Daniel Boffo says it’s been a disheartening 48 hours.
Only two days ago the principal of Boffo Properties and Nancy Keough, executive director of The Kettle Society, announced their years-in-the-making redevelopment plan for a site at Commercial and Venable was dead. It could have produced a 12-storey building featuring 30 supportive housing units, an expanded drop-in centre for the society and 200 market condo units.
Boffo and Keough blamed the city’s expectation of a cash community amenity contribution (CAC) of between $6 and $16 million over and above the supportive housing units and drop-in centre that would be provided.
Reaction has been mixed — some blame the city and its real estate department for asking for the cash CAC, others suggest the developer wanted to make too much profit. City staff also stressed to reporters that the developer never actually filed a rezoning application, which would have sparked formal CAC negotiations.
“It’s disheartening such a beautiful partnership wasn’t able to move forward and get it done,” Boffo told the Courier Thursday afternoon.
As for critics’ suggestions that Boffo Properties wanted to earn too much profit, he said its goal was the standard 15 per cent.
“When you’re looking to have a partnership between a non-profit entity like the Kettle and a for-profit developer like ourselves, it would be disingenuous for me to say we wouldn’t be looking to make a profit. That’s how we do our business,” he said. “However, we’ve always been up front when reviewing the pro formas (project financial plans) with the city and the Kettle… We always indicated 12 storeys was our break-even at a return that the city also agreed was acceptable.”
Boffo maintains there was never a suggestion along the way that a cash CAC would be required outside the social benefits being provided within the project.
While Boffo considered his development with The Kettle Society to be innovative, he said it also followed a precedent. He pointed to a project at 1155 Thurlow St. between Central Presbyterian Church and Bosa Properties that provided 168 market rental units and 45 social housing units where the city didn’t require an additional cash CAC. (The City of Vancouver says the two projects differ because 1155 Thurlow was an entirely secured rental project).
Although Boffo acknowledges a formal rezoning application wasn’t filed, he said they worked through a “rigorous pre-application rezoning process” over the last two years in addition to work that was done for five years previous to that. Discussions included advanced negotiations on the CACs, he said, while adding third-party groups also reviewed the pro forma.
A draft rezoning application was ready to go in March of 2017, he added, but it was shelved so they could spend another year reviewing the pro forma and getting into detailed discussions.
Boffo estimates they’ve spent about $1.5 million on the project to date.
“To move forward with a rezoning application — I don’t have an exact figure but between the application fee, the cost to produce drawings and models, and team time, you’re in the hundreds of thousands,” he said. “The rationale wasn’t there to make a rezoning application after the city was quite clear where they stood. To make an application, spend all that money and get to the same disagreement in a year’s time was concerning.”
Boffo also questions the city’s suggestion it offered what amounted to a $12-million grant to the Kettle for the project. He’s not aware of that happening and he addressed that point in a “setting the record straight" update he posted online June 21.
The city hasn’t contacted Boffo since news of the project cancellation broke Tuesday and Boffo doesn’t see how it could move forward.
He isn’t sure what will happen to the buildings in the project that Boffo Properties owns.
“It was a tough decision to stop, to close the book. We don’t take no for an answer very well. We worked hard side-by-side with the Kettle. We love the Kettle and we’re definitely a life-long partner of theirs,” he said.
“I need a break… to think about what’s next. We don’t know. There’s opportunities to move forward within the existing zoning but we don’t know what we’re going to do. We don’t know.”
No Tower Coalition issues statement about project
The No Tower Coalition, which fought the proposal over concerns about height and density, says it’s relieved the project has been cancelled in a statement issued June 21.
“The NO TOWER Coalition in Grandview-Woodland reacted with considerable relief this week, on learning that a proposed 12-storey Boffo/Kettle tower project on a key corner of our community has been shelved,” the statement reads.
The Grandview-Woodland community plan, which was approved in 2016, included a clause allowing council to consider up to 12 storeys for the development.
The coalition disputes Boffo-Kettle proponents’ suggestions that the project was broadly welcomed by the community, pointing out the coalition collected 4,433 signatures on petitions opposing the 12-storey project.
Members also posted “No tower” signs in the neighbourhood before the community plan vote.
“The coalition also gathered hundreds of postcards written by community members, articulating deep concerns about the proposal, which were presented to Vancouver City Council,” the group says.
Neighbourhood reaction was mixed over the years. The Grandview-Woodland Citizens’ Assembly, which drafted recommendations for the community plan, didn’t reach consensus on what height should be allowed, although 16 members signed a “minority report” backing the project.
Boffo Properties also pointed out in years past people within the community and within the city backed the proposal — they collected more than 2,200 pledges and letters of support from individuals and organizations.
However, the coalition’s concerns included what impact the project would have had on neighbouring property values and the resulting loss of nearby affordable rental buildings.
“The Coalition has always supported the aspirations of the Kettle Friendship Society, to provide much-needed services. But on balance, the tower proposal’s many negative impacts on Grandview-Woodland did not make it a welcome approach,” it stated in its missive.
Now that the project has been cancelled, the community group proposes the city portion of the site, which could have been included in the development, be provided to the Kettle Society at a nominal cost for construction of a six-storey building for Kettle services and non-market and low–end-of-market housing.
The coalition also wants the existing Commercial Drive street frontage adjacent to the proposed development, between the development and Uprising Bakery, to be turned into a pedestrian piazza.
“The Coalition stands behind these two very practical and achievable ideas. It’s time the City of Vancouver looked at directly providing city lands for community and housing uses, rather than relying upon massive and intrusive developer-led projects such as this destructive Boffo/Kettle tower idea, to get much needed social services,” its statement concludes.
For its part, the City of Vancouver, says it's still open to work with The Kettle Society. However, the No Towers Coalition proposal is speculative at this point and it would need time to consider what the implications would be.
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