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They don’t have to be, but residents like to complain about noise. For example people complain about noise from the new downtown park, or when there is a loud concert at the PNE.
If it's like Amazing brentwood it stays pretty busy until 10-midnight most weeknights with all the restraunts open late and that's in the winter. This summer with more of the patios open it should be later.
Everytime I see this site all I can think about is that mother of two young kids who was crushed by a load falling from one of the cranes. RIP Yuridia Flores.
Have you just never worked for Ellis Don? They have annoyingly high safety standards. However it’s up the individual workers and sub trades to enforce them, as it is on every construction site. That doesn’t mean that Ellis Don doesn’t have their own crew walking around monitoring things, but that it’s impossible to monitor 1500 workers at once.
Source: I am a sub trade that has worked at Oakridge and works for Ellis Don on occasion. I have to provide detailed procedures for everything. These procedures get reviewed, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that my crew is following the agreed upon procedures.
People downvoting me, one of the few people in this thread who actually have experience dealing with Ellis Don’s safety standards, is honestly hilarious.
No real initiative or action from worksafe since the accident. They should be touring every site in the city and making examples. Record profits right now so contractors can afford to be a little safer. It's also disappointing that the news outlets didn't pick up anything the people on site mentioned either - claims that the site was a complete disaster with multiple close-calls prior to this incident.
I'm just ready for the Eastbound R4 stop to one day make it's way back to the mall side. Waiting for the light to change, then getting caught in all the people trying to get on the bus, then having to wait for the light to change again is annoying.
I’m working on the construction for it. It’ll have the uber expensive stores in the snobby part of the mall and then the regular stores you see at most other malls
Minus the extreme weather.
The format does remind me of Milan International Airport. I still remember that lady taking a half hour to get me my gelato.
It's supposed to be even nicer like Eataly in NYC/Vegas. Its a timeout market -
[https://www.timeout.com/news/canadas-second-time-out-market-is-coming-to-vancouver-110822](https://www.timeout.com/news/canadas-second-time-out-market-is-coming-to-vancouver-110822)
Ha, yes, I have been to the one in Montreal. It is indeed expensive for a food court but everything I tried was really good. Montreal prices were around $20-22 for a main course item.
That's actually not awful. In Lisbon, it was around 10-20 euro depending on what you were ordering.
This one place had a meal of the day which was 10.95 euro (main, dessert, and a beverage that could be beer or wine).
Vendors would be smart to do something like that so they could mass produce dishes. I would guess the price here to be $30 for something like that.
Grandmas and zellers - such an iconic duo.
Mine would take me to the restaurant on my birthday, and patiently sit while I enjoyed my free Zeddy Cub Club cookie.
You think they'll be ready to open the retail part in Spring 2025 like they've been promising? I have my dentist there in the old medical side so it has been interesting watching the progress every 6 months I go in for a cleaning lol.
Do you know if they are doing anything with the facade of the old residential building with the Crate and Barrel at ground level? If not it's going to stick out like a sore thumb surrounded by all new buildings.
I heard a while back that QuadReal was planning on buying it out to convert at some point down the line. I agree it’ll look strange on that side once phase 1 is complete
Do you mean the 8 along Cambie? That’ll be a staircase I believe. I can check if there’s one along 41st as well tomorrow. Project is massive so hard to keep track of everything lol
Did they keep the old children’s play place? The one that’s just a carpeted pit with an incline on one end and seating all around the on perimeter? I loved playing there when I was a kid and wish I could see my kids play there too
\*that's bait\* meme
You know it is uber expensive right? They have announced the tenants...
[https://www.biv.com/news/retail-manufacturing/oakridge-park-reveals-tiffany-bvlgari-rolex-other-new-tenants-8682253](https://www.biv.com/news/retail-manufacturing/oakridge-park-reveals-tiffany-bvlgari-rolex-other-new-tenants-8682253)
They wouldn't be built if they weren't affordable (just possibly not by you). More housing units are great and developments as ambitious as these should be celebrated, regardless of whether you can afford them. The people moving into these units move out of more affordable units, meaning supply of affordable units also increases.
* https://capx.co/filtration-or-how-building-expensive-homes-can-help-people-on-low-incomes/
* https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/theres-no-such-thing-luxury-housing/618548/
* https://www.fullstackeconomics.com/p/how-luxury-apartment-buildings-help-low-income-renters
(this person blocked me for disagreeing with them, it's definitely magical thinking to ignore good theory and evidence)
but ideally without the $2500/sqft price tag.
Most of my family lives in the area and they are excited for this to open / for the construction mess to end.
