The race to build Abbotsford's tallest tower

Another developer has submitted a plan to build what could become Abbotsford’s tallest high-rise. But whether the project is ever built will depend more than just council’s yes or no.

Langley developer Caliber Projects hopes to build a 30-storey, 346-unit apartment tower on Garden Street, across from Abbotsford’s Canadian Tire outlet. The project would also include commercial spaces on the ground floor.

The application was submitted last year, but revised in March. The project has not yet come before Abbotsford council, which will need to approve rezoning and a development permit for the project.

Caliber isn’t the first developer to apply to build a high-rise on the site, which used to house a car repair shop. In 2022, another company, David Eaton Architect, applied to build a 31-storey tower on the site. That project would have had 262 apartments, a daycare, and commercial space.

Abbotsford’s tallest building is currently the Mahogany at Mill Lake, a 26-storey condo building completed in 2018.

The Garden Street project is one of two potential developments that could top the Mahogany in the years to come. But there is no guarantee either will actually be built soon.

In 2020, Abbotsford council approved a plan to build a series of towers on Yukon Crescent, just north of South Fraser Way and the city’s Home Hardware outlet.

That project, as approved, includes twin 18-storey towers that would house seniors, along with a 30-storey high-rise.

The first phase of the development would involve construction on the two seniors’ housing towers. But although the city signed a housing agreement with the developer in April of 2023, construction has yet to begin. The developer planned to build the high-rise after the first two towers are complete.

Any race for the title of Abbotsford’s tallest building isn’t likely to be full of action and drama.

Although it can take years to gain a local government’s approval to build a high-rise, it can take even longer for market forces to allow for such projects to actually be built.

Abbotsford’s City Centre Plan encourages high rises along the South Fraser Way corridor. But Mayor Ross Siemens told The Current last fall that construction costs have helped stall development.

The cost of concrete and steel makes building towers has significantly increased how much it costs to build new towers, and for towers to be built, either condo prices may need to increase, or building costs may need to fall before Abbotsford starts to see significant high-rise development downtown.

“Realistically, we’re probably five, 10 years out,” Siemens said. He suggested that developers along South Fraser Way’s high-density corridor are holding on to properties until market conditions allow them to build towers. By contrast, the city has seen a spate of building in the area around the downtown core.

Quantum Properties president Diane Delves, whose company built the Mahogany, says financing challenges—some linked to new government rules—are also making it much more difficult to get a new high-rise built.

Government rules, tariffs, and investor confidence all play key roles in whether condo buildings actually get built, Delves said.

For a high-rise to be built, a developer needs to get a loan from a bank. Those banks expect developers to have “pre-sold” a certain number of units in order to receive a loan. But Delves says the pre-sales market is “very soft” right now, Delves said. Tariffs and economic uncertainty have been a factor, but Delves pointed to rules and taxes that discourage investors from buying units in new condo buildings.

Those regulations, which include bans on AirBNBs, BC’s speculation tax, and restrictions on foreign buyers, are meant to discourage real-estate speculation. The taxes have been popular and there is evidence that they have helped slow the upward trajectory of home prices in the Lower Mainland.

But Delves said the rules have left developers struggling for the pre-sales they need to finance new buildings apartment because most would be owner-occupiers can’t afford to pay a large deposit (often 10% of the final purchase price) for a home they can’t live in for years.

“Investors play a critical role in getting buildings rolling,” she said. “Unfortunately, they've been vilified by basically all levels of government and the general public, so consequently, it's very, very hard to get projects off the ground right at the moment.”

Abbotsford’s development department has reviewed record numbers of housing applications the last two years, according to its recent annual report. The city approved the construction of 2,360 homes last year, more than double the number of approved projects from the previous five years. Of those, 1,778 were apartments, 398 were townhomes, and 184 were detached houses.

But despite the approvals, the number of actual building permits issued actually declined slightly. As with high-rises, developers sometimes receive approval to build, but don’t apply for a building permit until the financial conditions are right.

Some cities are also better at speeding along development than others, and Abbotsford also takes considerably longer to issue building permits than other local municipalities.

As of last week, the city was reviewing plans submitted prior to Feb. 7, according to online records. By contrast, Mission staff were considering plans submitted in mid-March and earlier and Abbotsford staff were reviewing applications submitted March 4 and earlier.

But the state of the housing market, construction prices

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