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On Wednesday, after hearing from public speakers — including executives from Aritzia and Herschel — Vancouver City Council approved a member motion by independent councillor Rebecca Bligh, directing City staff to consider a range of policy and land use changes to allow more diverse uses in the area and help generate greater activity.

Extreme limitations of Railtown’s existing industrial designations

Currently, Railtown is zoned for traditional industrial uses — originally intended to support the functions of the port. But the area is no longer logistically suitable for modern industrial uses, and maintaining industrial zoning ultimately fails to support the needs of the district’s creative businesses.

“The area has been held back by outdated zoning and land use regulations that don’t reflect how it functions today or what it could become. And right now, many businesses in Railtown are operating in a policy gray zone. They want to stay, they want to grow, and they want to invest in the community and in the city, but they need clarity and a framework that supports their work,” said Bligh.

Following extensive discussions and amendments during the public meeting, City Council approved the motion directing City staff to explore the reclassification of Railtown’s industrial zoning to general urban, enabling a much broader mix of uses.

To revitalize the area, the approved motion’s potential approach includes introducing greater flexibility for creative, industrial, and employment uses — with no net loss of overall industrial or employment space — as well as considering a range of new housing options, and improving public transit access and pedestrian connections with Gastown. Additionally, new retail and restaurant spaces at ground level would be encouraged to enhance street vibrancy and improve public safety by increasing “eyes on the street,” following the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).

Such changes would also enable more amenities, businesses, and services to support the area’s high density of workers in the creative sector. For example, under industrial zoning, fitness gyms are not permitted.

But removing the protected industrial designation to contemplate such a revival would require not only the endorsement of the municipal government, but also Metro Vancouver Regional District. This could prove to be challenging, with the regional district generally hesitant to remove protected industrial land supply due to the region’s worsening industrial land shortage.

“Only a full reclassification at Metro Vancouver Regional District from industrial to general urban will give us a chance to grow, evolve, and succeed. Railtown doesn’t have what industrial users need,” said Elijah Fast, the chair of the board of directors for the Strathcona Business Improvement Association, during the City Council meeting.

“There’s no capacity for large-scale zoning for large-scale loading, and there’s limited access along the narrow streets and no direct access to major roads. There’s no space suitable for large-scale manufacturing. There’s no room for storage, let alone outdoor yard storage.”

“Ultimately, there is no infrastructure to support the industrial operations. Reclassifying this area does not jeopardize the City of Vancouver or Metro Vancouver’s ability to protect the real and functional industrial lands that they should be safeguarding. What this does remove is the barriers that are holding back Railtown from its tremendous potential,” continued Fast.

David Pfeifer, President of ARON Industries — which has held a 50 per cent ownership stake in Alexander Centre since 2009 — remarked that without the major presence of companies like Aritzia, Herschel, architectural firm Dialog, and others, Railtown would be virtually empty today.

Alexander Centre at 611 Alexander St. was originally constructed in 1913 as a manufacturing plant. In more recent decades, it was repurposed into creative/light industrial and office space, now housing multiple tenants, and stands as the largest building in the district. It is a sprawling building reaching up to four storeys on over four acres of land, with 350,000 sq. ft. of leasable floor area.

“Over the years, we’ve continued to invest in and thoughtfully develop additional properties in Railtown, guided by the belief that the neighbourhood holds untapped potential. However, it has continued to be shackled by outdated industrial land policies,” said Pfeifer.

“The current industrial designation does not reflect the realities of the neighbourhood. Neither is the industrial designation suitable to the kinds of businesses that want to locate in Railtown, nor do the buildings and infrastructure that exists in Railtown today serve the intended industrial users permitted under the industrial designations. Some of the buildings in Railtown are historical, but they were not built for modern-day industry… As a result, industrial tenants are not coming, and we’ve seen growing vacancy and shrinking investment.”

Joost Bakker, a partner, architect, and urban planner with Dialog, shared that for 35 years, he has personally witnessed the area’s “very slow transformation,” with the only active real industrial business remaining in the area being Bocci Lighting. Furthermore, over the decades, at least six supportive housing and social housing projects and multiple social support agencies have emerged within the vicinity of the district.

At the same time, Bakker adds, especially since the pandemic, buildings have been demolished, large surface vehicle parking lots have replaced potential active uses, many cafes have closed, and food trucks no longer frequent the area. Dialog’s offices are also located in Alexander Centre.

It was shared during the deliberations that Railtown’s leased industrial space vacancy rates are four times the region’s average, and there has been a 30 per cent decline in business licenses in recent years. As well, asking rents for available space have been cut by as much as half.

Moreover, plans for redevelopments — mainly mixed-use developments with creative/light industrial space and office space — that would have generated approximately 250,000 sq. ft. of new building floor area in Railtown have been cancelled in recent years, with increasing public safety and disorder issues linked to the district’s immediate proximity to the core of the Downtown Eastside being one of the key reasons.

“Workplace safety is a major, major concern”

Lyndon Cormack, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Herschel, told City Council during the public meeting that staff retention has been “tricky” and they have seen “great limitations” in how they can operate in the area. Herschel’s headquarters office is a 39,000 sq. ft. space within Alexander Centre.