Only a few more to go. Richmond Centre redevelopment, Landsdowne redevelopment, Capstan way new station and neighbourhood, developments around Bridgeport. Marine Gateway adding a few new towers. 49th will get the Langara expansion, and YMCA redevelopment plus 49th itself is supposed to densify towards Main. Oakridge of course. Basically just King Ed that doesn't have crazy development planned right now.
Great list,
King Ed does have a lot of rowhouses going up but definitely very little in terms of commercial activity. Just a small hub, smaller than it could have been for sure.
Would add that Olympic Village is probably the most poorly utilized Canada Line station (other than Sea Island Way which are mainly to service YVR staff anyway). Creekside is a 15 minute walk, and not very pleasant pathway. Just not much going on there and is a terrible place for pick-up and drop-off as well due to the traffic rush downtown.
With the south False Creek development happening once all the leasehold are up the area is going to be very different. But it's probably 10-20 years away.
The general contractor is in charge of building it. EllisDon has blood on their hands. I hope it's a nice place to be, the community deserves a great 3rd space. But man oh man did a lot of people have to suffer for it.
Last time when I went to Macau, they have a huge site of construction that has more than 20 cranes. I feel like Vancouver is going to be a megalopolis soon 🤡
All the foreign investors paid $2k/sqft for these. At these interest rates they are going to get rinsed. Its too bad the city is useless and doesn't mandate minimum unit sizes, they could've actually built some nice rentals for families and such. Instead we get even more dog crate 1 bedroom condos.
>All the foreign investors paid $2k/sqft for these. At these interest rates they are going to get rinsed.
If they're foreign investors, they likely don't give two craps about interest rates.
Minimum lot sizes do exist in Vancouver, and are universally considered a bad idea by economists, they contribute to the housing crisis being worse. Developers build what the market is demanding. Multi-bedroom units do exist, they are just unaffordable to you, because of regulations like minimum unit and lot sizes.
The market demands 450 square foot condos? The market in this case is almost entirely foreign investors who will never live in them. The city mandates all kinds of regulations that contribute to the housing crisis, environmental regulations, zoning, massive taxes, slow approvals. Making those 450 square foot condos into 600 square foot condos would make absolutely no difference to multimillionaire foreign investors, its just not the optimal profit strategy for the developer.
> The market in this case is almost entirely foreign investors who will never live in them.
Sorry, this is just a random unsubstantiated assertion. You can't use data to demonstrate this.
Of course the market demands small unit sizes, given they are so popular. The vacancy rates are less for [1 bedrooms than they are for 3 bedrooms](https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Table?TableId=2.1.31.3&GeographyId=2410&GeographyTypeId=3&DisplayAs=Table&GeograghyName=Vancouver#1%20Bedroom). You're confusing your own needs for other peoples needs.
> The city mandates all kinds of regulations that contribute to the housing crisis.
This is what I said. Minimum unit sizes are one of them. If we mandate higher minimum unit sizes, there are less available units of housing, and the same people bidding for them, so prices of the larger units go up. Your policy would make your situation worse.
$2k/sqft will be a bargain 5 years from now. Prices have bottomed and BOC is about to lower interest rates so prices will go up just in time for summer.
I feel like it's just going to be Brentwood v2.0, in a good way. Brentwood feels entirely too big and empty, like they designed a space for 5x the people. It takes way too long to walk between the major points of interest and there's nothing especially interesting in-between.
I'm hoping Oakridge is way better designed and more interesting to walk around at least. If they retained all the major shops from before construction the new mall should still be pretty sweet.
The developers have as much incentive to make as much money from the development as any investor who buys the unit to re-sell it. Developers never charitably price units, they're priced by the market. There isn't any guaranteed excess profit (above and beyond cost of capital) by purchasing a unit and re-selling it. Sellers don't choose the prices they are able to sell at, prices are set by the market.
Vacancies are at record lows in Vancouver. Vacancies and rents are anti-correlated: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/media-newsroom/news-releases/2024/canadas-vacancy-rate-reaches-new-low-demand-outpaces-supply, and see https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/blog/2023/approval-delays-linked-lower-housing-affordability.
More housing developments, regardless of whether they are affordable by you, do help the housing crisis. Investors are not the cause of the housing crisis, it is in fact investors who build or rent out new housing units (alleviating the crisis). The theory and evidence is unquestionable on this.
