On Thursday, Sept. 19, the city of Vancouver held the second of three planned workshops discussing the future of downtown’s Waterfront Gateway properties. The community workshop was held in Vancouver City Hall’s Aspen Conference Room and included a short presentation followed by an informal open house.
The 6.4-acre Waterfront Gateway area encompasses the largely undeveloped properties to the south and west of Vancouver City Hall and the Convention Center/Hilton Hotel in downtown Vancouver (west of Columbia Street, south of West Sixth Street and north of the BNSF railroad berm).
The area also includes the Webber office building and parking lot (400 Columbia St.). The properties involved are all owned or indirectly controlled by the city.
According to a news release from the city, the city has begun preliminary planning for the Waterfront Gateway area in partnership with the City Center Redevelopment Authority (CCRA). CCRA will take a leading role in the project’s planning and development, and they plan to select a master developer for the properties through issuance of a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) later this year.
“Before we release information for the RFQ we wanted to find some initial ideas for the site,” said John Collum, economic development principal planner with the city of Vancouver. “We wanted to give the master developers an idea of what they’re looking at.”
Back in July, the CCRA Board of Directors and several members of the public participated in a visioning workshop in order to develop high-level concepts for the area. These concepts considered the activities, destinations and places that would make Waterfront Gateway an inviting and active district in the future, including what public amenities may be included, according to the city’s news release. SERA Architects presented several concepts during the workshop.
Collum said that three concepts came out of the July workshop and the city decided there would be a total of three visioning workshops for the project. The third one will be later this fall at a CCRA board meeting.
The Sept. 19 workshop stemmed from where the board and city left off with the concepts from the July meeting. This past Thursday’s workshop included indoor stations for attendees to visit and provide their thoughts on the three concepts. Collum said one station gave attendees the opportunity to look at images of successful downtowns around the country, and another activity asked attendees to help prioritize public benefits.
“Anything on the public side needs to be accounted for – public parking, potential expansion of the Convention Center and maybe City Hall down the road,” Collum said.
Collum said another goal of these workshops is to come up with a signature attraction for the area – something to tie the waterfront to the historic downtown core area.
With the third workshop being planned for sometime this fall, Collum said they hope to get out the RFQ by the end of the year.
Find more information about this project at https://www.cityofvancouver.us/ccra/page/city-hosts-community-workshop-downtown-waterfront-gateway-project-sept-19. Those who were unable to attend the Sept. 19 workshop may provide online feedback on the project at www.beheardvancouver.org.
