A local firm filed plans for a massive mixed-use development that, if built, would include British Columbia's tallest skyscraper and help the region meet skyrocketing demand for housing and hotel rooms.
Holborn Group, a Vancouver-based developer, filed a city rezoning application for the over 3 million-square-foot project designed with nearly 2,000 condominiums and apartments, a hotel and about 135,000 square feet of conference, ballroom, retail and plaza space.
The largest tower is planned as an 80-storey hotel with an observation deck that would reach 1,033 feet, nearly 46% taller than the 62-floor Two Gilmore Place in Burnaby, the province's tallest skyscraper at just over 700 feet.
If approved and built, the development could bring thousands of homes and hotel rooms to Canada's third-largest city, which has a severe shortage of both. Population growth and a shortage of available land have made Vancouver one of the world's priciest metropolitan areas for rents and housing prices.
The Holburn proposal “sparks important debate about where Vancouver wants and needs to go as an international city,” Steve Da Cruz, managing director for brokerage Newmark’s Canada division, told CoStar News.
“This project is ambitious to say the least, but fundamentally, this project is about housing, and we need housing across the spectrum full stop,” Da Cruz added.
The region's multifamily vacancy rate has hovered between 2% and 3% despite an uptick in development, with 22,000 units under construction, which when finished would increase rental stock by about 15%, according to a CoStar analytics report.
Paul Richter, CoStar's director of market analytics in Western Canada, said the development "looks to be a fantastic addition to Vancouver's skyline" that is also ambitious and will likely take plenty of time to receive approvals and finish construction.
"It is guesswork as to when this project would be complete and what the market conditions will be at that time," Richter said. "The important thing for this development is that it must be well-timed in order not to drag out."
Holborn's proposal includes 1,288 residential condos, 273 market-rate rentals and 378 units that the company said rank as the largest contribution of affordable social housing rentals by a developer in a single project in Vancouver.
Timing is everything. Upwards of 3,000 finished condo units sit unsold today in a market softened by higher interest rates and rules prohibiting non-Canadians from buying residential real estate, Richter said.
"Hopefully, Holborn enters the pre-sale stage when there is a stronger appetite for condo units and the investment market for condo units is less restrictive," he added.
The development could also help ease a regional shortage of hotel rooms ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Greater Vancouver needs to add 20,000 hotel rooms by 2050 to meet projected demand, according to a study by the Destination Vancouver hospitality trade group.
The project, designed by Henriquez Partners Architects, which drew inspiration from ancient glass sea sponge reefs, bridges Vancouver's business district with the Downtown Eastside neighborhood.
"At its core, the project is about ambitious city-building, unlocking public benefits on currently underutilized land in a way that supports some of the city’s most urgent needs," Holborn Group President Joo Kim Tiah said in a statement.