Pennyfarthins?s Creston has a look that speaks to its surroundings

Mary Frances Hill
The Province

Creston

What: 52 homes

Where: 715 West 15th St., North Vancouver

Residence sizes and prices: Available homes have two and three bedrooms, from 926 to 1,208 sq. ft., starting in the mid-$700,000s

Developer and builder: Pennyfarthing Homes

Sales centre address: 108 — 1171 Marine Drive, North Vancouver

Sales centre hours: Sat — Thurs, noon — 5 p.m.

Few designers or homeowners would likely dispute that the kitchen is the central nervous system of the home. It’s a gathering place, a work space, and a place of creativity and experimentation. It’s the spot where, as children, so many of us spent afternoons cooking with grandparents and parents alike.

At Creston, Pennyfarthing Homes’ mid-rise condo community in North Vancouver, Portico Design Group has embraced the kitchen as a precious space.

 “As we now have these open-plan living spaces, the kitchen becomes the focus as it’s the source of all the activities we do in the ‘public’ realm of our homes – cooking, eating, entertaining, spending time with family,” says Natalia Kwasnicki, a designer with Portico Design Group who works alongside principal Lynn Clarke.

“Also, visually, it’s the gem of the home – the place where we can relay our personality and style as something to be proud of.”

In the Creston display space, the generous kitchen has storage to spare. A two-toned look, with lighter cabinets on top, adds a feeling of airiness and light to the space.

Every thought and detail regarding shade and tone in interior design is critical in a home situated in lush, if often wet, surroundings such as North Vancouver, Kwasnicki says.

Brightening the space with contrasting cabinetry “also creates a more youthful contemporary feel as opposed to a traditional wood kitchen … particularly in the North Shore where it can be grey.”

Portico designers see the surrounding landscape as essential to their vision for the interiors, she adds.

“As the architecture calls to its North Shore surroundings, I think it’s important that the interiors do as well. The mountains, trees, and water all play their part through texture, materials and design elements. The use of wood, glass, soft textural fabrics help to convey those elements indoors.”

If a light, spacious kitchen is a pick-me-up, the darker grey of the porcelain tile enveloping the master bathroom (part of an upgraded option at Creston), creates the opposite vibe — a feeling of what Kwasnicki refers to as a luxury spa, or grotto. “The idea here was to create a spa-like feel, to create a serene environment you can escape to.”

Kwasnicki says she was pleased to work with this material, as she’s seen the ways in which manufacturers and designers have helped it evolve over time, taking advantage of its versatility and durability.

“The lengths that porcelain tile has gone to look like real stone is pretty fascinating. It’s awesome to find great looking tiles and really elevate the look and feel of a bathroom by giving it a strong spa-like feel.”

© 2018 Postmedia Network Inc

Huge plan for Northeast False Creek unveiled

John Mackie
The Province

The city of Vancouver released its much-ballyhooed “final plan” for Northeast False Creek Wednesday, and it’s massive — 174 pages long.

If everything works out as planned, the plan will lay the foundation for a new waterfront neighbourhood with 10,000 to 12,000 residents.

Many will be housed in a forest of highrise condos that stretches from the Plaza of Nations on the west, to Carrall Street on the east. But there will also be lots of social housing in the mix — 1,800 units, which are expected to house about 3,500 people.

The plan includes taking down the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, which will be replaced by an expanded street network, probably in about four years.

Three acres of waterfront park will be added to the neighbourhood this summer, and by the time the plan is completed in 20 years Creekside Park will be expanded by another eight acres.

For one, the city is looking to shake up the type of highrises that have remade the downtown core.

“We heard loud and clear from the public that they want to see experimentation in architecture, beyond the typical point towers we do in Vancouver,” said McNaney.

“They want to see green on buildings, and they want to see publicly accessible spaces on buildings, so we’ve really been playing with forms here. It’s sort of the next great step in Vancouver urbanism.”

The other big departure is that there will be retail and commercial buildings on the waterfront.

“It’s really a bit more like a Darling Harbour in Sydney (Australia), where it’s a vibrant commercial waterfront,” said McNaney.

“There will be roughly 1.8 million square feet of commercial space. What that means is that the waterfront wharf area won’t have one restaurant, it’ll have 20 to 30.

