OpenForm Properties and Epta Development Corporation (EDC) have broken ground on the 339-unit Easthill rental residential community at the northeast corner of Renfrew Street and East Broadway in Vancouver.

The Easthill site was assembled through the acquisition of single-family home lots and a commercial building in 2018. The site was owned by EDC, a real estate investor and property development company owned and operated by members of the Tsakumis family. 

Vancouver-headquartered EDC has been in operation since the 1980s and has been involved with developments in a variety of asset classes in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

OpenForm is a sister company to OpenRoad Auto, one of the largest auto dealers in Western Canada. It’s been involved with commercial, industrial and residential developments over the past nine years.

EDC’s principals have long-standing relationships with OpenForm director Christian Chia and president Jason Turcotte, which made it a good fit for this development partnership. OpenForm is now the majority partner and project manager for the development.

Easthill has grown in scale

The Easthill site has gone through a number of proposed iterations over the years and has added density each time. The previous proposal before this latest one was for 15- and six-storey purpose-built rental apartments.

Both buildings have been scaled up. Easthill will be comprised of a 31-storey highrise and an eight-storey midrise building.

“We have approval in principle from council for the proposed 31-storey project,” Turcotte told RENX. “We expect to get a jump on construction by leveraging the approval we already have in place, while layering in the next step of approval for the additional height.”

Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan

The site is a five-minute walk from the elevated Renfrew station on the Millennium Line of the SkyTrain rapid transit system.

Easthill is the first development to be approved and to break ground under the City of Vancouver’s Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan, which was introduced to: 

• offer more diverse and affordable housing options;
• enhance walking, cycling and transit connections;
• protect and restore Still Creek;
• deliver more shops and services to support easy access to daily needs;
• protect and preserve land for employment;
• and expand public spaces and enhance social and cultural amenities.

What Easthill will offer

Easthill’s two Studio One Architecture-designed buildings will be connected below grade, where there will be underground parking, but it’s expected that many tenants will be car-free and use public transit. There will also be two bicycle storage stalls per unit.

There will be more than 6,000 square feet of combined ground-level retail space between the two buildings.

Amenities will include fitness facilities, rooftop social spaces and pet washing areas. Residents of both buildings will have access to all of the combined amenities.

“Our focus is on designing and executing the most comfortable homes we possibly can,” said Turcotte. “If you were to compare Easthill to adjacent buildings, it might be a few square feet bigger, on average, for each unit type.” 

Easthill will offer: 

• 69 studios ranging from 461 to 492 square feet;
• 135 one-bedroom units ranging from 479 to 614 square feet;
• 128 two-bedroom units ranging from 809 to 913 square feet;
• and seven three-bedroom units ranging from 1,056 to 1,135 square feet.

The two buildings will be built simultaneously and construction is anticipated to take 32 months.

Other OpenForm developments

OpenForm has also applied for rezoning for two highrise residential developments in Burnaby, B.C. It expects to break ground in the first or second quarter of next year for a project in the Edmonds neighbourhood while another project in the Metrotown neighbourhood will follow after that.

OpenForm will break ground within a month on a 55,000-square-foot building in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant area that will have one-and-a-half floors of light industrial space, three floors of office space above that and rooftop amenities.

There are plans for a 26-storey multifamily building with a podium on Davie Street and a 39-storey building with rental apartments, a hotel and retail space (likely a restaurant) at the corner of Melville and Bute streets in downtown Vancouver. 

“We've got our ear to the ground all the time and we're certainly looking at a lot of opportunities, but we've also got a pretty healthy pipeline in front of us,” said Turcotte. “So, our focus has shifted a little to execution.”

There are a handful of OpenRoad auto dealership sites that potentially offer future intensification opportunities. Of particular interest is a location in Port Moody, B.C. where there are three dealerships beside each other.

A partnership with another group recently acquired a site in Surrey, B.C. which may be rezoned for an auto mall.