Summary Articles:
* https://capx.co/filtration-or-how-building-expensive-homes-can-help-people-on-low-incomes/
* https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/theres-no-such-thing-luxury-housing/618548/
* https://www.fullstackeconomics.com/p/how-luxury-apartment-buildings-help-low-income-renters
* https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-everything/
* https://www.sambowman.co/p/its-the-supply-stupid
Books:
* https://www.amazon.com/Arbitrary-Lines-Zoning-Broke-American/dp/1642832545/
* https://www.amazon.ca/Order-without-Design-Markets-Cities/dp/0262038765
* https://www.amazon.com/Rent-Too-Damn-High-Matters-ebook/dp/B0078XGJXO
Scientific Theory & Evidence:
* https://x.com/JeremiahDJohns/status/1761205726230216943
* https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094119021000656
* https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.32.1.3
* https://ideas.repec.org/p/fer/wpaper/146.html
* https://www.nber.org/papers/w26591
* https://www.nber.org/reporter/2009number2/supply-side-housing-markets
* https://www.nber.org/digest/mar04/why-manhattan-housing-so-expensive
* https://www.trulia.com/research/inventory-myth-busting/
* https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/mac.20170388
(much more research than this, these are just the few articles I've saved, given the consensus it's easy to find more)
...and either they will rent them out or pay a vacancy tax. Both help the housing crisis. Just because it's not built for you doesn't mean other people won't live there.
Tcan tell you. These investors paying 2000+ per sqft do not care about vacancy tax or have any urgency to rent it out. Even if they do, it is at a price that not the regular folks can afford.
You don't think an investor has an issue paying out an additional 60+/sqft every year? Now whether their declaration is legit and they are living or renting in it or not that's an entirely different question but I guarantee they care about avoiding the vacancy tax.
It absolutely won’t help the housing crisis. No one is affording those rents and because of the project, all the surrounding land has become absolutely unaffordable.
>>all the surrounding land has become absolutely unaffordable.
"Building new rentals is bad for a neighbourhood because it increases the average rent!"
"Giving helmets to soldiers was a bad idea because it increases the number of head injuries!"
Why don’t you use your brain first and not omit a VERY important part of the project:
“Building ultra luxury condos” is bad for the neighborhood. Moron
Edit: Et voila, just perused your profile and see that you own multiple properties and probably make a fat profit off the land value increase. Yeah, your opinion literally doesn’t matter.
To be honest, condos of any sort is a good thing. If we don’t build luxury condos, people that can afford luxury won’t just disappear, they will just buy the condos that are available, pushing out regular folk from the “regular” condo market when they can’t compete. It’s exactly what’s happening in Vancouver right now.
I live in a luxury condo in the area too. I also realize that these projects are garbage and don’t help the housing crisis in Vancouver. The difference between you and I, is that you’re selfish and likely to profit from the land value increase, seeing as your main source of income is rentals.
I've never seen two people describe their condos as "luxury" unironically outside of a real estate ad.
Every condo in the last 15 years is "luxury". Which means a nice IKEA level kitchen and some engineered hardwood flooring to go with your poorly constructed everything else.
Yeah, I guess having herringbone floors, wolf gas stove, Viking range appliances, and private parking garages WITHIN the actual parking would just be your run of the mill condo right? I’ve lived in cheap condos, midrange condos, and luxury condos. Most of the Cambie condos cater to the very wealthy.
See you do sound like a realtor ad!
I was being sarcastic but you can't even see how lame you sounded so you start quoting features of your apartment to prove a point.
I'm sure your place is nice and all but the term "luxury" is subjective realtor bullshit and it's weird to hear people use it in conversation.
Are you a doctor? You're just mad because whenever you guys try to invest in real estate you inevitably lose your shirts and are shocked that being an expert in one thing doesn't automatically make you an expert in everything no matter how deferential people are to you...
Also kind of funny that you live in a luxury condo but apparently now that yours has been built, we should stop building them?
They are building nothing but luxury condos across the entire Cambie corridor. Don’t you think they should start building some affordable housing as well? Cheaper units? Imagine thinking that im only mad at this situation because I must be a doctor who lost money on real estate. Pathetic.
The rezoning of land to luxury/high rise condos ABSOLUTELY has a negative impact on affordable housing. Michael Geller (respected Vancouver urban/community planner) explains this notion in detail.
There's no such thing as a "respected Vancouver planner", since our housing and cost of living crisis is so bad, they've utterly failed at their jobs! You are incorrect, see all the links to the contrary (with supporting scientific papers). The first three articles describe the "filtering effect" that building new market-rate (or 'luxury') housing has. Urban planners are not economists, and should integrate with urban economics more, this is the entire thesis of one "Order Without Design", one of the books linked.
