Properties such as this are sometimes referred to as “orphan” sites.
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One of the oddest sights in Vancouver is an abandoned gas station at 711 Beach Ave.
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What makes it odd is the location — at the foot of Vancouver House, one of Vancouver’s most luxurious condo towers. It’s the twisting building beside the Granville Street Bridge that looks like the bottom has been partially scooped out.
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A penthouse at Vancouver House is currently for sale for $6.8 million. A “private cellar storage room” is for sale for $288,000.
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And next door is a former filling station behind a chain-link fence with weeds growing up through the asphalt. Its four gas pumps have been gutted, a rusty remnant from the industrial era of False Creek.
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Sunrise
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There has been plenty of online speculation about the site and why it wasn’t included in the Vancouver House development.
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Some say an old guy owned the site and wanted a fortune for it. An alternative theory is that it was bought by offshore investors that wanted to flip the property for a big profit.
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In any case, Vancouver House’s developer Westbank built just north of the gas station site. The 59-storey building at 1480 Howe was completed in 2020.
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The property at 711 Beach was used as a service station for Black Top Cabs for decades. Black Top’s parent company, Beach Place Ventures, sold it in 2011 for $6.5 million to a numbered company that subsequently changed its name to Vantage Pacific Developments.
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The first director listed for Vantage Pacific is Cheuk Bun Kam, whose address is 141 Des Voeux Rd., an office building in Central Hong Kong. The other director is Joanna Kostanski, a lawyer who is listed as the company’s president and secretary at 1400-1125 Howe St.
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Reached by phone, Kostanski said she didn’t have any information about what is happening with 711 Beach, “and even if I did have (information), I am not free to talk about it.”
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The CEO of Westbank Corp., a top Vancouver developer, has been accused of skipping a scheduled deposition in a court case in favour of “hobnobbing with the rich and powerful” while the World Cup was in town.
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Ian Gillespie is sitting down, but in constant motion.
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Urban planner Robert Renger has studied the Vancouver House development, and said a 2010 City of Vancouver report “anticipated” Westbank “would assemble the whole block,” including 711 Beach.
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But when Westbank submitted a rezoning invitation for the Vancouver House site, 711 Beach was excluded.
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“It probably would have been the most expensive land for the whole assembly,” Renger speculates. “(But they were) able to do his building without assembling it (into the project).”
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The city sold part of the property where Vancouver House was built for $32.4 million in 2014. Renger argues that was only 25 per cent of what the land was worth after it was rezoned.
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The problem for the owner of 711 Beach today is that, on its own, the site is relatively small and has limited development potential. This is reflected in its assessment. In 2018, the property was assessed at $8.9 million, in 2026 it was assessed at $3.5 million.
