Between 2000 and 2005, the number of businesses in the BIA grew by 31.4%, significantly higher than average for Vancouver (20.3%) or the GVRD (13.8%), largely due to growth in the Coal Harbour area.
Physical Profile
The existing Davie Village BIA is centrally located within the City of Vancouver – approximately 2.5 kilometres from City Hall and adjacent to downtown. The 3.5 block BIA is home to 57 commercial properties and 222 businesses. The new umbrella BIA would be approx. 1.2 sq. km2 and house 343 commercial properties and 1,223 businesses. The West End is known for its vibrancy, population density and gay-friendly culture. The BIA and surrounding area has a significant number of structures listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register. Key elements of the BIA’s physical profile are discussed below.
Zoning Mix
The existing Davie Village BIA comprises over 12 acres of land, 490,000 square feet of commercial area and 386,000 square feet of residential area. Information on the other areas is not currently available.3 City of Vancouver records indicate that the existing Davie Village BIA consists mainly of Commercial Zoning: C-5, Multiple Dwelling Zoning: RM-5A as well as Comprehensive Development Zoning: DD and CD-1 as illustrated in Figure 2. While complete records are not available for the rest of the BIA, the remaining commercial area is comprised of primarily C-5 and C-6 commercial zoning. There is an emphasis on the external design of buildings to be oriented to the pedestrian within the BIA.
In terms of assessed value, the Davie Village BIA ranks twelfth highest among Vancouver BIAs.4 The total 2005 assessed value of its commercial properties was $113,825,874. This represents 4% of the value of all Vancouver BIA properties outside of Downtown and contributes over $1.8 million in property taxes. Combined with properties outside of the existing BIA, the total value is significantly higher.
top
Age and Quality of Buildings
The existing BIA contains a mix of old and new developments.5 While 38% of commercial buildings were constructed between 1971 and 1990, many others (31%), were constructed between 1946 and 1970 when the West End experienced significant densification. Over one-quarter were built pre-1946 (27%), and only 4% are 1991 or newer, most of which are in the Coal Harbour area. Figure 3a illustrates the complete breakdown.
A significant number of pre-1946 buildings have been renovated such that only 18% reflect pre-1946 standards, as Figure 3b illustrates.
Lease and Vacancy Rates
Retail/commercial vacancy rates in the umbrella BIA are low, however office space is relatively plentiful.6 All-in per square foot office lease rates range from $23 (2nd floor, no view) to $38 (19th floor, spectacular view). The average rate is in the range of $25. Reflecting the low vacancy rates, all-in retail asking rates range from $55 to $90 per square foot.
Development Potential
With a large residential base, the new umbrella BIA has significant potential for success. The existing Davie Village BIA is comprised primarily of C-5 commercial zoning. The exceptions are the northwest and southwest corners of Davie and Burrard, which are zoned DD (downtown comprehensive development). However, most of the existing buildings within the BIA are one-story, circa 1950-1960 developments. With C-5 zoning, there is significant redevelopment potential in the area that is not being advanced, likely due in part to the solid rental revenues that landlords continue to realize from the retail and service businesses that occupy their buildings, many of which are long-term tenants. The cost and time to consolidate and redevelop these lots with required parking facilities currently exceeds the value that would be generated from the potentially higher rents.
A notable recent development exception to the above is in the 1100 Block of Davie, where the commercial (street) level of the circa 1970s Sandman Hotel has been redeveloped and occupied by popular and growing retail and restaurant outlets including Starbucks, Moxies Classic Grill and Kin’s Farm Market.
Between the western edge of the existing Davie Village BIA and Cardero Street, where the new At English Bay section would begin, development is primarily residential (RM-5 and RM-5A) with pockets of CD-1 commercial. From Cardero to Denman, zoning is primarily C-5 commercial with a few CD-1 developments. This area is comprised of larger, stable commercial developments (London Drugs, Safeway, BC Liquor Store and the Sands Hotel). Most of this area is built out. Along Denman, the profile is similar to the existing Davie BIA, with single-story commercial developments on the west side and a mix of 1950s commercial developments on the east side, some of which contain second story residential and/or commercial. Denman also hosts a number of newer developments, including the Coast Hotel/Denman Place Mall (900 Block Denman) as well as the 800 Block of Denman where the old Bay (Starlight) Theatre was redeveloped into two-storey commercial in the early 1990s.
