Vancouver council approves controversial Commercial Drive rental tower project

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 11, 2025 10:05 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 11

Vancouver metropolis assembly has voted to o.k. the rezoning of a tract adjacent the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station, which is acceptable to adhd much than 1,000 lodging units crossed 3 towers.

Westbank Projects Corp. and Crombie REIT, connected behalf of Snowcat Property Holdings, brought guardant the connection successful 2023 to redevelop the tract astatine 1780 East Broadway, which presently houses a Safeway supermarket and a car park.

There person been proposals to redevelop the tract arsenic acold backmost arsenic 2019, and present that rezoning has been approved, the arguable rental towers volition proceed arsenic planned.

They scope successful tallness from 36 to 43 storeys in an country that consists mostly of single-family homes, duplexes, low-rise apartments and retail buildings.

WATCH | Long nationalist proceeding for redevelopment: 

A marathon nationalist proceeding saw implicit 100 radical speech to assembly astir the project, with critics saying the gangly towers would pb to inflated spot values successful the country and that they would not beryllium affordable for a bulk of Vancouverites.

Ultimately, however, a bulk of councillors voted successful favour of the project, peculiarly talking up an accompanying retail abstraction — including a market store, bureau and commercialized space, a city-owned child-care facility, and a nationalist plaza moving parallel to the SkyTrain station.

"I don't privation to spot this tract stay undeveloped for different 10 oregon 20 years," Coun. Lucy Maloney said. "I privation to spot a aboveground car parkland replaced with implicit 1,000 homes."

The units volition beryllium built crossed the 3 towers. Ten per cent of them volition beryllium secured astatine city-wide mean rental market rates and the different 90 per cent listed astatine prices of the developer's choosing. 

Maloney acknowledged that galore speakers astatine the nationalist proceeding expressed interest astir the affordability of the housing, but said "if this task fails, determination volition beryllium nary affordable homes astatine all."

Coun. Sean Orr said helium thought utilizing city-wide mean rents for the 10 per cent of much affordable units was flawed, fixed however sky-high rents are successful Vancouver.

"We request rental units, but I'm worried that we are giving the developer treble the tallness and we're not seeing the afloat nationalist benefits that we could beryllium seeing astatine the site," helium told council.

Orr was the lone councillor who voted against the proposal, with Coun. Pete Fry abstaining and Coun. Brian Montague absent.

Application nether assemblage plan

The application was considered nether the Grandview-Woodland Community Plan.

A referral report from metropolis staff notes that the exertion "exceeds the anticipated tallness and density expected successful the plan," but "otherwise mostly meets the intent of the plan."

Proponents of the program argued that the metropolis was successful dire request of rental spaces, with 1 advocator adjacent playing the accordion successful metropolis assembly during the nationalist proceeding to promote councillors to ballot successful favour.

"There's zero displacement of renters. It's mostly conscionable a parking lot," said advocator Peter Waldkirch in a statement.

However, the megatowers besides faced crisp criticism.

Speaking against the proposal, caregiver Nancy Hay asked assembly to ballot for rezoning applications guaranteeing astatine slightest 20 per cent below-market rental units, saying that galore of her coworkers successful the health-care assemblage could not spend to unrecorded successful Vancouver owed to skyrocketing rents.

"I wonderment if these monoliths, these projected monolith towers, are going to location workers ... who are these workers going to be?" she asked.

"They volition not beryllium my coworkers — health-care workers, laboratory technicians, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, to sanction a fewer occupations ... the projected rent, arsenic you've heard, is mode excessively expensive."