“On top of that, it’ll be south-facing waterfront, so it’ll be usable for a lot of the year. Even when it’s raining you can still have shelter and a wonderful vibrant space.”

NPA councillor George Affleck has been critical of parts of the plan, questioning whether developers will ante up $230 million for the removal of the viaducts and some new streets. But overall he thinks the plan is “pretty cool.”

“One of the things I think is missing in our city on the water is any kind of engagement with regards to retail, shops and restaurants,” said Affleck.

“To see that sort of promenade in that whole area I think will be exciting. I think the design on the inside (of the neighbourhood), the smaller streets and the planned community (also) looks really exciting.”

McNaney said the two developers in the area (Concord Pacific and Canadian Metropolitan Properties) have already submitted some plans for new developments, and that there will be probably be 20 to 25 highrises once everything is built.

The tallest site will be at Georgia and Pacific, where the city envisions a 425-foot tall building, which probably means 46 or 47 storeys.

“It will really mark that important intersection, where ceremonial Georgia meets the new Pacific,” said McNaney.

McNaney said the city revised the plan after community consultation. But northeast False Creek resident Fern Jeffries thinks the plan is “fundamentally flawed” because it was predicated on the removal of the viaducts, which she believes will bring a lot more traffic to the neighbourhood.

“I think that their focus has been so much on what they portray as a new community that they really have ignored the needs and issues of existing residents,” said Jeffries.

“They tout how many consultations there has been, blah blah blah, and I mean it’s just a crock.”

The plan goes before Vancouver council next week, when the public will have an opportunity to comment.

© 2018 Postmedia Network Inc.

Vancouver development will add 10% extra office space

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

A development the equivalent of 10% of Vancouver’s downtown office space will bring several big names to the city’s False Creek Flats area.

The new 7-storey building will add 160,000 square feet of Class A office space designed for the digital media and creative sectors and will be the first new multi-tenant office building in the area in 18 years.

“This is big news for a city that now has the second lowest downtown office vacancy rate in North America and limited new supply coming to market,” says Blair Quinn, Executive Vice President at CBRE Canada. “This adds significant supply to an emerging neighborhood that has been endorsed by the global and local creative and tech companies, including the first tenants into this new building.”

The building is already 72% pre-leased with tenants including Samsung, Blackbird Interactive, and Cat products supplier Finning International which returns to False Creek Flats; it was formerly the area’s largest landowner and will move its headquarters from downtown Vancouver.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

The tip of the iceberg

Dalia Barsoum
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

As an investor, you’re likely aware of the overwhelming variety of mortgage products that exist on the market today. Picking the wrong product can add thousands – even hundreds of thousands – of dollars to the cost of your mortgage. Doing so can also result in significant opportunity costs that will hinder the growth of your portfolio.

Chasing nothing but the lowest rate is a big mistake. While we all want favourable financing terms for our properties, the rate is often just the tip of the financing iceberg. As consumers, we only see the advertised rates; we have no way of realizing what lies underneath and the catastrophic toll it can take on our finances and investment goals.

Let’s assume that one of the lenders your investment property deal qualifies with is offering the lowest rate on the street for rental properties. Here’s what the rest of the low-rate iceberg might contain:

1. A fully closed mortgage
A fully closed mortgage is not opened for repayment unless the property is sold through a bona fide sale. You will have no opportunity to break it, even if you pay a penalty, unless the property is sold to someone who is not related to you. Investors looking for flexibility should beware.

2. Add-on insurance premiums
Some lenders will add up to 2.9% of the loan amount in insurance premiums to the mortgage, even if you are purchasing with 20% down. This added cost essentially changes your effective cost of borrowing, turning a rate that may have initially looked tantalizingly low into one that is higher than other rates on the market.

3. Prepayment limitations
Prepayment privileges allow you to pay down the mortgage faster through regular payment top-ups and lump-sum payments. Some of the mortgages that come with the lowest rates will restrict how fast you can pay down your mortgage. Fifteen per cent is a typical prepayment option, and some lenders offer 20%. When there are restrictions, that figure can drop to 10%.