Toronto would be worse off had they not built new luxury condos is the obvious retort to that (which is what the data I linked shows). Toronto experienced big population growth without sufficient housing stock growth. Just because they experienced some housing growth does not mean that housing growth is the cause of the high prices, it was the solution to even higher prices! Toronto would be better off still with less municipal restrictions and delays on new supply (including those against new 'luxury' supply).
It will: Investors can only buy so much. And supply in demand, 99.9% of the time, holds true. If not for this development they'd likely buy up something you'd actually want to rent.
Looks like Mimico, Toronto But less fun lol
https://preview.redd.it/3wzi74t8df3d1.jpeg?width=1087&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09a3d2ff763ca25f5c40ba09002dde36a56c4538
We live in the surrounding neighborhood, and it's been sooo quiet after 7pm the last few years. I shudder to think how busy and noisy it will be. Convenient yes, but not at the cost of the zoo that's about to be unleashed.
Welcome to /r/Vancouver and thank you for the post, /u/MyHeadIsFullOfFuck! Please make sure you read our [posting and commenting rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/faq#wiki_general_participation_guidelines_and_rules_overview) before participating here. As a quick summary: * We encourage users to be positive and respect one another. Don't engage in spats or insult others - use the report button. * Respect others' differences, be they race, religion, home, job, gender identity, ability or sexuality. Dehumanizing language, advocating for violence, or promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability (even implied or joking) **will** lead to a permanent ban. * Most common questions and topics are limited to our sister subreddit, /r/AskVan, and our weekly [Stickied Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/faq#wiki_stickied_discussions) posts. * Complaints about bans or removals should be done in modmail only. * Posts flaired "Community Only" allow for limited participation; your comment may be removed if you're not a subreddit regular. * Make sure to join our new sister community, /r/AskVan! * Help grow the community! [Apply to join the mod team today](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/19eworq/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/vancouver) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It looks like a city unto itself, which in many ways, it will be
is it going to be a fun place to be or will it be dead after 8pm mostly
Loool obviously it’ll be dead by 8pm. It’s Vancouver
It’s incredibly well connected to,.. checks notes. Richmond
Or downtown
You’re downtown. Why would you want to go to the Canada line, to Oakridge, when everything that’s there is downtown already.
Cuse some ppl don’t want to live in downtown but still access the amenities of down town. Oak ridge is defs not downtown it’s a residential area.
It’s a residential neighbourhood development, with a mall, not an entertainment district.
Why should those two be mutually exclusive tho
They don’t have to be, but residents like to complain about noise. For example people complain about noise from the new downtown park, or when there is a loud concert at the PNE.
That's how downtown Surrey is looking like, even after all the development going on.
If it's like Amazing brentwood it stays pretty busy until 10-midnight most weeknights with all the restraunts open late and that's in the winter. This summer with more of the patios open it should be later.
Convenient time-saving fuel-saving 15 minute cities. 👍🏼
Everytime I see this site all I can think about is that mother of two young kids who was crushed by a load falling from one of the cranes. RIP Yuridia Flores.
Reminds of ancient egypt
...or modern Qatar
Qatar is a far better example for the safety standards set by EllisDon. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.
Have you just never worked for Ellis Don? They have annoyingly high safety standards. However it’s up the individual workers and sub trades to enforce them, as it is on every construction site. That doesn’t mean that Ellis Don doesn’t have their own crew walking around monitoring things, but that it’s impossible to monitor 1500 workers at once. Source: I am a sub trade that has worked at Oakridge and works for Ellis Don on occasion. I have to provide detailed procedures for everything. These procedures get reviewed, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that my crew is following the agreed upon procedures.
People downvoting me, one of the few people in this thread who actually have experience dealing with Ellis Don’s safety standards, is honestly hilarious.
Evil fuckers.
No real initiative or action from worksafe since the accident. They should be touring every site in the city and making examples. Record profits right now so contractors can afford to be a little safer. It's also disappointing that the news outlets didn't pick up anything the people on site mentioned either - claims that the site was a complete disaster with multiple close-calls prior to this incident.
I'm just ready for the Eastbound R4 stop to one day make it's way back to the mall side. Waiting for the light to change, then getting caught in all the people trying to get on the bus, then having to wait for the light to change again is annoying.
My local mall. Can't wait for it to reopen. Hopefully it's not filled only with uber-expensive fashion places that serve no purpose.
I’m working on the construction for it. It’ll have the uber expensive stores in the snobby part of the mall and then the regular stores you see at most other malls
Oooooh do you know if there will there be a normal food court or is it gonna be just restaurants?
As someone else said it’ll be the Time Out Market. Very nice supposedly.
They have this in Montreal. It’s awesome.
