MORE FLOORS: It was 1962 when Jack Leshgold increased the interests of his family's holding company by putting up a two-floor commercial building at Pender and Broughton Street. Anticipating growth, he had it designed for the addition of a third floor that would , among other things, give a better view of a CPR railyard separating it from Coal Harbour's still-industrial waterfront.

The shipyards and related facilities are long gone. Ditto the tracks. And Leshgold's building is about to join them in the history books. It never did get its third floor. But a 10-storey residential tower will soon rise on its site. A five-floor row of townhouses will then run along Pender Street to the base of a 36-floor tower bordered by Nicola Street.

The $225-million-range project, West Pender Place, will total 270,000 sq. ft. (15,000 of it retail). Tenants will pay an average $1,100 a square foot when Platinum Projects chief George Wong and sister Lily Korsanje begin writing sales agreements Nov. 17. It's expected to generate $121 million worth of sales.

"Interest is extremely strong from offshore buyers," said Reliance Properties developer Jon Stovell, who added his firm's first-time relationship with area-experienced Wong is "a good fit." He said buyers are drawn to Coal Harbour "because it is totally downtown geographically and spatially, but still like an urban oasis -- a suburb in the city."

West Pender Place also enjoys 110,000 sq. ft. of transferable density from two of the Leshgold family's many Gastown properties and projects. They are the heritage-redevelopment of 55 Water St. into 64 live-work units in 2002, and a current project at the 1886-built 210 Carrall St. for occupancy in early 2008. Reliance Properties also redeveloped 101 Water St. in 1987. Papered-over windows of its dramatically glass-fronted property at 65 Water St. mark the closure of the Richard Kidd store and the impending arrival of another fashion outfit, believed to be shoemaker-to-the-stars John Fluevog.

Twenty-five-year Reliance hand Stovell knows city hall like his own hand. As president of the Gastown Business Improvement Association, he helped develop the Heritage Management Plan's incentive model, that gives grants, tax holidays and density transfers to qualifying projects. Since 2006, he has sat on the Development Permit Board's advisory panel.

"We learn a lot from studying the city planners' priorities," he said. "We follow as closely as we can, and give the planners what they like to see."

The flip side of that mantra is density bonuses -- such as the one to West Pender Place.

There's more to come from a restoration and maintenance project on Alexander Street. And Reliance's redevelopment of a former down-at-the-heels property on East Hastings Street will create 30 fully equipped, 275-sq.-ft. micro-suites which will rent at market rates of $1.50 per square foot to $1.80 per foot (between $400 and $500 per month). Architect Bruce Carscadden has studied current Asian practices for maximizing livability in the suites.

Density transfers from those projects should go to a 580,000-sq.-ft. downtown tower with up to 70 per cent residential occupancy and the balance for hotel, commercial and retail space. At an expected $450 million, it will double Reliance's current costliest project, West Pender Place.

The firm will also undertake a 350,000-sq.-ft. primarily residential development at Columbia and Eighth Street, New Westminster, near to Degelder Group president Michael Degelder's Plaza 888 project, where three of four towers are under construction.

As for subsequent developments, Stovell echoed standard holding-company policy with: "Because your properties are always changing relative to each other, you just follow where the zoning potential is on them."

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© The Vancouver Sun 2007