High profile building projects dot the city landscape

As you drive around Vancouver these days, you’ll see lots of buildings going up. And a number of those sites – whether simply slated for redevelopment, reduced to holes in the ground or featuring cranes in the sky – are on church or ministry land.

Here is a quick overview of a few that have come to my attention lately.

Lakeview Multicultural United Church

The congregation has been meeting in Burnaby since 2021, and their former building is looking ever more ready for a long-planned redevelopment.

Sitting on the northwest corner of the busy 12th Avenue thoroughfare, just east of Victoria Drive, the old church is surrounded by a high fence, looking dilapidated. I reported late in 2022 (I believe on good authority) that demolition was planned for early in 2023. I have not been able to get confirmation, but it looks like the project is finally ready to move ahead. [October 6 note: Joel Maranion, chair of the Lakeview board, told me today that it will likely proceed this month.] 

On April 13, 2018 Premier John Horgan  announced that a partnership between the United Church and the provincial government would result in more than 400 new homes being built on four church properties.

Two – at Como Lake United in Coquitlam and Brechin United in Nanaimo – have gone ahead, while the Brighouse United project in Richmond was abandoned and the congregation disbanded in 2023.

SHAPE Architecture lists Lakeview United Church + Housing Interiors as one of its projects, describing the six-storey wood frame project as “a 104-unit mixed-use affordable rental housing and ground floor church development.”

Dave Stewart-Candy looked at Lakeview on his Old Heritage Churches site this summer. He briefly described the church’s history:

Lakeview United Church opened in 1962; however the roots of this congregation in the Grandview-Trout Lake neighbourhood go back to their founding as Trinity Methodist Church in 1910.

Trinity Methodist Church became Trinity United Church in 1925. In 1958 the congregation amalgamated with Zion United Church to form Trinity-Zion United Church.

The Trinity United building was used in the meantime until this new church building was constructed near Trout Lake. The congregation was renamed Lakeview United Church when they moved here in 1962. The old Trinity United Church building was then sold that same year to a Hungarian Roman Catholic congregation.

One site in the Downtown Eastside has just been cleared, after sitting idle for decades.

Salvation Army temple

Formerly a Salvation Army temple, the building has not been owned by them for years, though it has remained quite high profile – until it disappeared recently.

John Mackie wrote an appreciative article about the building for the Vancouver Sun September 28. He began:

After sitting empty for a quarter of a century, a former Salvation Army temple in Vancouver has been torn down for a proposed social housing project.

Designed by Mercer and Mercer architects, the distinct two-storey temple located at 301 East Hastings St. was listed on the website for Canada’s Historic Places. Often described as art deco, the design was actually art moderne, a streamlined, elegant style from the 1940s. . . .

An empty lot where the former Salvation Army temple stood for so long.

After the 1950 building was purchased for $1.5 million by Vancouver Coastal Health in 2001, it sat vacant. There were proposals to turn it into a community arts space or facility, but the regional health body held onto it.

In 2018, the province announced it would build a 75-unit social housing complex on the site, located on the northeast corner of Gore and Hastings.

In 2024, the province said the project had expanded after VCH acquired three adjacent properties, and received a land donation from the 625 Powell Street Foundation.

The new building is being planned by B.C. Housing. The 2024 announcement said it would be eight storeys, provide housing for 200 people at risk of homelessness, and include community health services run by Vancouver Coastal Health.

Just a few blocks away is a major development which proves the Salvation Army is still thriving.

Harbour Light

The new Harbour Light building should be finished next year.

A September 18, 2024 release from BC Gov News stated:

“The new Harbour Light facility will offer additional safe housing options to people who need it most in the DTES,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing.

“This project is an example of what can be realized when partners work together to help address the complex challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness in Vancouver – and this important work is ongoing as committed in the Belonging in BC homelessness plan.”

The Province, through BC Housing, is funding 57 new supportive homes, which will be part of The Salvation Army’s new Harbour Light project at 130 East Cordova St.

The new Harbour Light project will replace the Salvation Army’s existing facility at 119 East Cordova St. and will provide a total of 300 new units, including 46 affordable rental homes, 134 permanent shelter beds, 50 correctional beds and 70 supportive homes for people living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The new facility will also include a community programming space.

The new development will allow The Salvation Army to continue Harbour Light’s mission to provide emergency shelter and transition facilities in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that help clients focus on their health, obtain shelter, participate in substance-use recovery programs, access affordable housing, build employment skills and re-establish their community connections.

This project is a partnership between the Province, through BC Housing, the federal government, through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Correctional Service of Canada, the City of Vancouver and The Salvation Army.

Salvation Army Harbour Light has been working in the Downtown Eastside for more than 70 years. The project should be complete next year.

First United 

The First United redevelopment is nearing completion.