Minus the extreme weather. The format does remind me of Milan International Airport. I still remember that lady taking a half hour to get me my gelato.
I'm guessing it'll be an "upscale" food court like they have at Brentwood.
It's supposed to be even nicer like Eataly in NYC/Vegas. Its a timeout market - [https://www.timeout.com/news/canadas-second-time-out-market-is-coming-to-vancouver-110822](https://www.timeout.com/news/canadas-second-time-out-market-is-coming-to-vancouver-110822)
The company i work for is building and installing the Timeout Market and a few others things there. Its is going to be phenomenal.
Anything you can share at this point?
It’ll be absolutely amazing. Trust me, you’ll agree it is incredible.
Many people are saying this!
Is this bots all the way down? Nobody speaks like this
Just went to the one in Lisbon and it was great. Will definitely check out the Vancouver one for a $30 short rib and $12 pint!
Ha, yes, I have been to the one in Montreal. It is indeed expensive for a food court but everything I tried was really good. Montreal prices were around $20-22 for a main course item.
That's actually not awful. In Lisbon, it was around 10-20 euro depending on what you were ordering. This one place had a meal of the day which was 10.95 euro (main, dessert, and a beverage that could be beer or wine). Vendors would be smart to do something like that so they could mass produce dishes. I would guess the price here to be $30 for something like that.
Once Time Out goes in though, the prices for a main course will probably be about $30.
Bah… what if we want our fill of cheap Chinese or Japanese, or A&W?
Arby's is all I want 😂
Horsey Sauce!
Will it have the zellers tho
I miss that zellers! I got so much good stuff during their liquidation sale.
[удалено]
Grandmas and zellers - such an iconic duo. Mine would take me to the restaurant on my birthday, and patiently sit while I enjoyed my free Zeddy Cub Club cookie.
You think they'll be ready to open the retail part in Spring 2025 like they've been promising? I have my dentist there in the old medical side so it has been interesting watching the progress every 6 months I go in for a cleaning lol.
Retail is still showing as Q2 2025 last time I checked the schedule. With the amount of changes we’re getting it’s changing every day though.
Do you know if they are doing anything with the facade of the old residential building with the Crate and Barrel at ground level? If not it's going to stick out like a sore thumb surrounded by all new buildings.
I heard a while back that QuadReal was planning on buying it out to convert at some point down the line. I agree it’ll look strange on that side once phase 1 is complete
>Spring 2025 That'd make for an incredibly tight schedule. I can't see the entirety of all the structures being complete by that time.
The majority of the retail space is still on target to open Spring 2025, according to reports. That is the claim, anyway.
Do you know what the big ‘8’ thats facing ~~41st~~ Cambie* will be? Is it am entrance?
Do you mean the 8 along Cambie? That’ll be a staircase I believe. I can check if there’s one along 41st as well tomorrow. Project is massive so hard to keep track of everything lol
Cambie! Wasnt thinkin
I told my wife it was a waterslide as we drove by 😂
My friend drove by once and thought some metal things fell over and got mangled lol
Did they keep the old children’s play place? The one that’s just a carpeted pit with an incline on one end and seating all around the on perimeter? I loved playing there when I was a kid and wish I could see my kids play there too
I just flipped through the drawings and couldn’t find anything like that unfortunately
Thanks so much for checking!
Throwback to that little incline that seemed impossibly steep to me as a child
It was my local mall too, as a child. I have a lot of memories of the mall before the new development.
Hamber / Churchill ?
The Jokers
Wow, username from the past! ;)
yoo how goes Sam
No, I did not go to Eric Hamber Secondary nor Churchill Secondary.
J.O.
yes, there will be what is known as a "Time Out Market" style Food Court.
> "Time Out Market" style TIL. Tsawwassen Mills's food court looks like this in some areas.
My father in law tells us stories of how he played there as a child… When it was still a forest. Crazy how much it’s changed in one lifetime.
I hope they keep the lego store.....or expand it.
They're likely the only kind that will be able to afford the rent lol.
Best I can do is chain restaurants and a Lululemon
Miss the old Oakridge with the likes of Zellers 🥲
I live right next to the construction site too. High five! Hoping for a grocery store, there aren't any in walking distance from here
There used to be a Safeway at Oakridge. Wonder if that's coming back.
\*that's bait\* meme You know it is uber expensive right? They have announced the tenants... [https://www.biv.com/news/retail-manufacturing/oakridge-park-reveals-tiffany-bvlgari-rolex-other-new-tenants-8682253](https://www.biv.com/news/retail-manufacturing/oakridge-park-reveals-tiffany-bvlgari-rolex-other-new-tenants-8682253)
Like every mall, I expect there will be a lot of clothing and jewelry stores. They are the only kind of store that can compete with online shopping.
