Waterfront construction stops - but not by City order
Published: Sunday, October 19, 2008
Work on the new hotel and conference centre at the North Vancouver waterfront has been halted for more than two weeks while the developer waits for subdivision approval for their extensive project.
However, Gary Penway, the city's project manager for the development, told the North Shore News, "They could be working today," He explained that the developer, Pinnacle International, is fully permitted to continue construction on the hotel and the foundations of two eight-storey buildings nearby.
"That's not us shutting them down, that's their decision to shut down," Penway said.
But Pinnacle's president Michael De Cotiis said his company needs subdivision approval to continue with their work. Construction was shut down in the first week of October.
Subdivision approval is required for all roads, utilities and amenities, as well as shoreline treatment on waterfront sites. "It's a fairly important step in the development approval process," Penway said.
At the beginning of the approval process nine months ago, the two sides had a long list of issues to be resolved, but now there are just a few remaining wrinkles to be sorted out. The city is now waiting for Pinnacle's formal submission to resolve those concerns.
"The ball is really in their court right now," Penway said.
For his part, De Cotiis said that subdivision approval is "long overdue." He said he's currently working on finalizing the company's submission. "We should be there within weeks."
Once the city has that submission, approval is possible within a week or two.
Pinnacle plans to eventually develop a total of 13 land parcels on the waterfront site, comprising a total of 1.16 million square feet of residential and commercial floor space. Once the current construction wraps up, Pinnacle will move on to developing a 20-storey condominium tower, several lower rise residential developments, and a four-storey office building.
De Cotiis said those developments will be constructed in phases, not all at once as the developer had planned when the housing market was hot.
Although the economy has hit hard times and the market is slowing down, Penway said he's not worried about Pinnacle completing their portion of the waterfront development.
"We're hopeful. It's a good project, and it's going to keep going. This is a pause, not a stoppage."
He did speculate, however, that tough economic times might have been an incentive for Pinnacle to slow down construction. "To try and market all of these units now might not be the wisest thing to try to do."
Pinnacle is also converting several heritage shipyard buildings to be used for the proposed national maritime centre.
© North Shore News 2008