The At Stanley Park area is in transition, with a number of potential re-developments. A small lot at the northeast corner of Robson and Denman is cleared and for sale. The old BC Liquor Store in the 1700 block of Robson is closed and set for development. Further up Robson, a number of lots are cleared and ready for development or have been redeveloped in the past five to seven years. These developments tend to be mixed use commercial/residential, reflecting the C-5 and C-6 zoning of the area, and is one of the few areas in Vancouver to date where second story retail has been successful. This area is an important bridge between downtown and the residential West End, and could see significant transformation over the next decade, provided that strong market conditions continue.
The Coal Harbour area (primarily CD-1, with pockets of DD) has been the focus of residential and commercial redevelopment west of Burrard Street in the past 10 years. Commercial development in the area is primarily service commercial and eating/drinking establishments. Most of this area is now built out. The exception is the south side of Georgia Street from Alberni to Robson (RM-5C and RM6). North of Georgia Street, the Coal Harbour area is largely and very recently built out. A primary area of focus for the BIA could be on creating and marketing an identity for this new area. The area bordered by Robson, Nicola, Georgia and Bidwell has some development opportunities, particularly for office/residential developments.
With the exception of parts of Denman Street, the West End area generally lacks destination retail/commercial facilities. Reflecting the development potential discussed above, this is not likely to happen from development capital. Rather, the new BIA may benefit from focusing on service-based retail/entertainment packages, with a trolley car and/or self-guided walking tour to help create this experience. This retail/entertainment package would stand as a contrasting complement to the upper Robson high-fashion destination market.
There is also substantial opportunity to capitalize on the anticipated growth in Vancouver tourism as a result of the 2010 Winter Olympics. With a substantial number of mid-range hotels, the umbrella BIA has a significant advantage if this opportunity is marketed smartly.
Business Mix
The zoning mix and commercial building structure of the umbrella BIA primarily supports service and retail establishments with some finance, insurance and real estate. The majority of businesses (54%) in the BIA are ‘micro’ sized – less than five employees, although there is a significant number (34%) of businesses with 5-20 employees in the area. Major business types include eating and drinking establishments as well as business, personal and health services, engineering and management services, miscellaneous retail, and food stores, as described in more detail below.
>
Business Types
Similar to the average for the City of Vancouver and GVRD, the umbrella BIA is primarily comprised of service and retail businesses as Figure 4 illustrates. However, the BIA has significantly more than average retail businesses as well as more finance, insurance and real estate businesses, perhaps due to its proximity to downtown and high rental density. Table 1 on the previous page provides a detailed breakdown of business types for the BIA area as compared with the City and GVRD. As the table shows, the BIA is home to proportionately fewer wholesale, manufacturing and construction businesses than average for the City or the Region.
Of the 41% service-related businesses, the most common are "engineering and management services" (17%), "personal services" (17%), "health services" (11%) and "business services" (17%), as outlined in Table 2 below. Of the 36% retail businesses, most are eating and drinking places (55%), miscellaneous retail (17%) and food stores (12%) also illustrated in Table 2.
As for individual business types, there are a significant number of restaurants (199) as well as apartment/condominium businesses (46), beauty salons (31), attorneys (30), retail grocers (22), travel agencies & bureaus (22), dentists (21), hotels & motels (19), coffee shops (18), architects (15), accountants (13), women’s apparel (12), cleaners (12), business management consultants (12), internet service (11), provincial government offices (11), retail bakers (10), financial planning consultants (10).
Business Size
The umbrella BIA is primarily comprised of ‘micro’ sized businesses with less than 5 employees (56%), followed by small sized businesses with 5-20 employees (36%), as Figure 5 illustrates.
Several larger businesses exist including:
Businesses with 500-999 employees:
- Westin Bayshore Resort-Marina
Businesses with 250-499 employees:
- West End Community Centre
Businesses with 100-249 employees:
- ACL Software
- Cardero’s Restaurant & Marina
- Milestone’s Restaurant
- O’Doul’s Restaurant & Bar
- Romano’s Macaroni Grill
- Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites
- Listel Vancouver Hotel
- Pacific Palisades Hotel
- Lang Michener Barristers
Age of Businesses
Reflecting the West End’s history as a commercial and residential area in Vancouver, many businesses in the BIA (33%) have been operating for over 10 years. However, also reflecting recent development of the Coal Harbour area, and propensity for turnover in some areas, 27% of businesses in the BIA are only 1-2 years of age. Figure 6 on the previous page provides more detail on the distribution of business ages. Long-time businesses provide a stable market base, while fresh new businesses are increasing the area’s appeal for destination shoppers.