Going back to the corner of Hastings and Gore – literally right across the street from the former Salvation Army temple mentioned above – is another big project.

A major redevelopment of the First United property is expected to be completed this fall:

First United is redeveloping its site at 320 East Hastings into a multi-storey, purpose-built space with four floors of community services and amenities (operated by First) and seven floors of below-market Indigenous social housing (operated by Lu’ma Native Housing Society).

Last November, First United is introducing “a new art initiative as part of its capital campaign and announcing $1 million in support from the Audain Foundation.”

They added:

Informed by conversations with Indigenous consultants, the exterior of the building respectfully integrates works by Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh artists, holding space for Host Nation art on traditional Host Nation lands, contributing to an ongoing revival of Salish art forms, and standing as a visual welcome to the community.

Notable among these exterior features is a woven brickwork pattern by well-known Musqueam Master Weaver and Designer Debra Sparrow.

The interior of the building will include works by Urban Indigenous and Downtown Eastside artists, ensuring that the stories and voices of the Downtown Eastside community are represented.

(I wrote this as part of an article last week which described their newly released Law Reform Platform on ‘Inclusion, Fairness & Stability: Advancing Solutions for the Right to Housing in BC’ and briefly outlined their 140-year history of support for their neighbours in the Downtown Eastside.)

St. Paul’s Hospital

Likely, the most significant of all the current projects is the new St. Paul’s Hospital, just a few blocks south along Main Street from First United, near the Pacific Central Station.

The new leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Vancouver recently made a clear statement about the significance of St. Paul’s Hospital as a Catholic institution.

Archbishop Richard Smith recently took a tour of the new complex which is being built in the Downtown Eastside. He was impressed by the some of the “revolutionary” innovations.

Here is a portion of the September 4 article by Nicholas Elbers in The B.C. Catholic:

Archbishop Smith described the chapel as another visible sign of the hospital’s Catholic mission. “It’s a great reminder of who we are and why we do what we do.”

Catholic health care carries forward the healing ministry of Jesus, the Archbishop said. The chapel not only reminds staff and patients of that mission, but its prominent placement near the hospital entrance is “a testament to the faith that inspires everything we are doing here,” he said.

“You see right away who we are. You see this is our identity. This is why we do what we do.” . . .

“When I think of the mission of Providence Health Care as it’s transferred from archbishop to archbishop – 130 years later we are still here serving the people of Vancouver.” . . .

For Archbishop Smith, the innovations are important, but they all point back to the same foundation: a ministry of care rooted in Christ’s healing mission.

The new St. Paul’s facility is expected to open in 2027. Archbishop Smith was installed as leader of the Archdiocese of Vancouver May 23.

Another key centre of activity is out at UBC, where three projects have been under way for the past year or two.

Menno Hall

The most high profile, right at the northeast corner of University Boulevard and Wesbrook Mall, is Menno Hall, is proceeding quickly.

This project is a collaboration between Pacific Centre for Discipleship Association (PCDA) and Hyland.

The PCDA “is a non-profit Inter-Mennonite society which seeks to provide a supportive Christian community for university and college students.”

It operated Menno Simons Centre just outside the UBC gates for students attending UBC, Regent College, etc until 2020 and will oversee its successor, Pax House, at Menno Hall.

Hyland “is a group of companies that specialize in real estate development and property management. All net income is used to help those in greatest need around the world through the work of the Mennonite Central Committee.”

Menno Hall will be a 4 – 6 storey, 11,000 square metre development, consisting of 86 rental housing and 101 student housing units:

Alongside residential and student housing will be academic space focused on the advancement of peace studies and international aid and development. Based on one of the central tenets of Anabaptist faith, the Centre for Peace is the collective vision of both HyLand and PCDA.

The intention is to create an area within the Menno Hall campus wholly dedicated to the pursuit of academic and intellectual thought leadership around the current issues of conflict resolution and peace studies.
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The Centre for Peace will house a lecture theatre for on-site courses, conferences and public events, offices for a small staff and common areas for people to gather together and engage in discussion. This space will also be available for rent for public events and functions.

Menno Hall is expected to open in September, 2026.

Regent College

Some have said that the ‘queen of the sciences’ (theology) was being pushed to the side at UBC, given that the Vancouver School of Theology sold its imposing Iona Building to UBC for the Vancouver School of Economics in 2014, and that several of the theology schools are tucked away on the north edge of the campus.

But that case will be harder to make now that Menno Hall and Regent College face each other at the main intersection on campus, University Boulevard and Wesbrook Mall. (As well, the ‘tucked away’ schools – VST, St. Andrew’s Hall, Corpus Christi, St. Mark’s and Carey Hall – all seem to be thriving.)

Regent students have suffered from high rents in Vancouver, so they will no doubt appreciate the new accommodations planned for Regent’s former parking lots, just south of the school.

