A Long-Delayed Vancouver Housing Megaproject Is Closer to Reality

Concord Pacific CEO Terry Hui has finally pulled the trigger to begin the multibillion-dollar redevelopment of northeast False Creek, promising to transform the rotting stretch of asphalt between the old Plaza of Nations and Science World into an “urban village” of the city’s tallest towers overlooking a sprawling new waterfront park.

Hui’s announcement Tuesday marks the beginning of the final chapter of the largest land deal in the province’s history, the scandal-racked 1988 sale of 80 hectares of former rail yards, the site of Expo 86, to Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. The $320-million deal was intended to change the face of the city and open B.C.’s economy to Asian investment, and it accomplished both goals.

The sale to Li Ka-shing began with a private dinner with then-premier Bill Bennett during Expo 86. From that point on, provincial officials drove forward to sell the lands as a single parcel, a process that nearly came undone when newly elected premier Bill Vander Zalm did all he could to help Peter Toigo, a friend and supporter, make his own bid.

Vander Zalm lost that battle, and then-economic development minister Grace McCarthy unveiled Li’s successful proposal, with residential towers nestled among human-made lagoons, in April 1988. The continuing chaos over Vander Zalm’s interference in the sale split his cabinet and did much to destroy his government.

The Concord Pacific team promised to have the job done by 2005, but 20 years after the project was supposed to be complete, and nearly 40 years since Expo 86 accepted its last visitor, the last phase remains undeveloped, a hole in the heart of the city capable of providing homes for thousands of residents while a housing crisis rages unchecked.

The city’s Northeast False Creek Plan, developed after lengthy consultation, has been in place since 2018. (Full disclosure: as a Vancouver city councillor from 2008 to 2017, I worked closely with my colleagues and city staff to advance removal of the viaducts and approval of the Northeast False Creek Plan.)

Why Hui waited decades to complete a project that passed the halfway mark by 2000, while Concord made massive investments in markets as far afield as Toronto, London and the United States, is a question only he can answer.

“There is a sort of an alignment of the stars here at this moment,” Concord senior vice-president Peter Webb told the Vancouver Sun Tuesday, “that may cause activation of the actual development.”

If the reasons for delay are unclear, the benefits of waiting are spelled out in Concord’s statement.

“The city’s new view corridors... have significantly changed,” Concord says, “impacting our initial plans.” The result is a density windfall that is adding 20 or more storeys to taller buildings in the project, boosting overall units to 5,000 from 3,500.

Recent provincial action to reduce parking minimums will also help the bottom line for a project that is walking distance to three rapid transit stations. Concord says the “car-lite” revised plan will include more car-free space and reduced roads compared with the 2018 plan.

Company officials are quick to reject suggestions that part of the delay is due to the fact that Concord Pacific has yet to make its final payment on that long-ago land purchase.

The 1988 land sale was a three-way deal: the province sold the land and accepted liability for soil contamination; Concord pledged to build the project along with specific amenities; and the city agreed to act as regulator, establishing the planning and approving rezoning.

The rezoning will determine, once and for all, how much Concord Pacific must pay for the Expo lands under the terms of a “participation mortgage” that guarantees the province $1.50 per square foot of density achieved over certain benchmarks, multiplied by an index reflecting the increase in the value of B.C. real estate since 1988. It will not be a small number but should not be a deal-breaker for a company of Concord’s global reach.

At four million square feet, the density on this last phase is equivalent to almost one-third of all the density Concord has built on the lands since 1988. (The original plans anticipated about 12 million square feet of development.)

That “participation mortgage” cash will flow exclusively to the province, which must use it to manage the contaminated soil remaining on the site.

If Concord’s final overall density on the lands exceeds the 1988 benchmarks by two million square feet, for example, that density payment could reach $300 million, nearly equivalent to the original purchase price.

Completion of the project, called Concord Landing, offers major benefits to all three parties. Hui and Concord will finally write the last chapter in a story that started in 1988, achieving nearly twice as much density in this final phase as was proposed just six years ago.

Premier David Eby and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon will land a major private sector housing investment to house thousands of residents that flows cash to the province, although social and affordable housing goals remain to be negotiated. Mayor Ken Sim wins a major downtown development just a year before he returns to the polls.

Concord Pacific, ever cautious, is just submitting an inquiry at this stage, optimistic that the “arrival of the new planning director and council’s directives on creating housing” mean that this “significant project” can now advance to a full rezoning by the end of the year.

Before that happens, all three parties to this complex deal must come to agreement on rezoning, a final plan for creation of new road infrastructure, including removal of the viaducts, and the final payment to the province. It sounds difficult, but it happens on big projects all the time.

When the project proceeds, it will change the face of the city. Georgia Street will be connected to Pacific Boulevard on a ramp down to the creek, finally linking the waterfront to the city centre. Pacific Boulevard, rebuilt to replace the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, will curve around a new five-hectare waterfront park to Main and Terminal.

Concord Landing “will connect several of Vancouver’s key attractions and neighbourhoods,” says Webb, “including Rogers Arena, BC Place, Chinatown, the new St. Paul’s Hospital, Science World and Olympic Village.

“The new Georgia connection from downtown to the waterfront, the bustling village retail, new waterfront and massive green spaces will make this a signature attraction and will become a landmark location in Vancouver.”

The removal of the viaducts generates much of this increased value. The decision to remove the viaducts was taken in 2018, and the antiquated infrastructure, so seismically unsteady it could collapse on the SkyTrain, is closed repeatedly for special events like the filming of Deadpool.

The decision to remove the viaducts opened space for a much larger waterfront park, created new connections to Chinatown and freed up two city blocks on either side of Main Street for more city housing on the one-time site of the Black community’s Hogan’s Alley.

Only 24 when his friend Victor Li purchased the Expo lands, Terry Hui is now the only original player in that long-ago 1988 land sale who remains actively involved. In fact, as sole owner of Concord Pacific, Hui can decide the fate of this project on his own.

The rezoning application is only the first move in what will be a tough and complex negotiation, but all three sides must focus on an agreement or risk leaving a critical part of the city a dead zone for years to come. Let’s hope Webb is right about the “alignment of the stars.”

For Hui, trained as an engineer and a physicist, the intervening years since 1988 have been spent at the pinnacle of the city’s power elite as he grew Concord from its Vancouver beginnings to a global real estate company with diversified interests in digital technology and renewable energy. To relax, he likes to sponsor and campaign state-of-the-art yachts in global sailing competitions.

Now he seems to be coming full circle, back to his company’s beginnings on False Creek.