Anthem Properties has bought a site at the corner of West Georgia Street and Bidwell Street, which housed the second to last gas station in Vancouver’s downtown peninsula.
The Vancouver-based developer would not reveal how much it spent for the 16,369-square-foot site at 1698 West Georgia Street. Neither would Chevron, which had operated a gas station on the property for the past 61 years and closed the business on March 29.
Colliers vice-president David Taylor, however, said that the transaction was valued at $72 million when he checked Altus Group Data Solutions’ RealNet subscription service, which provides land title information.
“The Anthem team, its consultants and its financial partners are enthusiastically looking forward to creating a stunning residential project on this high profile site in conjunction with the planning department of the City of Vancouver,” said Anthem CEO Eric Carlson in a news release.
Anthem plans to submit a proposal with the City of Vancouver to rezone the site and to share a preliminary concept for the site with the neighbourhood in the near future.
“It’s was a real estate decision,” Chevron spokesman Adrien Byrne told BIV on April 3. “It was one of the highest performing sites in our network in B.C. but, given the vibrant real estate market in Vancouver, we made the decision last year to put the site on the market and now it is sold.”
Indeed, BIV reported in August that Chevron was putting three of its Vancouver locations on the market, citing a revved up property market.
Wesgroup recently bought the 18,009-square-foot Chevron station site at 5505 Dunbar Street for $19.4 million, according to Taylor, whose source was RealNet. A third Chevron site is a now-closed commercial station at Clark Drive and East 1st Avenue.
