BURST
Vancouver city council has approved zoning for a project at Vancouver General Hospital that will include two new towers to house long-term seniors care to address Vancouver’s aging population.
The redevelopment — across the street from VGH at 900 and 990 West 12 Avenue — moves into the next phases of planning and development after zoning approval.
The land — home to the aging Windermere Care Centre, and a three-storey rental apartment building — was bought in 2022 by the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation, a charity.
The redevelopment will include 280 long-term care beds, a new outpatient clinic and a plaza where people can gather and visit relatives.
According to the rezoning application, tenant relocation is underway because the new development will not include any residential suites.
In what the foundation calls “the largest investment of its kind in health-care infrastructure in Canada, the redeveloped towers will also provide expanded clinical and office space.
The first phase of the project is estimated to cost around $400 million, and will focus on a 26-storey tower with 156,318 square feet of clinical space for transplant clinics, hematology programs, surgical oncology, seniors’ care, women’s health, complex medicine, cardiac innovation, and diagnostic services.
The first phase will also include the new 280 long-term care beds, adding to the existing 207 long-term care beds at the Windermere Care Centre, for a total of 487 beds when completed. Windermere Care Centre will remain operational until the second phase of the project.
The project’s first phase is expected to get underway in 2027 and be completed by 2031. The foundation is still in the process of raising the money for the project through donations and debt financing, and hasn’t said when it expects to start phase two.
While the foundation will continue to own the property, it intends to enter into long-term lease agreements with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, with money from the leases going to the charity’s health care services.
In November, Vancouver city council approved sweeping zoning changes aimed at speeding up the development of thousands of parcels of land in the Broadway and Cambie corridors.
The reforms aim to simplify development by eliminating the need for property owners to apply for rezoning on a project-by-project basis in many cases, instead allowing them to proceed directly to a development permit application. The changes will apply to 4,292 parcels of land along the Broadway subway line, currently under construction and expected to start running in 2027, and the Cambie corridor, where the Canada Line opened in 2009.
With files from Stephanie Ip and Dan Fumano