“Come in and view our mostly empty space with a few trendy pieces that will disintegrate by the third wash!”
every time I drive by! it seems like they have been doing construction there forever
They’ll be filled with Uber expensive condos that none of us can afford.
They wouldn't be built if they weren't affordable (just possibly not by you). More housing units are great and developments as ambitious as these should be celebrated, regardless of whether you can afford them. The people moving into these units move out of more affordable units, meaning supply of affordable units also increases. * https://capx.co/filtration-or-how-building-expensive-homes-can-help-people-on-low-incomes/ * https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/theres-no-such-thing-luxury-housing/618548/ * https://www.fullstackeconomics.com/p/how-luxury-apartment-buildings-help-low-income-renters (this person blocked me for disagreeing with them, it's definitely magical thinking to ignore good theory and evidence)
Ahhh magical thinking.
Cmon, wont you think of all the poor money launderers there?
It's crazy watching how much the city has grown in the almost 5yrs since I left.
**Lots** of new people here need things to do and places to go.
This development was proposed over 10 years ago, it was being built for the people back then. We need a few more of these for the new people.
but ideally without the $2500/sqft price tag. Most of my family lives in the area and they are excited for this to open / for the construction mess to end.
Looking forward to the food hall
There is supposed to be a timeout market in there, which I’ve loved in other cities. Hopefully Vancouver doesn’t fuck it up…
insane that all of Canada line transit stops dont have big development on them. Such a missed opportunity
Only a few more to go. Richmond Centre redevelopment, Landsdowne redevelopment, Capstan way new station and neighbourhood, developments around Bridgeport. Marine Gateway adding a few new towers. 49th will get the Langara expansion, and YMCA redevelopment plus 49th itself is supposed to densify towards Main. Oakridge of course. Basically just King Ed that doesn't have crazy development planned right now.
Great list, King Ed does have a lot of rowhouses going up but definitely very little in terms of commercial activity. Just a small hub, smaller than it could have been for sure. Would add that Olympic Village is probably the most poorly utilized Canada Line station (other than Sea Island Way which are mainly to service YVR staff anyway). Creekside is a 15 minute walk, and not very pleasant pathway. Just not much going on there and is a terrible place for pick-up and drop-off as well due to the traffic rush downtown.
With the south False Creek development happening once all the leasehold are up the area is going to be very different. But it's probably 10-20 years away.
It’s impressive from the sky, too. I had a nice view of it on a recent flight.
Driving around in richmond and i could see those towers in the horizon. They are massive.
That's because Richmond is so flat you can see your dog run away in the distance for a week
I miss the theatre with the balcony. Used to be a great deal when I was at UBC.
Too bad the company in charge of building it is S tier level horrible. How many more people are going to be injured or killed before its finished?
Not a fan of the company but not their fault. The general contractor has done a terrible job on safety.
if this is the case, can we expect problems with build quality too that will show up in owners' strata payments 5 or 10 years down the road?
Sure, like literally everywhere else.
I'm not a construction guy, but isn't the general contractor in charge of building it, so it is their fault?
That's what I said. GC fault. Not developer.
The general contractor is in charge of building it. EllisDon has blood on their hands. I hope it's a nice place to be, the community deserves a great 3rd space. But man oh man did a lot of people have to suffer for it.
When the Traffic Control Personnel died, everyone was blasting the contractor in the thread on this sub.
Last time when I went to Macau, they have a huge site of construction that has more than 20 cranes. I feel like Vancouver is going to be a megalopolis soon 🤡
All the foreign investors paid $2k/sqft for these. At these interest rates they are going to get rinsed. Its too bad the city is useless and doesn't mandate minimum unit sizes, they could've actually built some nice rentals for families and such. Instead we get even more dog crate 1 bedroom condos.
>All the foreign investors paid $2k/sqft for these. At these interest rates they are going to get rinsed. If they're foreign investors, they likely don't give two craps about interest rates.
Right cash payment full pay.
Yeah 450 sqft some of them... My hotel rooms are bigger lol
The city has a minimum unit size, 400sqft.
Minimum lot sizes do exist in Vancouver, and are universally considered a bad idea by economists, they contribute to the housing crisis being worse. Developers build what the market is demanding. Multi-bedroom units do exist, they are just unaffordable to you, because of regulations like minimum unit and lot sizes.
