City of Vancouver green lights overhaul of West End rental building Berkeley Towers
Reliance Properties is offering remaining tenants at Berkeley Tower a financial payout that between double and triple the cash amount stipulated by city guidelines
Joanne Lee-Young
The Vancouver Sun
Developer Reliance Properties said the City of Vancouver has issued the development and building permits it needs to go ahead with a large-scale overhaul of Berkeley Towers, an older rental building on a prime corner overlooking English Bay in Vancouver’s West End.
The company said the massive renovation will take three years and require the building be vacated. It will be issuing eviction notices to remaining tenants in the next month and this will set off a four-month countdown to tenants having to be out of the building by March 31, 2020.
About half of the tenants in the 58-unit building have left, said Reliance.
On Friday, when Postmedia spoke to several tenants who still live in the building, all were considering their options and declined to speak on the record.
Tenants may choose a compensation offer based on the City of Vancouver’s tenant relocation plan, which offers cash based on length of tenancy and stipulates the developer identify three alternative rental units of the same size in Vancouver or in the same area at rates comparable to what they were paying or what the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation records as the average rent in the area for the previous year.
Or, they may choose to take a financial buyout offered by Reliance, which in some cases is double or nearly triple the value of the City plan. Housing advocates, however, describe these payments as seemingly generous, but meaning little when tenants then face a future of years of sharply escalating rents and fewer affordable units.
Amendments were made to the City’s tenant relocation plan in June, at least partly in response to tenants at Berkeley speaking up after the civic elections in November 2018 and a new council voting to strengthen scrutiny and compensation over “renovictions.”
Tenants at Berkeley who choose to take compensation based on the city’s plan will only be covered by the old requirements, which call for the equivalent of two months rent for every five years of tenancy to six months rent for over 20 years tenancy.
The plan amended in June allows for an increase equivalent to four months of rent for up to five years of tenancy and up to 24 months of rent for over 40 years of tenancy. There are also new requirements for developers to assist low-income tenants secure affordable housing or non-market options by either offering another unit in one of their other properties or some other interim measure.
Jon Stovell of Reliance Properties said his company’s financial offers were two to three times more than the cash compensation numbers required by the city’s original plan and still well over what is stipulated by its amended plan.
“There is a focus on a move-out plan, not a how to keep your accommodation plan,” said Coun. Jean Swanson. “A lot of it is still vague. There is a lot of ‘may consider’ and the wording (of the plan) isn’t strong enough.”
Stovell said if tenants choose to take the compensation set by the city, which is less money, but includes being presented with three alternative options for renting a similar unit, Reliance owns “some older buildings in the West End, in which some units may rent at the average and we will advise the tenants of these opportunities if and when they arise.”
But one tenant who spoke to Postmedia said he was waiting to hear from Reliance about what these three alternatives could be and that it was hard to make a decision without clear details.
Reliance bought the 60-year-old building three years ago at the height of the real estate market. The scope of its renovation project has been expanded to include a seismic upgrade, building code upgrades and a full fire sprinkler system.
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