An announcement last September stated:

[Now former] President Jeff Greenman has announced that Regent College has completed the sale of its parking lot to Polygon Homes. Polygon plans to use this lot to build an 18-story tower, to be called Regent House, with an attractive landscaped plaza between the Regent College building and the new structure. Set to begin in early 2025, construction is expected to take approximately 30 months to complete.

Crucially, this new building will include affordable rental housing for Regent students.

“A key element of the plan is that Regent will own two floors of housing exclusively for our students, as well as 30 stalls of underground parking. There will also be a common room and a spacious outdoor terrace for Regent’s use,” Jeff noted.

Kenneth Chan wrote about the project last fall in Daily Hive.

Timothy Hall

Carey Theological College, ensconced in the traditional theological centre on the north side of campus, has also been making room for more student residents.

President Colin Godwin wrote:

Timothy Hall, Carey Theological College’s second student residence building at the University of British Columbia, is now fully operational and fully occupied by 104 students.

The new building offers a range of suites, from studios to three-bedroom apartments, along with thoughtfully designed shared amenity spaces. It significantly enhances our ability to accommodate students and provide them with a nurturing environment that fosters their academic and spiritual growth.

Carey is grateful for donors who made this dream a reality, to the glory of God. The building project was started during the pandemic, when many other building projects were suspended or stopped altogether. It is a testament to the vision, careful planning, and most importantly, the faith of Carey’s Board, staff and development professionals that the building stands completed today. . . .

Timothy Hall will generate additional funds to support the growth of Carey Theological College. We remain committed to training pastors who can “preach the Word faithfully, in season and out of season; reproving, rebuking and exhorting, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).

We praise God for the continued growth of Carey and the opportunity to equip the next generation of leaders for His Kingdom.

 The location is less obvious than the previous two developments, but the impact will be significant.

Neighbourhood Church

Of course, not all development is in the City of Vancouver. I posted an article about one major example recently, by Cam Roxburgh, Senior Pastor of The Neighbourhood Church.

He wrote about the long prayed for but still, for many years, improbable birth of the Imagine Edmonds project.

Every time we look, we see God’s hand on us and on what He is doing in our neighbourhood.

He has turned our small vision into something far greater than we had ever dreamed or imagined. He has used many people who are not even followers of Him, let alone members of the church, to accomplish His purposes in the Edmonds area.

The Province has even approved funding for us as their flagship BC Builds project.

We are now at the final stages of getting rezoning accepted (having now passed third reading at city hall) and having the promised money from the Province released.

If everything goes according to plan, we will be building a 50-storey tower with 480 units of housing for families, a 300-seat theatre for neighbourhood use, and a 50,000-square-foot ministry centre which will house not only the church’s ministry, but several other local organizations.

The project will transform the neighbourhood for decades to come.

Other projects are in the works, such as Holy Trinity Cathedral in New Westminster:

Holy Trinity Cathedral is in the planning stages of seismically upgrading and restoring the Cathedral located at 514 Carnarvon Street and developing a 30-storey residential tower with a mix of rental units, below market rental units, parish hall and offices.

Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church is also redeveloping its property.

Other churches and ministries are moving ahead with similar plans; I’d love to hear about ones I haven’t mentioned.

Other recent projects

There are many recent projects as well; here are a few I’ve written about over the past few years:

• First Baptist Church, which just began services in its downtown Vancouver building again this spring;
• L’Arche Greater Vancouver completed a significant housing project in Burnaby in 2024;
• Baptist Housing celebrated 60 years of providing housing for seniors in 21 communities in 2024;
• Jennie Gaglardi Place was completed at Christian Life Assembly in Langley in 2024;
• Vancouver Chinese Presbyterian Church had a long journey from Chinatown to its new building, completed in 2023;
• Feast & Fallow opened in the new Oakridge United building in 2022;
• Jubilee United Church began sharing space in Burnaby with with the Pacific Mountain Regional Council (PMRC) of the United Church of Canada in 2022.

There are plenty of other examples.

And many losses

Over the years, many churches and ministries have not redeveloped their properties; they have been lost to the Christian community.

A couple of prominent locations come to mind immediately – the former Canadian Bible Society building at Fraser and Kingsway and the former MCC Thrift Shop at 43rd and Fraser.

I wrote about Vancouver’s lost churches in 2015:

Looking just at the City of Vancouver (not Metro Vancouver) I found that 20 Vancouver church properties listed in the [Christian Info Resource Directory, which I edited in 1989] have been sold off by a range of denominations.

Some of the buildings are intact, now housing mosques, temples, gurdwaras and synagogues. Others are long gone, replaced by houses or apartments.

In some cases, the congregation carried on in another location. In others, the group merged with another congregation or disbanded.

Some other articles touch on the same issue – here, here and here.