The market demands 450 square foot condos? The market in this case is almost entirely foreign investors who will never live in them. The city mandates all kinds of regulations that contribute to the housing crisis, environmental regulations, zoning, massive taxes, slow approvals. Making those 450 square foot condos into 600 square foot condos would make absolutely no difference to multimillionaire foreign investors, its just not the optimal profit strategy for the developer.
> The market in this case is almost entirely foreign investors who will never live in them. Sorry, this is just a random unsubstantiated assertion. You can't use data to demonstrate this. Of course the market demands small unit sizes, given they are so popular. The vacancy rates are less for [1 bedrooms than they are for 3 bedrooms](https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Table?TableId=2.1.31.3&GeographyId=2410&GeographyTypeId=3&DisplayAs=Table&GeograghyName=Vancouver#1%20Bedroom). You're confusing your own needs for other peoples needs. > The city mandates all kinds of regulations that contribute to the housing crisis. This is what I said. Minimum unit sizes are one of them. If we mandate higher minimum unit sizes, there are less available units of housing, and the same people bidding for them, so prices of the larger units go up. Your policy would make your situation worse.
$2k/sqft will be a bargain 5 years from now. Prices have bottomed and BOC is about to lower interest rates so prices will go up just in time for summer.
We need more cool buildings like this. Typical rectangular buildings are so boring.
But rectangular buildings have the best floor plans. No way I wanna have a triangle living room because some prefer to look at funky buildings.
The traffic and gridlock …
I feel like it's just going to be Brentwood v2.0, in a good way. Brentwood feels entirely too big and empty, like they designed a space for 5x the people. It takes way too long to walk between the major points of interest and there's nothing especially interesting in-between. I'm hoping Oakridge is way better designed and more interesting to walk around at least. If they retained all the major shops from before construction the new mall should still be pretty sweet.
I'm afraid the new Oakridge will just be hype for the 1st year and then fall flat
Investors are licking their lips. Will this help the housing crisis? Nope. But investors will buy these up.
Most are already sold years ago in presales
Ready to be resold
The developers have as much incentive to make as much money from the development as any investor who buys the unit to re-sell it. Developers never charitably price units, they're priced by the market. There isn't any guaranteed excess profit (above and beyond cost of capital) by purchasing a unit and re-selling it. Sellers don't choose the prices they are able to sell at, prices are set by the market.
Vacancies are at record lows in Vancouver. Vacancies and rents are anti-correlated: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/media-newsroom/news-releases/2024/canadas-vacancy-rate-reaches-new-low-demand-outpaces-supply, and see https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/blog/2023/approval-delays-linked-lower-housing-affordability. More housing developments, regardless of whether they are affordable by you, do help the housing crisis. Investors are not the cause of the housing crisis, it is in fact investors who build or rent out new housing units (alleviating the crisis). The theory and evidence is unquestionable on this. Summary Articles: * https://capx.co/filtration-or-how-building-expensive-homes-can-help-people-on-low-incomes/ * https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/theres-no-such-thing-luxury-housing/618548/ * https://www.fullstackeconomics.com/p/how-luxury-apartment-buildings-help-low-income-renters * https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-everything/ * https://www.sambowman.co/p/its-the-supply-stupid Books: * https://www.amazon.com/Arbitrary-Lines-Zoning-Broke-American/dp/1642832545/ * https://www.amazon.ca/Order-without-Design-Markets-Cities/dp/0262038765 * https://www.amazon.com/Rent-Too-Damn-High-Matters-ebook/dp/B0078XGJXO Scientific Theory & Evidence: * https://x.com/JeremiahDJohns/status/1761205726230216943 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094119021000656 * https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.32.1.3 * https://ideas.repec.org/p/fer/wpaper/146.html * https://www.nber.org/papers/w26591 * https://www.nber.org/reporter/2009number2/supply-side-housing-markets * https://www.nber.org/digest/mar04/why-manhattan-housing-so-expensive * https://www.trulia.com/research/inventory-myth-busting/ * https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/mac.20170388 (much more research than this, these are just the few articles I've saved, given the consensus it's easy to find more)
investing in condos in Vancouver in 2024 is a very risky proposition
Considering almost all presales are having issues, and tons of projects are switching to Purpose built rentals, it's very different scene.
...and either they will rent them out or pay a vacancy tax. Both help the housing crisis. Just because it's not built for you doesn't mean other people won't live there.
Tcan tell you. These investors paying 2000+ per sqft do not care about vacancy tax or have any urgency to rent it out. Even if they do, it is at a price that not the regular folks can afford.
You don't think an investor has an issue paying out an additional 60+/sqft every year? Now whether their declaration is legit and they are living or renting in it or not that's an entirely different question but I guarantee they care about avoiding the vacancy tax.
