585 Bridgeport Rd | 40fl | 133.1 m

[ZEBuilder]

Vive is proposing a new three tower development at the corner of Bridgeport and Lancaster just down the street from their existing Lancaster project. The properties involved are 585 Bridgeport, 518 Lancaster and 514 Lancaster. It's across Bridgeport from the Tim Hortons and next to the Shell.

Overall the towers proposed are 34 36, and 40 floors, ontop of a 6 floor podium. The site will contain 1165 units, split between 1 bdrm, 2 bdrm, and 1 bdrm + den configurations.

The proposed development will have an FSR of 13.0, many projects within the downtown core aren't hitting that. The site plans to have a parking ratio of 0.86 spaces per unit and 0.07 visitor spaces per unit.

Nothing beyond that is public at this point but additional information will be public in the coming weeks.

[panamaniac]

Community response will likely urge lower density, more parking, and some 3 bedroom units. My prediction.

By the way, three towers on one podium or each tower with its own podium? Huge project either way.

[ZEBuilder]

Community response will likely urge lower density, more parking, and some 3 bedroom units.  My prediction.

By the way, three towers on one podium or each tower with its own podium?  Huge project either way.

The community may be upset with it but Vive has their other project just down Lancaster with similar heights closer to existing low rise residential. Thus they have precedent for something of this scale. Now one could argue it is a bad location given the relative isolation with respect to the rest of the city but it is certainly a interesting node developing if everything goes ahead that is planned.

Given the site size I would guess that it's going to be separate podiums (2.82 acres), a typical tower size is 750sqm to 1000sqm which even taking the larger floor plate is still under an acre in size for all 3 towers. The only way I could see it being on one is if Vive is protecting for some future phase down the road but I would expect some surface parking.

[plam]

Community response will likely urge lower density, more parking, and some 3 bedroom units.  My prediction.

By the way, three towers on one podium or each tower with its own podium?  Huge project either way.

I used to bike by that corner all the time (which was a terrible ride). Parking kind of is an issue, especially since it's not like that area has any walkscore at all. 3br units would also be useful...

That is indeed a lot of units.

[westwardloo]

Since this is a Vive project, I expect the buildings to be Precast concrete with no thought to the overall design on top of a 5 story grey, black and white precast parking garage podium. Aka Hideous. which is too bad because the building across the street from this are precast, but look nice.  

I guess i will wait until more information is public, but I do not have high hopes for this.

[tomh009]

Given the site size I would guess that it's going to be separate podiums (2.82 acres), a typical tower size is 750sqm to 1000sqm which even taking the larger floor plate is still under an acre in size for all 3 towers. The only way I could see it being on one is if Vive is protecting for some future phase down the road but I would expect some surface parking.

An acre is about 4000 m2, so 11,000 m2 (1.1 hectares) with 2,250-3,000 m2 of that covered by podiums? Mixing SI and imperial units drives me crazy. 🤪

[ZEBuilder]

Since this is a Vive project, I expect the buildings to be Precast concrete with no thought to the overall design on top of a 5 story grey, black and white precast parking garage podium. Aka Hideous. which is too bad because the building across the street from this are precast, but look nice.  

I guess i will wait until more information is public, but I do not have high hopes for this.

Precast like any material has its practical limit, generally you'll see precast buildings top out around 25 floors. It's certainly possible to use precast taller than that but it becomes more difficult to do so. Often you'll start to require cast in place elements so the benefits of precast start to go out the window.

You may see this built as CIP with precast wall panels as the external cladding which is more common in taller buildings and can still look pretty good.

[westwardloo]

Since this is a Vive project, I expect the buildings to be Precast concrete with no thought to the overall design on top of a 5 story grey, black and white precast parking garage podium. Aka Hideous. which is too bad because the building across the street from this are precast, but look nice.  

I guess i will wait until more information is public, but I do not have high hopes for this.

Precast like any material has its practical limit, generally you'll see precast buildings top out around 25 floors. It's certainly possible to use precast taller than that but it becomes more difficult to do so. Often you'll start to require cast in place elements so the benefits of precast start to go out the window.

You may see this built as CIP with precast wall panels as the external cladding which is more common in taller buildings and can still look pretty good.

I agree that precast panels done right can look great, If and this is an important if. They hire a professional Architect that cares about aesthetics not just making money. Unfortunately I have seen very few Stubbe precast buildings that look good. I believe Vive uses Stubbe's for most of their recent builds.

[timc]

The community may be upset with it but Vive has their other project just down Lancaster with similar heights closer to existing low rise residential. Thus they have precedent for something of this scale. Now one could argue it is a bad location given the relative isolation with respect to the rest of the city but it is certainly a interesting node developing if everything goes ahead that is planned.

Where is there a 40 story tower on Lancaster?

[ZEBuilder]

The community may be upset with it but Vive has their other project just down Lancaster with similar heights closer to existing low rise residential. Thus they have precedent for something of this scale. Now one could argue it is a bad location given the relative isolation with respect to the rest of the city but it is certainly a interesting node developing if everything goes ahead that is planned.

Where is there a 40 story tower on Lancaster?

It's not yet built but Vive (as part of a JV with Corley) has gotten the 528 Lancaster project approved at the ZBA/OPA stage. That project went through three different iterations the last being 5 buildings ranging from 10 to 34 floors. With the first building constructed at 8 floors but because it got approved at a greater density one could move it to another building.

Hence there's precedent for buildings this tall in the area, 34 and 36 aren't audacious asks with the 528 project being closer to the existing low rise residential. 40 while being taller isn't much of an ask when it is further from the low rise.