

DOWNTOWN DWELLERS:

The Sun’s Doug Ward talks to four inhabitants of the city’s core to find out why they love where they live.

A KIDS’ PLACE IN THE CITY

YALETOWN – It’s not so much that Monika Hobbs likes living downtown. It’s more that she likes living in Yaletown.

“I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else downtown. Yaletown has more of a European feeling,” said Hobbs.

It’s a reminder that the new downtown neighbourhoods are appealing to different markets and creating strong ‘hood loyalty.

She lives in a three-bedroom condo with her five-year-old daughter Carina and her American husband, Jeff, a software engineer who works downtown.

“I wouldn’t want to live around Gastown. It’s a totally different feeling. We get panhandlers here too, but it’s not too bad.

“But I wouldn’t want to live in Coal Harbour either. It’s too sterile. It doesn’t have character.”

Hobbs and her husband bought their three-bedroom condo about three years ago. They were fleeing the suburban experience of Silicon Valley outside San Francisco.

“We lived in suburbia and hated it. It was boring. You had to drive everywhere. My husband can now walk to work, we hardly ever use our car. Whereas in California you spend most of the day in the car.”

Hobbs said downtown San Francisco didn’t have the same livability as downtown Vancouver. There was too much poverty, not enough safety or kids.

“There’s so many kids around here in Yaletown. It’s like there’s some in the water. A lot of young children, lot of babies in strollers, lot of pregnant moms.”

Safety for her child is not an issue here. “To be quite honest, the only time I ever hear something happening to children, it’s out in the suburbs. Not in the downtown.”

‘MUCH MORE CHARACTER’

GASTOWN – Shane Nelken lives in the less-safe Gastown area, but is willing to put up with the grit because of the neighbourhood’s historic look and growing sense of community.

“I don’t have a car, so it’s helpful to be central. But I’m also attracted to the history here. I like being in one of the older neighbourhoods. It has so much more character than a Yaletown or a Kitsilano.”

Nelken, a rock musician, is a member of the Vancouver power-pop band A.C. Newman, whose front-man, Carl Newman, was recently acclaimed in the New York Times Magazine. He lives with his girlfriend, Karen MacIntosh, in a condo complex near Alexander and Main.

They recently purchased a new live/work condo on the ground floor of the old Koret swimwear factory on Cordova, which is undergoing renovation.

He’s happy to be moving into a heritage building that will be mostly preserved.

“I’ve always loved the neighbourhood and I see the potential as well.”

Nelken is not unmoved by the human misery caused by the poverty, drugs and mental illness around him.

“One of the most tragic things about living down here is that you have to shut out a lot of the stuff. You are confronted by human tragedy every time you walk out the door.”

Still, he loves the sense of community emerging in Gastown. He’s optimistic about coming redevelopment and he doesn’t think gentrification is bad so long as enough housing is protected for low-income people.

“But I don’t think you are ever going to fully eradicate a lot of the problems … Nor do I want that to happen. I kind of belong down here.”

A 15-MINUTE WALK TO WORK

WEST END – Amid the new migrants to the downtown are people who were sold on living there decades ago and moved to the West End. People like John Whistler, who has lived there for 25 years.

“I just love the downtown, but I’m really speaking of the West End. It’s a traditional neighbourhood, while Yaletown and Coal Harbour are emerging neighbourhoods without that neighbourhood feel. But that will come in 15 or 20 years.”

Whistler lives alone in a condo near Comox and Denman. He walks to his job at Duke Energy on West Georgia.

“For me it’s a 15-minute walk to work. I don’t own a car and don’t need a car. Everything that I need is within walking distance or a short taxi ride away.”

Whistler estimates there are about 50 restaurants within three blocks of his apartment.

“I would say that most people I meet in the West End like the West End and particularly like it because it is safe walking on the street at any time of the day or night.”

His says the West End has more diversity in income groups, housing types and retail services than the new downtown neighbourhoods.

“Coal Harbor and Yaletown have a bit of a mono-culture, with brand-new condo buildings, all the same style, and attracting the same demographic group.

“In the West End, the demographics are more diverse. And there are more kids now than when I first moved here.”

Many of the kids belong to immigrant families from Eastern Europe who prefer downtown apartments to life in suburbia.

Nor has Whistler any plans to move elsewhere.

“Even if I won the lottery, and I don’t buy tickets, I’d just buy a nicer apartment in the West End.”

GREAT FOR A SINGLE PERSON

COAL HARBOUR – Elizabeth Atmore loves her new Coal Harbour residence, but the real estate developer isn’t sure she could live elsewhere in the downtown.

“It’s like living in a resort next to a big city. I love being near Stanley Park, riding my bike on the seawall, using the pitch-and-putt.”

When Atmore has a business meeting downtown, she walks along the Coal Harbour seawall, past the Pan Pacific Hotel, and into the city.

She lives in Bayshore Gardens, located in front of the Westin Bayshore. Atmore moved to the new upscale neighbourhood in 1999 after going through a separation.

She initially rented from an owner who lived in the Bahamas, but then, following completion of her divorce, decided to become an owner.

“It’s great for a single person. In the evenings you can get out with fun friends and there are so many places nearby to relax.”

The views are a big part of the Coal Harbour experience.

“I just love waking up in the morning and looking out the window. I see the North Shore, the marinas, the float planes coming in. The birds fly by.

“And what’s often nice in the morning is the pink reflection of the sunrise on the harbour.”

Atmore likes the proximity to Robson and Denman. “I have restaurants right on my doorstep. I have grocery shopping, salons, even a little hardware store.

“It’s a bit like a New York lifestyle but with the advantage of the serenity of nature.”

