Prima Properties is putting faith in rising demand from local condo buyers as it gears up for a fall launch of a major downtown Vancouver residential tower.
Prima recently announced its latest plans to launch Monogram. It’s a 49-storey, mixed-use high-rise located at the corner of Burrard and Davie streets.
Permitted under the City of Vancouver’s higher building policy, the tower will have 260 strata condos ranging from one bedroom to three bedrooms, plus 50 rental units. It will also include a mix of commercial units as well as a 49th-floor, 1,860-square-foot rooftop lounge for residents.
“We feel it’s a good time for local buyers to get back into the downtown market,” David Buddle, vice president of Prima Properties, said in an interview with RENX.
Prima Properties is a development company based in Vancouver that has been operating for more than 40 years. Among its past high-rise residential projects in Vancouver are Laguna Parkside and Musee.
Vancouver’s changing presale condo market
Buddle said additional interest rate cuts from the Bank of Canada this year would hopefully motivate more local buyers to purchase homes in “an amazing neighborhood in a very central spot, downtown”.
The presale condo market has changed, he said. Since the introduction of Monogram, much of the interest has been local with less demand from international buyers and investors.
Many buyers have been cautiously waiting on the sidelines, he said. “We’re confident that there’s going to be a lot of end users in the building.”
The building will feature a city-operated daycare with outdoor play areas, four retail spaces, office space, a ground-level cafe/bistro and a public art plaza as part of its community amenity contribution package.
Monogram will also serve as the hub for a community arts and culture centre managed by the City of Vancouver that will provide space for non-profit arts and culture organizations.
The southwest exterior features a series of automatic solar shades that will display a pixelated mosaic.
“The shades will drop automatically as the sun hits them, to stop solar gain within the suite, but also create a visual animation outside,” Buddle said. From the exterior, the shades will depict the North Shore Mountains. Residents can manually open their unit’s shades if they desire.
The team behind Monogram includes Merrick Architecture, Ste. Marie Studio and VIRANI Real Estate Advisors.
‘Long process’ finally gives way to launch
Last month, Monogram was reported by real estate media to be among four downtown condo projects with stalled rezoning processes, with the developers requesting to extend the final (and conditional) rezoning window with the city.
When asked to clarify the decision to move forward now with the project, Prima’s team said the initial rezoning for Monogram occurred during COVID, and the city processing times were longer. It took time to work through the legal agreements for the on-site day care, the cultural hub offices and public corner plaza.
Buddle confirmed to RENX his team is ready to go before council this fall to proceed with enacting the rezoning for the site.
“It’s been a long process to get through,” Buddle said. Prima has owned the property since the early 2000s. It was eventually converted into a community garden as the firm waited for the West End Plan to develop.
“After that, we started talking to the city with letters of enquiry and then we landed on what we could build there.” He said the site allows for additional height, although it was designed to fit within the city’s view cone requirements, resulting in unique angling of the tower.
Buddle said Monogram is now taking registrations from interested buyers as the process moves toward launching sales later this year. The presentation centre has just been completed in the neighbourhood.
Pre-sales report suggests shift to end-users
MLA Canada’s latest pre-sale report mirrors Buddle’s own observations – that the market is shifting to owner-occupiers.
“The market shift towards end-users, due to a decline in presale investors, has increased demand for well-amenitized, well-located homes larger than one-bedroom units,” the report states. “Surrey, Langley, and Coquitlam led the market, accounting for over half of the launches during this period.”
In the first half of this year, 68 presale projects launched across the Lower Mainland, introducing nearly 8,600 units, the July edition of MLA’s report said. Those released units achieved a sales rate of approximately 33 per cent, with 2,824 homes sold.
MLA predicts roughly 42 additional project launches in the second half of the year. “While this reflects a 17 per cent increase from 2023, it remains 15-25 per cent below the activity seen in 2021 and 2022.”
MLA said sales velocities are slow with longer sales programs, “suggesting increased market competition and inventory accumulation until broader recovery is expected with interest rate improvements by late 2025 to 2026”.