Just last week, construction on yet another project in the Vancouver area began – construction on the six-story Hurley Development Condo Office project at Columbia Street and 1st Street near the rail berm in downtown Vancouver.
“It’s going to be a beautiful building,” said Ryan Hurley, CEO of Hurley Development, LLC. “Because it is the gateway of Vancouver, it’s important for us architecturally to design something that reflects who Vancouver is and where Vancouver is going. It’s got a contemporary shape and designs, and it’s still keeping a relationship with the Northwest in mind.”
Hurley said the project is going to be a five-over-one, for a total of six stories. Each office space is just over 7,000 square feet per floor. He said Hurley Development is taking one of the floors, and they currently already have four of the five remaining floors sold, although he said he is not ready to name the tenants just yet. One remaining floor is still for sale.
“Why we did condo offices, in particular, was because we saw a gap in the market for companies that want to own their own real estate in this area, it’s very limited and the land is very expensive,” Hurley said. “By doing it as condo offices, we didn’t have to compete with the Waterfront, and it allows smaller businesses to have a real estate and owned-asset presence in a very limited market/area of downtown Vancouver.”
Hurley said their general contractor for the project is Talents Construction, and they are excited to have them on board to construct the building. He said he expects it to take about eight months to construct the shell and an additional three to four months to construct the rest. The hope is to have tenants moving into their space in about 10 to 12 months.
Hurley said there will be parking under the building, and each floor will have its own deck to the outside.
Chad Eiken, director of Community Economic Development for the city of Vancouver, said the office tower is proposing to provide 17 parking spaces at the ground floor. He said the building itself is 32,500 square feet, and accounting for a reduction in the number of required spaces that applies to projects in the downtown area, only 24 spaces are required to be provided. Also, he said if there are adjacent on-street spaces to commercial uses in the downtown area, those spaces are allowed to be counted toward the minimum required number of parking spaces. However, those can’t be reserved for their sole use.
“It looks like the development will meet the minimum parking requirement,” Eiken said.
Hurley said that Hurley Development has a lot of property up around the area that this new commercial condo project is being constructed, including the property on the other side of the berm that’s touching the bridge.
“Pacific Energy Concepts, the building they’re in, we built that and sold it to them,” Hurley said. “We’re also doing the Hyatt Hotel to the north of that. All of that property, several parcels are being developed. It’s a gateway project, and it’s rare to have a gateway project. We’re excited to play a significant role in helping shape and identify this new Vancouver that’s emerging.”
