Downtown South area grew faster than anyone had expected

Derrick Penner
Sun

VANCOUVER – Vancouver city council has approved a 37-per-cent hike in development fees to raise $58 million for public amenities in the downtown south neighbourhood, which has transformed more rapidly than expected.

Some 15,000 people now live in an area that city planners thought would only be home to 11,000 by 2016, with a lot more children than expected.

And with further development expected to increase that population another 10,000 by 2021, the city has revised its official public amenities strategy to provide more childcare spaces, more social housing and some of the park spaces it wanted carved out of downtown’s concrete jungle when it first laid out the plan in 1992.

To pay for the plan, the city is increasing development cost levies on downtown residential development almost 37 per cent, to $13 per square foot from $9.50.

The new fees, which will take effect in November 2008, are expected to generate $58 million.

That’s 71 per cent of the $81 million the city needs to complete the planned new package of public amenities by 2021. The balance of the money would come from city capital funds.

City planner David Ramslie said the 1992 public amenities plan called for development fees to account for 40 per cent of the amenities’ cost, with the balance to come from provincial or federal governments.

“Just because of the speed of development [in downtown south], and the fact we’re only covering 40 per cent of costs, we realized that we need to rejig this plan to make sure we’re supplying some amenities here and readjust our rates to make sure we’re going to deliver everything,” Ramslie said.

On a map, downtown south looks like a series of overlapping rectangles within the area between Pacific Boulevard and Robson Street, and Homer Street to Burrard.

The city hasn’t completed the initial list of amenities it envisioned in the 1992 plan, but Ramslie said progress has been made on some of them, and “in the next 10 years, you’ll probably see delivery of pretty substantial amenities in the area.”

Under the new plan, the amenities will include:

– 1.54 hectares of parks. The first part of Emery Barnes Park (.36 hectares) at Davie and Richards and a small .17-hectare park at the Nelson and Mainland have been created. Another .53 hectares have been acquired to complete Emery Barnes.

However, this is short of the 2.8 hectares the city wanted to create when the plan was first drawn up in 1992. Rapid inflation of land prices and the rapid pace of development have made it difficult for the city to secure park sites. Cost of the park plan to the city is $25.4 million.

– 1,238 units of social housing. The city has created 533 units of the 688 units that the 1992 plan envisioned would be needed to replace single-room-occupancy units lost. Cost to the city of the housing plan is $39.8 million.

– 323 childcare spaces. Some 74 spaces of the 189 that the 1992 plan called for have either been secured or funded. However, with census data showing that five per cent of downtown residents are children, more are needed. Cost to the city is $9.84 million.

– A greenway along Helmcken street and improvements to transit. The greenway is intended to partially mitigate the shortfall in park creation. Cost to the city is $6.12 million.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Increase shows labour market is adjusting to growing demand, minister says

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

The value of current and proposed major B.C. construction projects shot up 37 per cent in the past year to $124.2 billion, according to the B.C. government’s latest Major Projects Inventory.

The report said the value of projects already under construction hit the $48.7-billion mark during the first quarter this year, up from $46.5 billion during the last quarter of 2006.

The number of existing and proposed projects worth at least $15 million — or $20 million in the Lower Mainland — has increased 13 per cent in the past year to 804.

Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen said the fact that the value of new projects has increased faster than the actual number of new projects indicates bigger developments are being proposed throughout B.C.

A total of 38 new projects, worth $4.6 billion, were proposed during the first quarter this year and half of those developments are in the Lower Mainland.

Highlights of the new proposals include the $1-billion Colwood Plaza project near Victoria, featuring housing for 2,800 people, along with office towers and a performing arts centre. The B.C. Institute of Technology in Burnaby has proposed a $500-million expansion, featuring 650,000 square feet of new space.

ASPAC Developments proposes a $750-million residential development at No. 2 Road and Dinsmore in Richmond while the four-hectare Quattro residential project at King George Highway and 108th Avenue in Surrey is valued at $600 million.

