Spruce West

Overview

Spruce West is a 6-unit, 6-storey concrete multi-family strata building located in Vancouver’s popular Fairview neighborhood. Built in 1977 on a 6,250 SF corner lot, the building comprises one large unit per floor (avg. 956 SF) each with 1 full bathroom and 1 powder room. Other building features include balconies, storage (6 lockers), elevator services, 6 underground parking stalls and surface parking. The top floor unit also features a large patio roof top deck with panoramic views of the North Shore Mountains, False Creek and Vancouver’s urban landscape.

This is a court-ordered strata wind-up sale. The 6 strata lots are owned by 5 separate owners (2 strata lots are owned by the same owner). Four strata lots are owner-occupied; 1 is rented out and 1 is vacant.

Spruce West is situated in the Broadway Corridor Plan Study Area, only 465 metres within the future Fairview-VGH SkyTrain Station. The City has undertaken a two-year planning program in order to devise a new Area Plan anticipated for Council’s consideration in late 2020. The plan will focus on opportunities to integrate development around the Millennium Line Broadway Extension among other key goals.

Deferred Maintenance

In March 2018, the strata corporation obtained a building envelope condition assessment from a local engineering firm that determined building envelope repairs estimated to cost $1,110,000 were required. A second opinion report was obtained by another local engineering firm in December 2018 that suggested the building envelope repairs could be done in 3 phases over a number of years at a total estimated cost of $1,680,525. No building envelope repairs have been completed thus far. It is reported there are ongoing active water ingress issues.

In June 2019, the City of Vancouver issued a Work Order requiring structural improvements and fire stopping to the 2 stairways in the building—no work has been done to resolve this issue. With the City’s knowledge, an engineering firm was retained to provide an opinion on the condition of the stairways. Based on the engineer’s opinion that the stairways are an immediate life safety issue, steps are being taken to install shoring in the stairways to eliminate the life safety issue along with fire stopping work to be completed as well.

Value-Add Options

1. Perform a renovation as required and hold as a 6-unit mid-rise rental building;
2. Renovate the building and sell off the condo units individually;
3. Demolish the building and redevelop as a condo or rental project.

Location

Spruce West is located in Vancouver’s Fairview neighbourhood, situated in a walker’s paradise just 4 blocks west of Granville Street on the on northeast corner of Spruce St and W 13^th Ave. West Broadway and West 12th Avenue form the major east-west traffic arteries across the city (direct bus access to UBC), while Granville Street is the major nearby north-south traffic corridor which provide access to and from the downtown core and South Richmond (YVR).

Public transportation and shopping is available in the immediate area just steps away along Granville Street and West Broadway. South Granville’s prime retail corridor is one of Vancouver’s trendiest shopping destinations and offers tenants easy access to numerous amenities, art galleries, coffee shops, restaurants, banks and theatre, to name a few.

Legal Description
Strata Lots 1 – 6, District Lot 526, Strata Plan VR. 456, together with an interest in the common property in proportion to the unit entitlement of the strata lot as shown on Form 1.