Anchor Tenants/Dominant Businesses
Anchor tenants in the BIA vary by area. For the existing Davie Village BIA, the major anchor tenant is Shoppers Drug Mart. At English Bay, anchor tenants include London Drugs, Safeway and the Liquor Store. At Stanley Park, anchor tenants are The Bike Shop and Capers. For the Coal Harbour area, primarily comprised of new eating and drinking establishments, the current anchor tenants are Carderos restaurant and the Bayshore Hotel.
The umbrella BIA’s major business clusters include:
- restaurants and coffee shops
- apartment and condominium sales and rentals
- beauty salons
- attorneys, accountants and financial planning consultants
- retail grocers and bakers
- travel agencies & bureaus
- dentists
- hotels and motels
- architects
- women’s apparel
On a percentage basis, the umbrella BIA has significantly more eating and drinking establishments and real estate services than average for the City and GVRD. It also has fewer special trades contractors, wholesalers, health services and membership organizations than is typical for the City and GVRD. While the BIA enjoys a broad range of businesses types, research conducted by the Davie Village BIA7 indicates that the area caters perhaps too much to cost-conscious consumers, and that a variety of mid-market specialty stores would be welcomed. Two specific services include a butcher shop and shoe store.
Change in Business Mix (2000 to 2005)
Between 2000 and 2005, the number of businesses in the BIA grew by 31.4%, significantly higher than the Vancouver average of 20.3% and the GVRD average of 13.8%. This growth primarily came from development of the Coal Harbour area, as other parts of the BIA are relatively stable. Growth in businesses occurred in every sector as follows:
- construction – 7 businesses (78% increase)
- public administration – 12 businesses (71% increase)
- finance, insurance & real estate – 47 businesses (58% increase)
- wholesale - 10 businesses (40% increase)
- manufacturing – 5 businesses (36% increase)
- retail – 106 businesses (32% increase)
- service – 95 businesses (24% increase)
- transportation, communication & utilities – 5 businesses (10% increase)
In terms of sub-industries, the fastest growing in the BIA were eating & drinking places (84 businesses), real estate (30 businesses), personal services (25 businesses), business services (21 businesses), health services (12 businesses), executive, legislative and general government (11 businesses) and amusement and recreational services (10 businesses). Figure 7 provides a complete breakdown of the top 10 fastest growing sub-industries in the umbrella BIA, as defined by Statistics Canada.
Demand Potential
Demand potential comes from three primary sources – residents in the area, umbrella BIA employees, and other employees in the surrounding area. In addition, businesses in the area are exposed to thousands of daily commuters and inner city residents traveling by bus, bike, foot and car. Each of these potential customer groups is discussed below.
Residential Base
Just over 44,900 residents live within the BIA’s primary catchment area (everything west of Burrard Street) and provide the primary market base for businesses. The umbrella BIA’s residential base is a vibrant, densely populated community of highly educated primarily young adults. The area is comprised of more residents with British, Eastern and Western European, Canadian, East/Southeast Asian and French heritage than average for the City of Vancouver. English is the dominant household language for area residents, although Japanese, Korean, Farsi and German are also commonly heard. The area has significantly fewer Chinese-speaking residents than average for Vancouver or the GVRD.
Household sizes in this area are smaller than is typical for the City or the GVRD. While more families are moving into the area, it remains primarily a single/couple area. With a higher proportion of apartment type dwellings, the area is also home to a much greater percentage of renters.
West End residents exhibit lower household incomes than the Vancouver or GVRD average. This may be in part due to their propensity toward sales and service-oriented occupations and smaller household sizes. A companion document, West End – Neighbourhood Market Report provides more detail about this important market segment.
Employee Base
Approximately 12,700 people are employed within the proposed umbrella BIA. An additional 37,300 work nearby,8 and provide an additional potential market base for businesses in the umbrella BIA. The BIA employee base has increased by 22% in the past five years, slightly below the increase for all businesses west of Burrard (25%).
Pedestrian and Vehicle Traffic
Several major transportation corridors run through the BIA, including Georgia Street, Robson Street and Pacific Boulevard, providing exposure to thousands of daily commuters. As Figure 8 indicates, Georgia and Denman Streets see more than 20,000 vehicles per day, while upper Davie sees over 16,000 (yellow and green areas on the map). With street parking and frequent bus service, businesses in the BIA have some potential to tap into the high traffic volumes on the major routes and capture "through-traffic" as customers.
