Last week saw a boost to pending and closed sales with some new listings as well bringing the inventory to a slight tightening overall. Units are moving but sellers are finding that buyers are not really biting on overpriced listings. Units are moving in all price brackets as Kirkland Tower closed another unit as well as some entry level units in Parkview. People are flocking to Vancouver and that bodes well for the local urban condo market.

The City Council amended the agreement with LPC West for the master plan at Waterfront Gateway. It appears they got a brief extension to a deadline for the next phase of the process. No big deal. The latest estimates for any groundbreaking are 2025.

I would strongly recommend citizens of Vancouver pay close attention to the council. Often times government agencies can spend too much time pandering to special interest groups at the expense of delivering on the local promises of clean and safe streets, quality redevelopment, improved infrastructure and so on. Most of the meetings are recorded and there is public access. Pay attention because we have regular elections that are designed to ensure the people in authority are vetted and operating in our best interests. There are definitely some who have lost their way and should be shown the door in 2024. See what I did there 😉

The tower crane that will support the new 8 floor parking garage on Block 7 at the Waterfront will be up and operating in a week or two. I saw they have the base mounted in the ground and are pouring the concrete around it now. That will bring the total to seven tower cranes operating in Vancouver, six Downtown and one at Columbia Palisades. Parking garages can rise up pretty fast relative to other building types. Once that garage is complete the Waterfront can sell the remaining blocks for development that are currently being used as surface parking. As previously reported here, Block 11 is already under contract by Holland Partner Group to build a mixed use apartment building after the garage is complete.

No word on ground breaking for either Aegis Phase II for which the land transaction is already complete, or Block 21 Mill Creek Residential apartment tower at the Waterfront. On the latter the land transaction has not yet been completed. Both of these are large scale apartment projects.

In other news, The Columbian reported that a record number of vendors have signed up this year for the Farmers Market at Esther Short Park. That is good new, this market is one of the best in the region. It is already underway for the 2023 season.