BURST
Five years after Vancouver’s Army & Navy department store closed its doors, city planners are backing a dramatic remake of the crumbling, historic Downtown Eastside site with two highrise towers — even as they admit the plan doesn’t conform with the city’s own development policies.
In a city staff report going to council Tuesday, city planners are recommending councillors send two rezoning applications to a public hearing, clearing the way for a 39-storey rental tower on West Hastings Street and a 20-storey mixed-use hotel tower on West Cordova Street. Together, the buildings would add 738 rental homes to the neighbourhood, including hundreds of below-market units.
The project is from Army & Navy Properties in partnership with local developer Bosa Properties. The proposal marks the retail company’s first foray into real estate development.
Brian Davie, president of the Gastown Residents Association, said the proposal has stirred mixed feelings among residents in the neighbourhood.
While many are excited by the idea of the Cordova Street tower, particularly its inclusion of a boutique hotel and the decision to preserve historic facades, Davie said opinions are more divided on the height of the Hastings tower.
“A lot of people would prefer the Hastings tower to be lower because of the view that will be lost with a building that tall,” Davie said. “But we’d rather have the building taller than not at all.”
The staff report says the scale of the towers could set a precedent for further highrise rezonings in the area, which has long been protected from such development, potentially affecting the area’s historic character.
The north building, with its main entrance at 36 West Cordova St., is considered one of Vancouver’s most historically significant structures. Built in 1888, the building — known as the Dunn-Miller Block — once housed the city’s first synagogue and is protected under a heritage designation bylaw. The southern buildings at 15-27 West Hastings St. are not listed on the city’s heritage register.
On West Cordova, city policy discourages preserving heritage buildings by keeping their facades only. Under the rezoning plan, the Cordova tower would do just that, with 219 rental homes, a 179-room hotel, street-level shops and an indoor public atrium on the ground level tucked behind the preserved street fronts of three historic Gastown buildings.
However, city staff report Bosa’s estimated $11.4 million investment in restoring the facades is a major public benefit.
On the Hastings side, the highrise would loom over Victory Square. The Downtown Eastside Plan limits new buildings to 10 storeys, but the proposed tower would rise to 39. It would include 519 rental homes, including 108 below-market units operated by the B.C. Indigenous Housing Society, as well as ground-floor retail shops, discounted commercial space for a non-profit, rooftop amenities, and a skybridge linking it to the Cordova Street highrise.
The current proposal replaces a 2023 plan that called for shorter buildings of 19 and 11 storeys, with fewer housing units.
Davie said breaking ground on the site is important, especially following what he described as the recent “gut punch” of the London Drugs store closing in the neighbourhood, next to the Downtown Eastside.
“We’re all fighting for our neighbourhood to come back alive again,” he said.
The city received roughly 240 public comments on the project, reflecting a mix of support and concern, with many people backing new rental housing, increased economic activity and revived storefronts, while others raised worries about the towers’ height, policy conflicts, heritage impacts, and the risk of gentrification and displacement.
After years of sitting empty and deteriorating, the former Army & Navy buildings could finally be brought back to life. In the report, city staff note the site has been vacant since 2020, with no realistic redevelopment option under current rules, and describe the proposal as a chance to revive a landmark property while adding badly needed rental housing in a neighbourhood with few vacancies.
“While the proposal is not consistent with several existing policies for the Downtown Eastside and Gastown, staff have concluded that … the public benefits associated with securing a large number of rental housing units and reactivating a long-vacant site warrant consideration of the application.”
Both buildings would include at least 20 per cent below-market rental housing, with most of those units located in the Hastings tower. The plan also includes 2,500 square feet of below-market commercial space for a social enterprise or a non-profit, aimed at continuing Army & Navy’s long-standing role serving low-income residents.
“The new project’s commercial ground floor, as well as the proposed uses and public benefits will provide an opportunity to reactivate the public realm and generate new activity in the area,” the city report states.
“Therefore, staff have determined that the impact of the two rezoning applications are balanced by the redevelopment opportunity and public benefits.”
City council is expected to refer the rezonings for consideration at a public hearing in the coming weeks.
— with files from Dan Fumano