The report said construction began on 29 new projects during the first quarter, with a total value of slightly more than $3 billion. The largest project started was the $780-million Summerland Hills Resort, followed by the $272-million Deltaport expansion.

Two more Olympic Games projects also started construction during the quarter — the $100-million multi-purpose facility at Hillcrest Park in Vancouver that will host curling during the Games and the $95-million Olympic Village in Whistler-Callaghan Valley.

Nineteen projects worth a total of $1 billion were completed during the quarter, including the $172-million Life Sciences Centre at the University of B.C.

Hansen said rising costs and labour shortages have delayed several construction projects but doesn’t feel it’s a “chronic” problem right now, noting the value of projects being built in B.C. rose by more than $2 billion in the past three months.

“If the value of construction was flatlining, that would clearly indicate we’re being impeded from getting on with projects because of labour shortages,” he said in an interview. “But the increase in the value of construction shows the labour market is adjusting to the growing demand.”

Statistics Canada reported a record 194,000 people were employed in the B.C. construction industry last month, up from 191,000 in March.

Vancouver Regional Construction Association president Keith Sashaw said construction employment in the Lower Mainland has shot up from 60,000 to nearly 100,000 in the past three years.

“The industry has responded but today’s construction schedules still aren’t the same as they were three years ago,” he said. “It takes a little longer to complete projects now.”

Sashaw said costs have started to moderate and are forecast to increase by six to eight per cent this year.

THE BIG ONES

The Ministry of Economic Development defines major construction projects in B.C. as anything over $15 million in capital costs (or over $20 million in the Lower Mainland). Here are some the largest projects listed in the ministry’s latest quarterly report:

RECENTLY COMPLETED

UBC’s Life Sciences Centre $172 million*

Centrepoint Development (Burnaby) $130 million

Collingwood Village Condos (Vancouver) $100 million

GETTING STARTED

Summerland Hills Resort (Summerland) $780 million

Roberts Bank Container Expansion (Delta) $272 million

Miramar Village Condos (White Rock) $250 million

PROPOSED

Colwood Plaza Development (Colwood) $1 billion

Residential at No.2 & Dinsmore (Richmond) $750 million

Quattro Residential Development (Surrey) $600 million

*all figures estimated

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Kelowna, Kamloops and Nanaimo likely to see more, CMHC reports

Derrick Penner
Sun

The Lower Mainland’s seeming addiction to condominium living will continue to spread to other desirable regions of the province, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reports in its latest British Columbia forecasts.

While overall housing starts in B.C. are expected to decline from 2006 levels, multiple-unit housing construction this year and next will approach, if not outpace, levels of single-family construction in Kelowna, Kamloops and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, CMHC regional economist Carol Frketich says, and for a lot of the same reasons.

“It’s a combination of cost — higher land prices do contribute — but it’s also a lifestyle choice,” Frketich said in an interview.

Kamloops and Nanaimo are increasing in popularity as alternate retirement destinations, and condominiums require less yard maintenance and upkeep and are more secure when owners want to go on vacation for a couple of months at a time.

However, on cost, Frketich added that keeping housing “at a price that people will buy is the main motivator behind that move to multi-unit starts.”

“There is no sense in building housing that people can’t buy, and this is a response on the builders’ side to bring forward product that people can buy.”

In Kamloops, for instance, the average home price will climb 17.2 per cent to $305,587 in 2007 compared with 2006.

Kamloops multiple-unit housing starts are also expected to jump almost 26 per cent in the city to 250 units, compared with a 6.4-per-cent decline in single-family-home starts to 450 units.

In Nanaimo, where the average price has hit $314,848 in 2007, up almost eight per cent compared with 2006, multiple-unit housing construction is expected to climb 36 per cent to 375 units.

The single family home will still be the top choice of Nanaimo residents with a forecast 485 to be built in 2007, but that will be almost five per cent fewer than 2006.

