the house-6plex conversion thingamajig on the lot immediately north of the 6-storey woodframe site to the west of this (facing 113 st, across the back alley from the tower/demo site shown in photos here) went up for sale a couple months ago. the whole building, being sold as an income property. It is currently in good shape (photos of interiors from the listing looked good) and the building is occupied. i am curious, however, if Westrich bought it.
The apartment for sale would add 50' of frontage to the 113 site, creating an ~200'x150' site facing 113 and 100ave. this would allow for a lot more units in a woodframe, or provide more room to maneuver for a tower, better than the demo/tower site facing 112 that this thread discusses. the sign for the apartment on 113 has been down for a while, and there's been nothing but some dirt dumped on the 113 site since the DP went for public review a couple months ago. that lag is not unusual, but given circumstances i wonder what is happening behind the scenes.
My complete conjecture (I don't deal with Westrich at all) is that they might have bought that apartment on 113 to enlarge that site. that would make 113 a much better candidate for a larger tower. the 6-storey woodframe would go on 112, onto the 150'x150' site there. this would require reworking designs, new DPs, and probably zoning, but would allow for bigger, more efficient projects, allowing Westrich more latitude on the larger site to do something better than a tight tower (see Falcon; that's a 150'x150', and the podium on that is SQUISHY. not a lot of value created on those lower levels, once all the service spaces are carved out) facing 112.
This is complete conjecture, but idk. If Westrich is still at the stage to change plans for these projects, I feel like swapping the sites would have benefits.