Atmore has taken art classes at the Coal Harbour community centre, eats at nearby cafes and takes her grandchildren to to the Second Beach pool.

She wouldn’t move to Yaletown. “It doesn’t have the beautiful trees. It doesn’t have nature. It’s too much concrete.”

LIFE IN THE BIG CITY:

Downtown Vancouver residents are wealthier and more likely to be married than their West End neighbours.

DOWNTOWN

Married: 32%

Live alone: 31%

People aged 75-plus: 2.4%

Average family income: $81,739

Average dwelling value: $260,743

Individuals per 1,000 stating ‘no religion’: 432

WEST END

Married: 22%

Live alone: 41%

People aged 75-plus: 5.7%

Average family income: $64,644

Average dwelling value: $212,936

Individuals per 1,000 stating ‘no religion’: 432

Source: Statistics Canada and Vancouver Sun

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

Call it the Peninsula or the Lower Mainland’s Carmel Valley, but in simple terms, White Rock/South Surrey is the hottest of hot spots in the nation’s top tier of the real estate market, according to a national survey by RE/MAX realty.

The locale’s seaside estates and secluded hillside view lots saw 68 property sales in excess of $800,000 from January through the end of August, a 151-per-cent increase over the 27 transactions in that range during same period of 2003.

In a survey of its offices across the country, and based on Multiple Listing Service data, RE/MAX found that sales in the upper end of the market in most cities increased at least 40 per cent.

Vancouver‘s West Side, with 237 homes valued at more than $1 million changing hands, did see more sales, but as a percentage that number represented a year-over-year increase of 60 per cent.

Victoria saw 206 sales of homes worth $700,000 or more, a 108-per-cent increase from 2003; and in West Vancouver, 222 properties in the $1 million-plus range were sold, representing a 96.5-per-cent increase from 2003.

Between them, White Rock/South Surrey, Victoria and West Vancouver saw the biggest increases in high-end property sales in Canada, which the report’s authors took as a sign of a strong overall economy.

In White Rock/South Surrey, RE/MAX representative Al Hippsley said that demand in the region is largely being driven by market activity in surrounding areas.

“Interestingly, the majority of buyers buying what is considered high end are not buying up in value,” he said, adding that they are simply moving from one exclusive area of the Lower Mainland to another.

To date, the most expensive sale in South Surrey/White Rock was a house on the bluff of White Rock’s Marine Drive, which went for $3.98 million.

The priciest current listing, a 9,424-square-foot mansion on 3.2 acres, has an $8.95-million asking price, and there are another 87 high-end homes listed.

West Vancouver, however, saw the nation’s most expensive property sale. There a buyer paid $17.5 million for a waterfront home that is now back on the market for $19.8 million.

In White Rock, buyers are coming from downtown or the North Shore. They are executives or entrepreneurs who have been successful, Hippsley said, and they want the seaside location that has a small-town feel, but is still urban and close to their offices in Vancouver‘s core.

Peter Simpson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, said people are attracted to the area because of its seclusion.

In recent years, he has noticed people buying older homes on large lots and replacing them with custom homes. In other areas, such as Morgan Creek, subdivisions with one-acre lots have opened up which are “estate lots in every sense of the word.”

“People have discovered it and it’s the place to live,” Simpson said.

Simpson added that just as low interest rates have helped first-time buyers get into the market, favourable rates allow buyers in the top tier to carry larger mortgages and move up the market.

The RE/MAX survey found strength in the top-end market across the country. Regina experienced a 70-per-cent increase in sales over $250,000, which put it fourth on the survey list, and Winnipeg saw a 70-per-cent rise in sales of homes over $500,000, giving it the fifth-biggest increase in sales.

Elton Ash, RE/MAX vice-president and regional director for Western Canada, said the definition of an upper-end home was specific to each market’s conditions based on average price and attributes, such as view and location, that make homes desirable.

He said the survey points to strong consumer confidence. Consumers are buying, which influences corporate and business profits, which is reflected in the high-end property market.

“It sort of gives us a measure of how the economy is performing,” Ash said. “Typically, the people in this market are senior executives, entrepreneurs and the self-employed who are enjoying the success of those businesses.”

Rising property values influence the prices being paid, but Ash added that those values also give existing higher-end owners additional equity in their homes, which also allows them to move up in the market.

Ash said the upward trend in mortgage rates, sparked by the Bank of Canada’s recent quarter-point increase in its short-term lending rate, will likely have little effect on the upper-end market.

The RE/MAX survey found that interest rates would have to rise between three and four per cent before buyers would be concerned about affordability, and Ash anticipates they won’t go up by more than one per cent over the next 12 to 18 months.

Ash added that buyers at the top end of the market also compare the returns on real estate with stock market gains, and in that arena real estate also comes out looking good.

Kelowna saw 19 homes worth more than $1 million trade hands, a 26 per cent increase.

In Alberta, Calgary saw 345 homes in its upper range, defined as over $500,000, bought and sold, a 31 per cent increase. In Edmonton, 61 houses worth more than $500,000, 62 per cent more than a year ago.

In Greater Toronto, 751 luxury homes traded hands, a 43.5 per cent increase. The most expensive was a $6.7 million home in Forest Hill.

– – –

THE WILD, WILD WEST

The five hottest markets for upper-end homes in terms of the percentage increase in sales (Jan.-Aug. 2003 to Jan.-Aug. 2004) are all in Western Canada. Figures in brackets indicate what price level constitutes upper-end in each market.

1. White Rock/South Surrey ($800,000+): 151%

2. Victoria ($700,000+): 108%

3. West Vancouver ($1 million+): 96.5%

4. Regina ($250,000+): 72%

5. Winnipeg ($500,000+): 70%

Source: RE/MAX

© The Vancouver Sun 2004