And in Kelowna, where the average price has reached $379,008 in 2007, 16 per cent higher than at the same point in 2006, Frketich said multiple-unit housing construction is set to exceed single-family home building for the third year in a row.

Frketich is forecasting 1,450 new multiple-unit starts in the Okanagan city, up 11.4 per cent from 2006. At the same time, she expects 1,050 single-family homes to be built, a 6.4-per-cent decline.

Provincewide, CMHC’s spring forecast is little changed from its fall 2006 expectations, though Frketich said that as 2007 unfolds, B.C.’s employment picture is stronger than she predicted it would be last October.

Frketich is forecasting 34,700 total new-home starts in 2007, a 4.8-per-cent decline from 2006. In 2008, 32,300 new-home-starts, another 6.9-per-cent drop.

Frketich said she expects mortgage rates to edge up in 2008. Rates will remain historically low, but she expects they will put a dent in housing resales, which will spill over into less demand for new homes.

She added that for the past few years, B.C. has been building new housing faster than its population growth warrants. And as employment growth slows, Frketich expects new housing construction to remain at a still relatively high 30,000 units per year over the next five years.

 

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Province

B.C.’s multibillion-dollar building frenzy continues unabated. The latest major projects inventory released yesterday says there were 804 major capital projects worth an estimated record $124.2 billion planned or underway in B.C. in the first quarter of 2007.

It is the 15th straight quarter of inventory growth and every region in B.C. experienced growth from the same period last year. The number of projects, 711, increased by 13 per cent. There was a 37-per-cent jump in total value to an estimated $90.6 billion.

Published quarterly by the Ministry of Economic Development, the inventory includes projects with a capital cost of at least $20 million within the Lower Mainland and projects valued at $15 million or more in the rest of B.C.

The capital cost of all major projects under construction in the province is estimated at $48.7 billion, up from $46.5 billion in the last quarter of 2006.

Some 19 projects completed construction in the first quarter valued at approximately $1 billion, the largest being the $172-million life sciences centre at the University of B.C.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Mansion dwellers tell tales of humble beginnings

Christina Montgomery
Province

It’s new money, not old, that’s driving an increase in high-end home sales in Canada, says a new survey by Royal LePage Real Estate.

Almost half the owners of luxury homes polled in the 2007 Carriage Trade Luxury Properties study — 47 per cent — said they’d risen from humble beginnings. One-quarter of the wealthy homeowners owned two properties, the survey found.

Six per cent owned three residences and two per cent own more than five properties, said poll results released yesterday.

In B.C., the survey focused in Vancouver, where multiple offers were the norm on luxury homes.

Sales of homes priced over $1 million rose by 24 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 — from 544 to 673 — over the first quarter of 2006.

Homes typically sold within 30 days, and waterfront homes continued to be the most coveted.

The highest spike in luxury-home sales was in Ottawa, with increases of more than 200 per cent and a third of the buyers from overseas.

The 2007 Carriage Trade Luxury Properties Report included a market analysis of trends in eight major cities across Canada, combined with a national Ipsos Reid poll that measured the attitudes, upbringing and beliefs of high-net-worth Canadians — defined as individuals with assets of at least $250,000, excluding real estate, and a primary residence valued at a minimum of $500,000.

n Almost half (46 per cent) credited hard work for their wealth, followed by the drive to succeed (27 per cent) and a higher education (18 per cent). Only four per cent chalked their success and their financial stability to being born into the right family. A mere one per cent cited luck.

n The majority said they started from modest beginnings. Asked “What was your economic status growing up?” only three per cent picked wealthy/affluent; 79 per cent said lower middle class or middle class upbringings. Four per cent said they rose from poverty.

n Sorted by occupation, 13 per cent were entrepreneurs, 10 per cent were CEOs and senior executives, 10 per cent were doctors, seven per cent salesmen and three per cent lawyers. About a third — 32 per cent — were retired, enjoying the fruits of their labours.

The survey, which accounted for regional variances in markets, is considered accurate within six percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Howe & Davie, downtown Vancouver

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