4. Equity trap
Equity is a key source of capital for most investors. Some mortgage products will enable you to easily access equity over time, while others will trap the equity. Advanceable mortgage products, for example, will allow you to accumulate equity on a secured line of credit as you pay down the principal on the mortgage. The lowest-rate mortgage provider may not offer such a product. If that’s the case, the only way to take out equity from your property down the road would be to refinance.

5. Teaser offers
Teaser rate offers are designed to entice consumers to switch mortgage providers or attract new business, and they tend to create a lot of buzz. While teaser offers might initially save you money, the savings may not last forever because they are time-sensitive. For example, a teaser rate may offer a really low one-year fixed option, but once that year is up, you are bound by what is offered with that lender at that point in time.

6. The wrong lender for your portfolio
For investors looking to build a real estate portfolio, financing the property at hand has to be done with an eye toward the next set of properties you’re planning on buying. The objective is to obtain the best financing terms on as many properties as possible through proper planning and structuring of financing. A lender who is offering the lowest rate for a current deal might not be the right lender for your portfolio from a strategy standpoint. The wrong lender could limit the number of properties you can finance down the road at favourable terms or have an implication on the type of financing you can get for your next deal.

Chasing the lowest rate can result in you getting, quite literally, much more than you bargained for. Your long-term plans, the strategy you have in mind for the property you are buying (buy-and-hold, rent-to-own, flip, etc.) and your risk profile should shape the selection of the right mortgage product.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

Ephraim Vecina
REP

The unprecedented rise in consumer debt means the Bank of Canada’s rate-hiking cycle is already the most severe in 20 years and further increases will have far graver consequences than conventional analysis shows, Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd. said.

Assuming just one further rate rise, the impact would be 65% to 80% as severe as the 1987 to 1990 cycle, according to Macquarie, which took into account 5-year bond yields, household debt, and home buying. Canada’s housing market slumped in the early 1990s after that rate-hike cycle and a recession.

“The Canadian economy has experienced an unprecedented period of hyper-leveraging,” analysts including David Doyle wrote in the note released late last week, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Read more: Rate adjustment to further burden Canadian borrowers – analysts

According to Macquarie, this is underlined by the fact that:

• About 30% of nominal GDP growth has come from residential investment and auto sales over the past three years. This is about 50% greater than what has been experienced in similar prior periods.
• The wealth effect from rising home prices has driven nearly 40% of nominal growth in gross domestic product over the past three years, about two to four times the amount experienced previously when the BoC was hiking rates.
• Even as this has occurred, fixed business investment and exports have struggled, limiting the ability for a virtuous domestic growth cycle to unfold. This again is in sharp contrast to similar periods in the past when these were accelerating.

New mortgage stress-test rules will also have a larger impact than estimated, Macquarie said. The new rules in isolation are expected to reduce buyers’ maximum purchasing power by as much as 17%. That jumps to about 23% after incorporating the rise in mortgage rates since mid-2017, according to the note.

Governor Stephen Poloz has indicated high household debt could make the slowing impact of rate hikes harsher, and that the impact of 2017’s increases will not be fully clear for 18 months, Doyle said.

“When taken together, these observations mean the Bank of Canada is proceeding with hikes despite uncertainty surrounding the severity of tightening performed so far,” Macquarie wrote. “This elevates the risk of policy error.”

Macquarie is expecting only one more rate hike in either April or July.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Canada remains one of the bright stars in the global real estate market despite a slowdown in 2018.

A new report from Fitch gives Canada a stable/negative rating as low arrears clash with rising house prices which are at risk of declining. It’s forecast for 2018 is for prices to rise 5% (around half of 2017’s increase) and for
mortgage arrears to remain at the 0.3% level of 2017.

However, it warns that Vancouver and Toronto’s price rises make them increasingly vulnerable to a correction.

The report highlights the relative affordability of household debt in recent years due to low interest rates, but notes that this led to tighter mortgage lending rules from OSFI and CMHC.

Fitch is calling for a rise in interest rates of 50 basis points for each of 2018 and 2019 and for mortgage credit growth to be 3% per year.

Despite the rising home prices and highly-leveraged households, Fitch says that the financial infrastructure in Canada is well protected due to mortgage insurance from CMHC.

It sees further lending restrictions to cool demand in overheating markets and also expects foreign ownership rules to have an impact in 2018.

