Realtor rallies East Vancouver homeowners for $25-million land deal
A strip of family homes in East Vancouver has become a $25-million dream, forming two land assemblies on a street the city says it has no plans to rezone.
Nick Eagland
The Vancouver Sun
Between the 2500-2600 block of Renfrew Street, 10 homes, most of them two-storey “Vancouver Specials,” are listed at $2.5 million each, more than double their assessed value. Public records show these properties had 2016 assessments around $1.2 million.
To the east sits an office and tech hub on Virtual Way; to the south, The Art Institute of Vancouver. To the west are 40 single-family homes and just north of the land assemblies sits a developer-owned lot at 2894 East Broadway. The city is looking at an application to rezone that from commercial, where the developer hopes to put in a mixed-use building with commercial space and 37 units of secured-market rental housing.
What the realtor listing the Renfrew land assemblies — Niko Lambrinoudis of The Residential Group Realty — has planned for them is between him and the homeowners. Lambrinoudis did not return calls this week. The occupants of several of the homes said the owners weren’t home.
But Vancouver-Hastings MLA Shane Simpson said any plan appears to be speculative, likely based on a hope that someday a buyer will want to use the site for purpose-built rental.
“Certainly, having been assembled in the way that it is, the only way that it has appeal, I believe, to a buyer, is if they believe that they can build at least four storeys and probably rental because the city certainly has a focus on rental right now,” he said. “That’s the only way I see them being able to make a deal work.”
Simpson said he’s supportive of zoning for more rentals in the city but the challenge is ensuring such properties are made affordable and will offer families two- and three-bedroom units, which East Vancouver desperately needs, he said.
“The city is moving toward upzoning in certain areas, adding density,” Simpson said. “That is an object of the city, that I understand — and I expect that’s what this is — speculation.”
According to City of Vancouver spokesman Tobin Postma, the pocket of 2500-2600 Renfrew Street making up the land assemblies is zoned for single-family dwellings “with no policy for change and no intentions of changing it.”
The Renfrew-Collingwood Community Vision, adopted by city council in 2004, did not set directions for a change in zoning in this specific location, Postma said.
One of the approved directions for the vision, voted for by community members, stated: “In order to retain the basic character of Renfrew-Collingwood, most of the area that is now single family (including areas permitting rental suites) should be kept that way.”
Michelle Yu of Re/Max Real Estate Services, one of Vancouver’s top land-assembly realtors, didn’t want to comment specifically on the Renfrew land assemblies.
But speaking generally about such sales, Yu said if they’re based on a plan to apply for rezoning but do not consider city planning policy, the chances of success are “quite low” — especially if the city has already done extensive community consultation showing neighbours don’t want such changes.
“I would still encourage that if you want to do an assembly, (you) better focus on the city plan,” Yu said. “I think this area, the neighbours are very involved, to be honest with you. They’re very involved, they have lots of opinions and (the city’s community) plan is very mature.”
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