Vancouver’s Curv condo tower, expected to break ground in 2024, is anticipated to set several records when it completes in 2029.
Not only is it slated to be the tallest residential tower in Vancouver, but at 60 storeys, it is scheduled to be the tallest Passive House building in the world, and is the first B.C. project for Montreal-based developer Brivia Group, architect Tom Wright from London-based WWK Architects and designer Andres Escobar of New York-based Lemay id.
The Curv site, where condo apartments will start at $1 million and which will feature the largest penthouse – 7,500 square feet – in the city, also has a unique history as one of the wildest real estate flips in Vancouver.
The Curv is being built on a 0.37-acre infill site at 1059-1075 Nelson Street that is the highest point of land downtown.
Back in March 2016, the site, which then contained two 70-year-old walk-up apartment buildings, was bought for $16 million. It was flipped weeks later for $60 million and then resold within a month for $68 million to China-linked Hensen Developments Ltd. in a share-sale.
That pencils to nearly $4,000 per square foot just for the raw land costs.
The site was transferred as a share sale, which avoided the provincial property purchase tax.
In June 2020, Hensen achieved rezoning approval from the City of Vancouver for a 585-foot-high energy-efficient tower with a total of 501 housing units, including 350 luxury condos, 102 social housing units and 49 market rentals.
The total floor area is 427,000 square feet, giving the project a floor space ratio density of 24.7 times the size of the 17,300 square-foot lot.
In April 2021, Hensen sold the land and the approvals to Montreal-based Brivia Group, which then announced the Curv tower.
Brivia won’t release the price they paid for the site, but suggested it is higher than what Hensen bought the land for five years earlier.
At 60 storeys, Curv will be at least five times taller than the typical Passive House tower. The building will save up to 90 per cent of heating and cooling energy when compared to similar buildings. This will result in approximately 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission savings annually compared to similar high-rise towers, equivalent to 2.3 million trees or four Stanley Parks, said Jacky Chan, CEO of BakerWest Real Estate.
Brivia Group chose Vancouver as the site for the project due to the city’s high environmental aspirations, said Vincent Kou, the group’s chief investment and development officer.
Curv fits into the City of Vancouver’s plan to transition to zero-emissions buildings in all new construction by 2030.
The building offers a blanket of insulation, with no thermal bridges or weak points in the buildings envelope that allow heat to pass. It will also have windows that prevent radiation and solar gain, with the ability to block up to 99 per cent of UV rays through triple-pane electrochromic glass, more popularly known as smart glass, Chan said.
All this comes with a cost.
Brivia estimates that a 610-square-foot one-bedroom condo will cost approximately $1,700 per square foot, or $1 million. The penthouse will cost about $8,000 per square foot, or $60 million.
The development has begun pre-sale marketing and will open its presentation centre to the public at the end of May.