However, the majority of the area’s market is comprised of thousands of local residents as well as destination gay and lesbian visitors. In a recent survey for the Davie Village BIA, 80% of West End businesses ranked local residents and others who live nearby as their most important customers, while almost 17% ranked the gay, lesbian and transgender community as their most important market.9 During the summer, the BIA’s proximity to Second Beach and Stanley Park also makes it attractive to local and international tourists.
The City of Vancouver also conducts pedestrian counts for approximately 250 blocks in the city, with the majority being in the downtown area. The most current pedestrian information available is for 2002. The representative locations selected by the City for the existing Davie Village BIA are the 1000-1200 blocks of Davie Street. At English Bay, the representative locations selected by the City are the 800, 1050 and 1200 blocks of Denman Street. At Stanley Park, the City selected the 1300 and 1700 blocks of Robson Street. No information is available for the Coal Harbour area.
For the existing Davie Village BIA area, these representative blocks see in the range of 2,500 to 3,000 pedestrians (south side) and 2,200 to 5,200 pedestrians (north side) per day. The City ranks this combination of pedestrian activity to sidewalk size as a level of service ‘B’, which represents a relatively moderate pedestrian level. The dominant hour for pedestrian traffic is generally 5-6 pm. These location rank between 51 and 221 of the 501 block locations ranked in the 2002 survey. By comparison, the busiest block in the City (north side of Robson at Burrard) sees 29,182 pedestrians per day, with a level of service ‘D’ (significantly more crowded).
At English Bay, Denman Street sees in the range of 1,093 to 1,258 pedestrians (west side) and 1,687 to 2,691 pedestrians (east side) per day. The City ranks this combination of pedestrian activity to sidewalk size as a level of service ‘B’, which represents a relatively moderate pedestrian throughput. The dominant hour for pedestrian traffic on the 800 block is 1-2 pm (west side) and 11-12 pm (east side). The location ranks 355th (west side) and 228th (east side) of the 501 block locations ranked in the 2002 survey. The dominant hour for the 1200 block is 4-5 pm (west side) and 5-6 pm (east side). The location ranks 381st (west side) and 178th (east side) of the 501 block locations ranked in the 2002 survey.
At Stanley Park, the 1300 block of Robson Street sees in the range of 3,927 (south side) to 4,276 (north side) pedestrians per day. The City ranks this combination of pedestrian activity to sidewalk size as a level of service ‘C’, which represents a relatively high pedestrian throughput. The dominant hour for pedestrian traffic is 4-5 pm (south side) and 5-6 pm (north side). The location ranks 97th (south side) and 81st (north side) of the 501 block locations ranked in the 2002 survey.
The 1700 block of Robson Street sees in the range of 2,431 (north side) to 4,058 (south side) pedestrians per day. The City ranks this combination of pedestrian activity to sidewalk size as a level of service ‘B’, which represents a relatively moderate pedestrian throughput. The dominant hour for pedestrian traffic is 5-6 pm (both north and south sides). The location ranks 199th (north side) and 91st (south side) of the 501 block locations ranked in the 2002 survey.
Since May 2002 was the first time the Davie Village BIA was surveyed, trend analysis is not currently available.
What Existing Businesses Say
Existing businesses in the Davie Village BIA are generally satisfied with the services provided by the BIA, and share common goals for continually improving the area to attract new customers. As previously indicated, the existing Davie Village BIA is considering significant expansion. Most businesses within the BIA and surrounding areas support this expansion. It is expected that that the expanded BIA will help provide programs to reduce the impact of undesirable activities in the area, increase safety and improve cleanliness of the area.
Conclusions
The West End umbrella BIA would be a commercial and residential business area with a loyal residential and destination gay and lesbian customer base. Retail and service businesses dominate in the BIA, with a healthy mix of business, personal and health services. While the area is not likely to see significant capital developments in the next several years, the area has significant potential to develop retail/entertainment service packages to attract and retain local and destination customers, as a complement to the high fashion focus of the adjacent Robson BIA.
The existing Davie Village Business Improvement Area (BIA) boundary includes the three and a half blocks along Davie Street from Burrard to Broughton. This small but strong BIA encompasses an eclectic, multi-cultural mix of young and old, gay and straight, casual and stylish, historic and modern. In partnership with the City of Vancouver and other businesses in the West End and Coal Harbour, the Davie Village BIA is looking to create a BIA for the West End, with a ribbon of primary commercial along Davie Street, Denman Street, Robson Street west of the Robson BIA boundary and along Jervis Street to Coal Harbour, as well as all of the businesses in between. The new umbrella BIA would likely comprise four distinctive areas, generally described as: