Fire-ravaged Vancouver property now a $20-million Broadway Plan 'opportunity' for developers

A Vancouver apartment building that was demolished earlier this year after multiple fires in a 12-month span is now being pitched as a "rare opportunity" for developers.

The now-vacant lot at 414 E. 10th Ave. is on the market for $20 million, with the listing from Goodman Commercial Inc. touting its potential for redevelopment with a tower up to 20 storeys tall.

The asking price is nearly $12 million more than the site's assessed value, according to BC Assessment. 

The property was valued at $8,025,700 as of July 31, 2023, with all but $60,700 of that value attributed to the land, rather than the burned-out structures that once stood on it.

A history of fires

All residents of the building's approximately 40 units were displaced when flames broke out on July 27, 2023.

At the time, some told CTV News they had gone door to door to alert their neighbours to the fire, saying the building's fire alarms went off so frequently that residents had learned to ignore them.

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services pulled several people off of upper floor balconies because smoke and flames had engulfed their apartments. 

In the days after the initial blaze, it came to light that the building's owners, Fu Ren and Feng Yan, were already involved in court proceedings regarding 20 alleged fire code violations. 

The couple was ordered to secure the building after the initial fire, but later admitted in court that the city had done so, and forwarded the $40,000 bill to them. 

Rendered uninhabitable by the initial blaze, the building burned at least three more times over the next 12 months, before the city finally demolished it in August, again attempting to stick Ren and Yan with the bill.

VFRS attributed the repeated fires at the property to squatters, who were able to gain access to the building despite it being fenced off and boarded up.

Vancity Credit Union initiated foreclosure proceedings against Ren and Yan in July of this year, claiming the couple owed it $1.6 million plus interest and had failed to maintain insurance on the property. 

Broadway Plan potential

Before the initial fire in July 2023, the property's assessed value was nearly $13.5 million, still well below the amount for which it's now being offered.

Mark Goodman, the listing agent and principal of Goodman Commercial, told CTV News the assessed value doesn't reflect the going rate for developable properties that are subject to the city's Broadway Plan.

Those properties have been selling for roughly $168 per buildable square foot, on average, Goodman said, noting that a developer would be able to construct a significantly larger building on the site than the previous apartment building that burned down.

The location is part of the Broadway Plan's Mount Pleasant South Apartment Area A, a zone that allows for up to two 20-storey residential towers per block, with a requirement that the towers be 100 per cent rental or social housing if they are built on sites with existing rental or social housing units.

Condos can be built on sites in the area that do not currently have rental or social housing units on them.

At least 20 per cent of rental units in purpose-built rental towers must charge below market rents, and at least 20 per cent of the residential floor area in condo towers must be social housing.

"The maximum height and density can potentially be increased with the provision of ground level retail/service uses or child care," the listing reads.

The listing also touts the site's location near a future Broadway Subway station at Main Street, "a short, five-minute walk from the property."

'About a dozen' inquiries

Goodman said his company has received inquiries from "about a dozen developers" since the listing went live on Monday.

He said most developers have expressed interest in building a rental project on the site.

Because the old building burned down, any development on the site will benefit from some "efficiencies" that wouldn't exist with a site occupied by an inhabited building, Goodman said.

Chief among them is the fact that the developer will not need to comply with the city's tenant relocation program, which sees developers compensate tenants who are forced to relocate when their building is redeveloped, and offer them units in the new building at their old rents or lower.

The city will still encourage the eventual developer of the property to offer its below-market units to the former tenants of 414 E. 10th Ave. who were displaced by the fires, Goodman said.

"I think that's the right approach," he said.