A sharp observer alerted me yesterday to more signs of change in Chinatown: two key sites (the venerable Tosi’s at 624 Main and the Brickhouse/empty lot/student hostel/Jimi Hendrix shrine assembly at Main and Union) for sale and a new rental building with rents starting at $1,267 for studios.
My story on that here, complete with a chance to observe a slice of life at Tosi’s yesterday afternoon.
But more to do on the changes in Chinatown in the future. Chinatowns everywhere are struggling to figure out how to thrive. There have even been stories from San Francisco, a Chinatown that I thought was among the healthiest, about the proliferation of vacancies.
On another front, one thing I didn’t get an answer on from the city by deadline is how the new Albert Block can charge so much in rent. It was approved under the Rental 100 policy. According to that policy, the rent on an eastside studio can’t be more than $1,260.
At any rate, for those of you who love Tosi’s, Angelo figures he’ll still be operating for about another year at least. (That seems right, as any buyer would likely want to apply to rezone for the higher density and that will take some time.)
So it’s a good time to hop on down with some cash to get your Italian cooking supplies. He had an excellent caciocavallo cheese yesterday, something I’ve never even heard of before.
BTW, to get more about the history of Tosi’s, read my Vancouver Sun pal John Mackie’s excellent story from 2011.
For those wondering, there is no heritage designation for the Tosi’s building. I checked that with the city.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Victor // Aug 12, 2016 at 4:22 pm
Frances, several community members told you about these uncontrolled rents even when STIR program was in play. Look up rents at the Lauren now. Quite a few are Airbnb also. do you know who owns that building now?
The other scam is that new tenants in these Rental 100 projects are only given a short fixed term lease. At the end of it the rents are increased so the tenant has to pay higher rate or is forced to leave the building because they can no longer afford to stay there. .
But when presenting to Council for approval the developers state the rents at what they call “affordable” rates. Then they get special “benefits” from City Council. And no one enforces the initial rents that they said they were going to charge.
Not sure why you find it so surprising because we mentioned it to you and others a few years ago when STIR was being offered.
2 peakie // Aug 17, 2016 at 10:31 pm
I see that HSBC is moving across the street from Main and Georgia to one of the new Condo towers from their custom-built Chinatown office on the east side of Main.
With the next-door small ex-Standard Bank building occupied by the self-serving UBC downtown outreach branch, as well as Tosi’s, some buyer is trying to get 2/3 of a block for yet another blank-street-faced tower of dark souls.
3 Norman12 // Aug 27, 2016 at 9:40 am
There’s going to be a lot of upscale development that stops suddenly at Main Street, then a poverty ghetto preserved by city zoning restrictions. What’s in the future? Tours of the Downtown Eastside as a museum?
4 25hours // Aug 29, 2016 at 5:37 pm
Question is why is Sadhu Johnston (city manager) relying on Larry Beasley to make planning/development decisions when he did virtually nothing about heritage, affordable housing or rental housing when he (Mr. Beasley) was head city planner?