BURST
One of the oddest sights in Vancouver is an abandoned gas station at 711 Beach Ave.
What makes it odd is the location — at the foot of Vancouver House , one of Vancouver’s most luxurious condo towers. It’s the twisting building beside the Granville Street Bridge that looks like the bottom has been partially scooped out.
A penthouse at Vancouver House is currently for sale for $6.8 million. A “private cellar storage room” is for sale for $288,000.
And next door is a former filling station behind a chain-link fence with weeds growing up through the asphalt. Its four gas pumps have been gutted, a rusty remnant from the industrial era of False Creek.
There has been plenty of online speculation about the site and why it wasn’t included in the Vancouver House development.
Some say an old guy owned the site and wanted a fortune for it. An alternative theory is that it was bought by offshore investors that wanted to flip the property for a big profit.
In any case, Vancouver House’s developer Westbank built just north of the gas station site. The 59-storey building at 1480 Howe was completed in 2020.
The property at 711 Beach was used as a service station for Black Top Cabs for decades. Black Top’s parent company, Beach Place Ventures, sold it in 2011 for $6.5 million to a numbered company that subsequently changed its name to Vantage Pacific Developments.
The first director listed for Vantage Pacific is Cheuk Bun Kam, whose address is 141 Des Voeux Rd., an office building in Central Hong Kong. The other director is Joanna Kostanski, a lawyer who is listed as the company’s president and secretary at 1400-1125 Howe St.
Reached by phone, Kostanski said she didn’t have any information about what is happening with 711 Beach, “and even if I did have (information), I am not free to talk about it.”
Urban planner Robert Renger has studied the Vancouver House development, and said a 2010 City of Vancouver report “anticipated” Westbank “would assemble the whole block,” including 711 Beach.
But when Westbank submitted a rezoning invitation for the Vancouver House site, 711 Beach was excluded.
“It probably would have been the most expensive land for the whole assembly,” Renger speculates. “(But they were) able to do his building without assembling it (into the project).”
The city sold part of the property where Vancouver House was built for $32.4 million in 2014. Renger argues that was only 25 per cent of what the land was worth after it was rezoned.
The problem for the owner of 711 Beach today is that, on its own, the site is relatively small and has limited development potential. This is reflected in its assessment. In 2018, the property was assessed at $8.9 million, in 2026 it was assessed at $3.5 million.
Properties such as this are sometimes referred to as “orphan” sites. Another example would be 1186 Granville, a single lot sandwiched between the Dance Centre at 688 Davie and The Luugat, a supportive housing building at 1176 Granville that used to be the Howard Johnson hotel. It is assessed at $2.1 million.
There are also some prominent empty sites such as 1401 Robson, a grassy knoll that includes four lots assessed at $31.3 million.
Another potential problem for 711 Beach is that it is an old gas station, and the soil on the site may have to be remediated before any redevelopment can take place.
In an email, a spokesperson for the city said “depending on the type of development proposed and applicable policies, a building on the site could potentially be up to six to eight storeys in height.
“The final form and height of any redevelopment would be determined through the city’s review process and would need to respond to site-specific considerations, including neighbouring buildings and urban design guidelines.”
Neighbourhood resident John Cuddy was walking by 711 Beach when approached by a reporter and photographer. He was a bit bemused when asked what he thinks about the old gas station.
“Is it going to be memorialized?” he said with a smile. “Do you think they’re going to donate it to the Museum of Anthropology or something? I think so.
“It should be treasured. It should be cocooned and kept for another century, and then released. And everyone will think, ‘What was everyone doing in those days? Filling their cars up with gas.’”