Copyright © 2018 Key Media Pty Ltd

Joannah Connolly
Vancouver Courier

The developer of the upcoming Arbutus Village has applied to the City of Vancouver to add an extra 113,519 square feet to the project, saying, “Since the Arbutus Centre Rezoning was approved in 2011, the housing crisis has worsened in Vancouver.”

The 1970s shopping centre is being redeveloped by Larco Investments as a mixed-use community, with condos, rental homes, social housing, retail, a neighbourhood house, a seniors’ centre and a public square. The existing Safeway and other stores will be replaced in the already under-construction first phase of the project, although local residents have to go without those stores in the meantime.

More than 99,000 square feet of the increased space would go to the residential elements of the development. The number of non-market, City-owned “affordable” housing units would increase from 100 to 120, said Larco in the “Housing Rationale” section of its rezoning application.

The changes proposed by Larco would affect Blocks C and D, the last two phases of the redevelopment, increasing the number of homes to a total of 240 units, of varying sizes:

• 111 one-bedroom units;
• 85 two-bedroom units;
• 23 three-bedroom units; and
• 21 two-bedroom townhouses.

The heights of Blocks C and D will increase from the original proposal, but will still rise in stepped form, from four storeys at the lowest part, up to eight storeys on Block C and 12 storeys on Block D. The new tower designs would reach a height of60 m (up from the previously proposed 57 metres) on Block C and 72 metres (up from 57 metres) on Block D.

The rezoning application includes no change to the retail or office space elements of the redevelopment, but does include a slightly expanded neighbourhood house.

A community open house on the redevelopment will be held from 5.00-8.00pm on Tuesday, February 13 at the Hellenic Centre, 4500 Arbutus Street, Vancouver.

Members of the public are also invited to submit feedback on the project via the City of Vancouver’s online feedback form.

Glacier Community Media © Copyright ® 2013 – 2018

City of North Vancouver approves new condos despite outcry

Jeremy Shepherd
Vancouver Courier

City of North Vancouver council voted on January 22 to allow for 179 condo units at 150 East Eighth Street.

Despite neighbourhood outcry over a shortage of parking and an excess of density, four out of seven councillors favoured construction of two six-storey buildings as well as 17 ground-floor townhomes.

Besides being “13 townhouses wide,” one six-storey building becomes seven storeys where the sloping site reaches its lowest point, noted neighbour Linda Hayes.

The site resembles a right-angle triangle with the longer sides running along East 11th and Eighth streets and the point jutting towards Lonsdale Avenue.

The project’s mass and height will leave neighbours “dwarfed” while failing to provide housing the city needs, Hayes argued.

“This is a market condo building, not affordable housing,” she said.

While there’s a theory that greater density will breed affordability, the North Shore’s increase in density hasn’t provided “any marked improvement in affordability,” Councillor Don Bell noted.

“We’re seeing a changing demographic on the North Shore that is worrying to me,” he said. “We’re seeing people being driven away because of economics,” he said.

Mayor Darrell Mussatto conceded that developer Crest Adera will sell the units for “as much as they can,” but he countered that the project is still more affordable than buying a single-family home.

The project is near the 229 and 230 bus routes, close to shops, and a quick hop from the Green Necklace cycling route.

“If you’re going to put density somewhere, this is the place you’re going to put it,” Mussatto said.

The city’s guidelines allow a maximum of six storeys on the site – measured from the highest point of the lot. Those parameters limit floor space ratio – which measures the project’s total floor area against its lot size – to 2.6, which includes a 1.0 FSR bonus.

The developer is slated to pay $8.1 million for that extra density, of which $1.6 million is earmarked for the city’s affordable reserve fund and $6.5 million for the civic amenity reserve fund.

That money “can go right to Harry Jerome,” Mussatto said, noting the high cost of the forthcoming recreation centre.

The financial arrangement didn’t persuade Councillor Rod Clark to support the development.

“I don’t want cash in lieu,” he said. “I want the affordable housing units.”

The project’s preliminary application included 12 units at below-market rates. That component was scrapped.

Clark suggested the development was “shoehorning density in an area that’s already pretty dense.”

The project includes 235 parking spots, including 30 spaces for Telus employees who will work in the building on the eastern side of the site.

The extra density will exacerbate a parking scarcity that has sent many customers into the large parking lots around Park Royal in West Vancouver, said Councillor Pam Bookham.

“We’ve been hearing a lot from our business owners about the challenges of providing adequate street parking for their customers,” she said, mentioning the challenges faced by customers at the Club 16 fitness centre on Lonsdale.

If North Vancouver wants to support a small business community, as opposed to a mall, “we need more people,” Councillor Linda Buchanan argued.

Buchanan also took issue with her council colleagues calling for affordable rental.

“It is pretty rich for some councillors to say we need more purpose rental building when they in fact (voted against) a purpose rental building two blocks up the street.”

The market development is essential for North Vancouverites who want to own rather than rent, she said.

“These young people in our community need to have hope that they can actually afford to buy something in our community.”

Councillor Holly Back praised the developer for providing ample parking and an off-leash dog park.

“I don’t see how this six-storey building is going to overshadow anything,” she said. “The Telus building has been pretty ugly there for the last 50 years so thank you for beautifying the area.”

While housing prices have risen amid an “unprecedented building boom,” Coun. Craig Keating reminded the packed chamber about the delicate nature of council’s responsibilities.

“I would not sit here in front of council and say, ‘I’m the councillor who’s going to help everybody’s housing prices go down,’ because if you own the house you don’t like that idea,” he said, adding that it’s a different matter for residents hoping to buy homes.

The project should, “help us replace the single-family home,” he said.

Council’s decision was supported by Philip Tarrant, who described himself as a millennial in support of density.

“Density is the only way my generation can afford to live and buy homes on the North Shore,” he said. “Adera will take an under-utilized property in a great location and turn it into 179 new homes.”

The units range between 600 and 1,900 square feet.

Crest Adera is also on the hook for $635,000 worth of in-kind contributions, including a dog park facilitated by moving the cul-de-sac eastward, public art, and the relocation of the grizzly bear sculpture on Lonsdale Avenue and Eighth Street.

Glacier Community Media © Copyright ® 2013 – 2018

Area represents largest piece of undeveloped waterfront in downtown Vancouver

Vancouver Courier

The City of Vancouver’s final plan for Northeast False Creek, which envisions the delivery of 1,800 affordable homes, 32 acres of new and renewed parks, and a network of new streets, including replacing the viaducts, goes before council Jan. 31.

The plan sets the long-term vision for the last piece of large undeveloped land downtown along the False Creek waterfront.

“This transformative city-shaping project provides a bold new vision for the last remaining downtown waterfront,” Kevin McNaney, project director for Northeast False Creek, was quoted as saying in a press release. “The plan provides a guide to the evolution of Northeast False Creek into a culturally vibrant waterfront destination to live, work and play.”

Northeast East False Creek covers 10 per cent of the downtown core. McNaney describes it as “an opportunity to reimagine an area of former heavy industry and freeway into a renewed place of modern urbanism for people to enjoy.”

More than 17,500 people provided feedback about the plan during the consultation phase, which included 90 events.

The final plan can be found here.

The Vancouver Park Board, meanwhile, is in talks with local First Nations, Chinatown residents and others on the design of Creekside Park and Andy Livingstone Park. It expects to reveal the refined concept plan with the public in the spring of 2018.

The overall Northeast False Creek plan aims to see that public amenities and services continue to meet the community’s needs as the area grows and evolves, according to the city.

The costs of the project, including amenities such as childcare, social housing, artist space, plazas and a new fire hall and cultural centre, will be covered by developer-related revenues, utilities, sale or lease of city lands and strategic partnership agreements with not-for-profit organizations.

Details within the plan address housing, parks and transportation. Its vision to deliver about 1,800 affordable homes amounts to “one of the largest deliveries of affordable housing in British Columbia’s history,” according to the city.  

Proposals to enhance parks and open spaces in the area, meanwhile, involve connecting the waterfront and surrounding neighbourhoods. Plans for new and renewed parks include the new 11-acre Creekside Park, described as a “destination” park that will be the largest built in decades.

Andy Livingstone Park and the existing Creekside Park north of Science World will be renewed as part of the plan.