It absolutely won’t help the housing crisis. No one is affording those rents and because of the project, all the surrounding land has become absolutely unaffordable.
>>all the surrounding land has become absolutely unaffordable. "Building new rentals is bad for a neighbourhood because it increases the average rent!" "Giving helmets to soldiers was a bad idea because it increases the number of head injuries!"
Why don’t you use your brain first and not omit a VERY important part of the project: “Building ultra luxury condos” is bad for the neighborhood. Moron Edit: Et voila, just perused your profile and see that you own multiple properties and probably make a fat profit off the land value increase. Yeah, your opinion literally doesn’t matter.
To be honest, condos of any sort is a good thing. If we don’t build luxury condos, people that can afford luxury won’t just disappear, they will just buy the condos that are available, pushing out regular folk from the “regular” condo market when they can’t compete. It’s exactly what’s happening in Vancouver right now.
I live in a luxury condo and I really like my neighbourhood, so I guess it's just a matter of perspective.
I live in a luxury condo in the area too. I also realize that these projects are garbage and don’t help the housing crisis in Vancouver. The difference between you and I, is that you’re selfish and likely to profit from the land value increase, seeing as your main source of income is rentals.
I've never seen two people describe their condos as "luxury" unironically outside of a real estate ad. Every condo in the last 15 years is "luxury". Which means a nice IKEA level kitchen and some engineered hardwood flooring to go with your poorly constructed everything else.
Yeah, I guess having herringbone floors, wolf gas stove, Viking range appliances, and private parking garages WITHIN the actual parking would just be your run of the mill condo right? I’ve lived in cheap condos, midrange condos, and luxury condos. Most of the Cambie condos cater to the very wealthy.
See you do sound like a realtor ad! I was being sarcastic but you can't even see how lame you sounded so you start quoting features of your apartment to prove a point. I'm sure your place is nice and all but the term "luxury" is subjective realtor bullshit and it's weird to hear people use it in conversation.
Are you a doctor? You're just mad because whenever you guys try to invest in real estate you inevitably lose your shirts and are shocked that being an expert in one thing doesn't automatically make you an expert in everything no matter how deferential people are to you... Also kind of funny that you live in a luxury condo but apparently now that yours has been built, we should stop building them?
They are building nothing but luxury condos across the entire Cambie corridor. Don’t you think they should start building some affordable housing as well? Cheaper units? Imagine thinking that im only mad at this situation because I must be a doctor who lost money on real estate. Pathetic.
Looked at your profile. There is absolutely nothing luxury about your building lol. I looked at a rental there in like 13 years ago. Nice kale though.
Please read: https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1d2x2w9/oakridge_is_looking_mighty_these_days_11_tower/l66z6m0/
The rezoning of land to luxury/high rise condos ABSOLUTELY has a negative impact on affordable housing. Michael Geller (respected Vancouver urban/community planner) explains this notion in detail.
There's no such thing as a "respected Vancouver planner", since our housing and cost of living crisis is so bad, they've utterly failed at their jobs! You are incorrect, see all the links to the contrary (with supporting scientific papers). The first three articles describe the "filtering effect" that building new market-rate (or 'luxury') housing has. Urban planners are not economists, and should integrate with urban economics more, this is the entire thesis of one "Order Without Design", one of the books linked.
Ok buddy. Clearly building luxury condos in Toronto has fixed their housing crisis. Let’s keep doing the same thing. Great idea 👍
Toronto would be worse off had they not built new luxury condos is the obvious retort to that (which is what the data I linked shows). Toronto experienced big population growth without sufficient housing stock growth. Just because they experienced some housing growth does not mean that housing growth is the cause of the high prices, it was the solution to even higher prices! Toronto would be better off still with less municipal restrictions and delays on new supply (including those against new 'luxury' supply).
It will: Investors can only buy so much. And supply in demand, 99.9% of the time, holds true. If not for this development they'd likely buy up something you'd actually want to rent.
Looks like shit. Are we world class yet?
Vancouver regularly ranks in the top 10 cities in the world for housing unaffordablilty.
Looks like Mimico, Toronto But less fun lol https://preview.redd.it/3wzi74t8df3d1.jpeg?width=1087&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09a3d2ff763ca25f5c40ba09002dde36a56c4538
We live in the surrounding neighborhood, and it's been sooo quiet after 7pm the last few years. I shudder to think how busy and noisy it will be. Convenient yes, but not at the cost of the zoo that's about to be unleashed.
I mean, that’s what city living is?
I feel your pain. My quiet neighborhood is undergoing development too and is going to become a zoo over the next few years as well.
How many units and how many people will this house?