Burnaby Updates

[towerseeker101]

Originally Posted by VanK

Both Telus and Dairyland are under contract with developers to my knowledge.

The large "For Sale" sign/billboard is still up on the Telus site. It's also still listed on Collier International's listings.

[VanK]

Originally Posted by towerseeker101

The large "For Sale" sign/billboard is still up on the Telus site. It's also still listed on Collier International's listings.

Yes. Hence still "under contract" = still not "SOLD".

[officedweller]

Milano
From GBL twitter today:


https://twitter.com/GBLArchitects


https://twitter.com/GBLArchitects


https://twitter.com/GBLArchitects

[osirisboy]

I like it! Thx.

[officedweller]

Here's a rendering from the Polaris Metrotown website:

Midori isn't at full height, but you get an idea of the other towers in the area.
The empty lot to the east of Polaris is the site for the Imperial (26 storeys?).


http://polarismetrotown.com/

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Here's a rendering from the Polaris Metrotown website:

Midori isn't at full height, but you get an idea of the other towers in the area.
The empty lot to the east of Polaris is the site for the Imperial (26 storeys?).


http://polarismetrotown.com/

Nice.
And three more towers to come (one mostly complete) just behind it to the East of Dunblane (.....with yet another one in the adjacent block East of them as well some time down the road).

That section is going to get seriously dense with quite the cluster of towers.

[officedweller]

Oh, that's right - the other Polygon tower - Vittorio.

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Oh, that's right - the other Polygon tower - Vittorio.

Correct.

And the 4th one will likely be for the 5 adjacent lots at the North East corner at the intersection of Marlborough and Grimer, since a rezoning application has been submitted for that parcel.

But from the size of the lot and considering the City's OCP plan, I doubt it will be a high rise or as tall as the other towers.
Probably something like a midrise in the region between 15-20 stories.
(Imperial will be 26 stories, I think. So that sounds about right).

And there's also a rezoning application for the lot at the ( south western) corner of Grimer and Royal Oak - also a midrise - but that's a bit farther away.

I would wager that most of those lowrises and walk-ups (save for one or two) in that region between Marlborough and Royal Oak (and between Kingsway and Imperial) will be bought out and developed in the next 6-8 years.

[BobLoblawsLawBlog]

In this whole cluster of Towers, I guess what we should call Marlborough, there are three sites with awkwardly placed lots.

The first being the apartment complex north of Polaris but south of The Met. It's big enough to put a tower, but it wouldn't have room for a significant podium. They would manage to squeeze something in there though.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2225713,-...tyfYkK-2PXalTMF406Y1w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The second is that red building on Nelson and Bonsor and it's neighbour. It's just a little too small to build anything by Vancouver standards, but I think it could work

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2252078,-...OdOwa8oa7_La7jHLAKKcQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The third is this row of 70s townhouses on Grimmer Street north of Vittorio. It's very narrow so I see no chance of a tower being placed, and it's already townhouses so there's no point in making new townhouses there, that's just wasteful.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2241341,-...lgzamBzxBfb-qFo6DymjA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[SpongeG]

I wonder why they put Polaris on the east corner instead of the west street/interesection.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by BobLoblawsLawBlog

In this whole cluster of Towers, I guess what we should call Marlborough, there are three sites with awkwardly placed lots.

The first being the apartment complex north of Polaris but south of The Met. It's big enough to put a tower, but it wouldn't have room for a significant podium. They would manage to squeeze something in there though.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2225713,-...tyfYkK-2PXalTMF406Y1w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The second is that red building on Nelson and Bonsor and it's neighbour. It's just a little too small to build anything by Vancouver standards, but I think it could work

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2252078,-...OdOwa8oa7_La7jHLAKKcQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The third is this row of 70s townhouses on Grimmer Street north of Vittorio. It's very narrow so I see no chance of a tower being placed, and it's already townhouses so there's no point in making new townhouses there, that's just wasteful.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2241341,-...lgzamBzxBfb-qFo6DymjA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It's my understanding that in the first and the third cases you listed, the owners of those properties didn't want to sell (or couldn't come to a common agreement or high enough percentage of owners) to developers (Polygon and developers of Polaris, Transca) hence the reason you have them so awkwardly placed adjacent to, or in between Tower projects.