In terms of transportation, the city says the new network of streets and the replacement of the viaducts “will connect people with Northeast False Creek, and offer a safe and accessible network for people, emergency vehicles, and goods movement.”

Jerry Dobrovolny, the city’s general manager of engineering services, said the next step is to bring council an implementation plan and coordinated construction schedule outlining the build-out of new utilities such as water and sewer mains, as well as the removal of the viaducts and construction of a new complete street network.

Since Northeast False Creek is adjacent to the Downtown Eastside, which has a significant urban Indigenous community, is part of the Chinatown community, and was historically the heart of Vancouver’s black community (formerly known as Hogan’s Alley), the plan “identifies opportunities to recognize these communities by providing cultural gathering spaces, conserving and commemorating living heritage in Chinatown, and reconnecting Chinatown and Hogan’s Alley with the rest of the downtown core.”

Individuals can register to speak to city council about the report at the Jan. 31 meeting. Online registration starts Jan. 25 at noon and ends Jan. 31 at 9:30 a.m.

If the Northeast False Creek Plan is approved, the city will work on an implementation report for funding approval to deliver on the items in the plan, including the transportation and utility work, as well as ongoing rezoning.

Glacier Community Media © Copyright ® 2013 – 2018

Development in Vancouver ‘on wrong side of change’

Joannah Connolly
Western Investor

The barriers to development – such as restrictive zoning, lengthy permit processes and community opposition – are one of the key reasons that companies like Amazon won’t consider Vancouver for headquarters, according to a local developer.

This could be putting Vancouver on the “wrong side of change,” said Kevin Layden, president and CEO of local development company Wesbild.

Speaking at a recent Urban Development Institute 2018 forecast panel event, a sold-out lunch at the Hyatt Hotel, Layden said that the pace of change in the industry is much too slow to keep up with the global pace.

He likened the Vancouver development landscape to struggling retailers such as Sears, which he said failed because it did not keep up with retail trends and customer demand for online shopping.

Responding to a comment about Amazon not shortlisting Vancouver for its HQ2, Layden said, “Again, it’s about what side of change you’re on. We fight Uber, we fight ride-share, we fight AirBnB, we tax foreign ownership for coming to Canada… I’m not at all surprised Amazon didn’t come to Vancouver. We’re just not on the right side of technology and change.”

Another of the main reasons for this is a “capacity issue,” said Layden, adding that city planning departments in many of Metro Vancouver’s municipalities do not have enough staffing resources to clear the massive backlog of building permit applications, and that the construction industry is at capacity in terms of how many projects they can take on. “It’s not unlike this room – [this event] sold out within 48 hours, we could have easily filled another room this size.”

Ward McAllister, co-panellist and president/CEO of Ledingham McAllister, said that it was possible to find innovative solutions to the problems facing development, and that the City of Burnaby was a good example of this. He told the audience, “[The City of Burnaby has] come up with solutions to create more rental housing, and worked with developers to give them free floor-area if they build market and non-market rental units – and the market has taken it by the bit and run with it. It’s great to show other municipalities how it can be done, and how working with the private sector can address the problem.”

Todd Yuen of Beedie Developments said that public opposition to development was a huge barrier, and that much of it seems to be “not against a project’s character or form, but an opposition to development, period.”

He added, “Our approach has to be different in different communities and we have to understand the community. Because the opposition we face now is changing… We literally have people who are sitting in their cars with binoculars and cameras, watching every aspect of our site operations, just waiting for us to make a mistake. And as soon as we do, it’s straight to the municipality, straight to the media. We’ve had people trespass onto our properties and place props there to suggest we are not acting properly.”

In his 2018 “mega-trends” predictions, Layden said that he hopes all new homes will be built with delivery lock-boxes with refrigeration to accept online deliveries and groceries, as well as integrated AI systems such as Amazon Echo and Google Home. He also expects the real estate industry to increasingly adopt virtual reality, augmented reality and a mix of the two, to offer city officials, the public and customers a realistic view of new developments, individual homes and finishes.

“This is the direction we need to go,” added Layden. “Policymakers need to understand the world stage, we need to understanding technology and what is happening elsewhere before we start building walls and implementing protectionist policies. We need to be on the right side of change.”

Copyright © 2018 Western Investor