Building proposal in Vancouver’s Chinatown faces opposition

A space in Vancouver’s Chinatown neighbourhood that’s been used as a parking lot for years may be redeveloped, but not everyone is on board with what one developer is planning.

Beedie Living is looking to build a nine-story building for residential and retail purposes at 105 Keefer Street. The company previously made a proposal in 2017 that was rejected, prompting a lawsuit from Beedie claiming the City’s Development Permit Board decision was unfair and made in bad faith. In 2022, the court ruled that the city had to reconsider the proposal.

The concept of a proposed building Beedie Living is hoping to build at 105 Keefer Street in Vancouver’s Chinatown neighbourhood. (Courtesy: Beedie Living)

Melody Ma, an organizer with the Save Chinatown YVR group, says the latest proposal will ruin the cultural integrity of the neighbourhood.

“It’s completely culturally inappropriate. It’s looming all over all of these cultural assets. It’s not right to have bars and market condos right in front of a plaza that is honouring people who fought for us and died for us,” she told CityNews.

She suggests the space should be used for seniors’ housing, or as a park.

“We have thousands of people on our mailing list that feel that Chinatown needs to be protected and this is where the buck stops. You know, you can say we can clean up some feces, put in some garbage cans, but this building is going to be around forever, beyond our lifetimes,” she said.

Melody Ma says the proposed building at 105 Keefer Street is culturally inappropriate, saying the space could be better used. (CityNews Image)

Despite opposition from some, the president of the neighbourhood’s business improvement society says the proposed development could be a good thing.

“There is a need for having people in the neighbourhood to create vibrancy and service the businesses… I think definitely we want to see storefront, retail, small-scale just to kind of work within the nature of our community – we’re all small business people, small business owners,” said Jordan Eng, president of the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Association.

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In a statement to CityNews, Beedie says “105 Keefer will bring additional much-needed mixed-use housing to the area, which aligns the City of Vancouver’s efforts to make the historic community prosperous again.”

There will be a meeting at Vancouver City Hall on May 29th about the application. Ma says she and others from the community will be there to voice their opinions.

“The plan is to get as many people as possible to say, No, we don’t stand for this project, we want the city to refuse it again and stay consistent in their position,” she said.