I'd imagine the same case applies to the Nelson and Bonsor properties (red building) - although they are significantly older than the other properties.

With the exception of the Nelson and Bonsor lots, I doubt you'll see any development on either of those two other parcels of land since they are, as you rightly observed, too small to fit in a midrise, much less even a Tower, and it wouldn't be financially feasible (I don't imagine) to replace them with newer lowrises.

As for the Nelson and Bonsor lots, I believe you could fit a slim midrise tower on there.
I've seen slimmer lots than that developed with midrises elsewhere in places like Richmond.
It's actually an L-shaped parcel (if you combine the two lots) in roughly the same configuration as the neighbouring Met2 lot to its south, but slightly smaller, so a development there is not completely unfeasible.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I wonder why they put Polaris on the east corner instead of the west street/interesection.

If I had to guess....

Maybe it's because they still hope to be able to acquire the lot to the north of their site, currently with a lowrise (that I suspect they tried to acquire in the past but had their offers rebuffed) and sometime in the future develop it into a companion midrise tower to Polaris.

In which case they likely wouldn't be able to have two towers that close together if they had placed Polaris on that east corner and the second tower just to the north of it (and also placed far enough south from the Park tower to observe the minimum distance requirement from them.

It's just a guess, obvioulsy, but if they did try to acquire that lot a few years ago before the project kicked off, whatever it cost then, you can be sure it costs that much more now and depending on how the housing market stays hot, it will be worth even much more in the future if they were ever to go back with another offer.

But you're right; it would have made much more sense to place Polaris on the corner at Imperial and Nelson rather than at Dunblane.

[officedweller]

I have a friend who owns in the low-rise condo north of Polaris.
The have the requisite number of condo owners to sell, but Transca didn't want to buy their building.
Could have been that Transcas plans were too advanced by that point?
The owners just missed the height of the current development cycle on that block.

Anyways, the site can still hold a midrise - 15 storeys-ish?
As Sprockets mentions, that would be why Polaris is sited away from any future development on the site of the lowrise.
The tower at Imperial is also on the SE corner of that site, so there won't be 2 towers directly across Dunblane.

If the SW corner of Nelson & Imperial is ever developed with a tower, then the lowrise part of Polaris kitty corner would give it breathing room.

[Spr0ckets]

It's such a waste to have a lowrise there right now (the lot just north of Polaris), that I can't imagine they wouldn't get another developer (if not Transca) come back in again with another offer in the next couple of years.

Especially, if they do have the requisite number of owners willing to sell to push through a sale.

And yeah, a midrise would be a good fit for it and a nice transition from Park to the podium end of Polaris.

[officedweller]

Sussex
Site has been cleared.

By City of Rain Feb 17th:

Originally Posted by City Of Rain, post: 1308394, member: 70034

DSC04060 by Hung Lam, on Flickr

DSC04063 by Hung Lam, on Flickr

DSC04065 by Hung Lam, on Flickr

DSC04067 by Hung Lam, on Flickr

DSC04069 by Hung Lam, on Flickr

[SpongeG]

Milano today

2018-03-01_10-04-12 by snub_you, on Flickr

[BodomReaper]

Solterra has executed well on a finely detailed, elegant design. Way above the standard of lots of stuff downtown. Well done to all involved!

[officedweller]

Imperial Metrotown

From Quorum Group twitter March 5th:


https://twitter.com/TheQuorumGroup

[Sheba]

Prepare yourself - Burnaby has a *gasp* viewcone. From the Metrotown Downtown Plan: Phase II Consultation and Finalized Plan (it's a pdf under Council Reports if anyone wants to look at it).

Central Park North Neighbourhood: (pg 14)

...concerns were raised related to sightlines toward Central Park from north Burnaby, and of the North Shore Mountains from Swanguard Stadium. The loss of views to and from the public landmark were felt to detract from the use and enjoyment of the park.

[Metro-One]

For fuck sakes, the mountains can be seen from nearly anywhere.

What a bizarre fixation our region has... yet they allow sprawling subdivisions to scale the sides of said mountains... go figure!