“Workplace safety is a major, major concern. It really hurts with retention, really hurts in the times that it’s not vibrant or it’s not the nine to five,” said Cormack, deeming Railtown to be a “ghost town” outside of regular business hours on weekdays and throughout the weekend. He says there are major challenges for staff who want to work late or come in on weekends.

“It’s tough to attract new talent. Of course, we’re pulling people from local or international areas. Of course, we want them to visit and fall in love with where we’ve planted our flag. But it has been difficult to continue to attract people who want to work in our area when they’re coming to and from without our escort, and they run into a different kind of area that we want to promote,” he continued.

Cormack further commented that they strategically chose to establish their headquarters in Railtown to benefit from the area’s creative sector synergies, particularly with other major businesses like Aritzia located nearby. In fact, their first office was sub-leased from Aritzia.

Reuben Major, a chef and the owner of the 2011-opened Vancouver Urban Winery and the 2014-opened The Belgard Kitchen in Railtown, also described his small business’ issues with the safety of both staff and customers, and their struggles with retaining employees.

“When employees don’t feel safe commuting to and from work, especially during the early mornings or late evenings… [and] when guests feel uncomfortable coming into the area, it directly impacts our ability to stay open, let alone grow. This is evident from our online guest comments, which are riddled with negative comments about the zone that we do business in,” said Major.

Verna Ursa-Brown, the Product Director at Aritzia, echoed similar concerns, noting that staff do not feel safe in the neighbourhood — an issue that is measurably affecting both employees and operations. She emphasized that while Aritzia would like to keeping its headquarters in Railtown, meaningful changes are urgently needed to ensure they do not pivot their strategy.

“As someone who has spent the better half of her 30-plus-year career at Aritzia and more specifically in Railtown, I love this neighbourhood. It is here that we built our business and our high-performance culture,” said Ursa-Brown.

“But as Council is well aware, things have deteriorated to a point where it’s becoming incredibly difficult to attract and retain talent in such a challenging neighbourhood. We want to grow here. We want to continue investing in our home base, but the current land use and safety conditions are barriers, not just for business operations, but for our employees as well.”

Similar to Herschel’s measures, she says, Aritzia employees are provided with a safe walk program — an on-demand escort service for staff to reach their vehicles and public transit. But she says this is not sustainable for a creative workplace, with employees feeling they are unable to thrive.

Brian Hill, the Founder and former Executive Chair of Aritzia, also addressed City Council, noting that the clothing and apparel company employs about 10,000 people worldwide, including the 1,500 staff based at its Railtown headquarters hub. These offices include Alexander Centre as well as the 2022-built creative industrial/office building at 411 Railway St.

Hill highlighted Aritzia’s forthcoming rapid growth and stressed that if the company is able to remain in Railtown, its workforce in this small district could double to around 3,000 employees within the next three to four years.

“In order for Railtown to continue to grow for these businesses and careers for these employees, the workplace has changed, and we need spaces in modern buildings with nice neighbourhoods that are centrally located, dedicated desks, parking, bike lockers, modern lighting, [and] HVAC,” said Hill.

“We also need a community that’s got restaurants, entertainment, fitness facilities, and housing, but we cannot create the aforementioned with this industrial zoning right now. In order to evolve and innovate, we need zoning that reflects the needs of our businesses there.”

A new Yaletown in Railtown?

City Council approved Bligh’s motion to start moving the ball forward on making meaningful changes to revitalize Railtown; however, there were strong disagreements from Bligh, Green Party councillor Pete Fry, and COPE councillor Sean Orr over some of the amendments introduced by ABC councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, which were ultimately also approved.

Much of the disagreement centred on Kirby-Yung’s approved amendment directing City staff to explore a broad range of housing options, as opposed to Bligh’s original inclusion of both diversified housing options and specific mentions of market rental housing and live/work rental options.

Kirby-Yung asserted a need to be less prescriptive and more open-ended for City staff to contemplate, including the possibility of catalyzing some strata market ownership condominium homes to help fund new community amenities and public benefits.

“With respect to housing, it specifically only specified market rental housing, did not make any reference to potentially affordability or below market rental, nor did it potentially enable or contemplate any strata, which is an interesting option if we’re looking at the ability to fund and deliver community amenities and or some of the desired outcomes that are proposed, such as expanding and augmenting on artist production spaces and other components,” said Kirby-Yung.

“I think if we look at what we’re seeing in terms of the trend in the market, of how difficult it is to just deliver market rental, and it doesn’t really provide any other yield typically to have any of those amenities or the affordability or enable strata or affordable home ownership.”

ABC city councillor Peter Meiszner suggested the amended motion’s directives could potentially enable attainable home ownership options, in addition to rental housing.

“I believe that this motion as amended is going to help us make these changes to allow these businesses to thrive, allow for the addition of new retail spaces, cafes, artists studios, and also new residential to the neighbourhood,” said Meiszner.

Fry suggested deviating from the original motion to be problematic, as the original motion was based on lengthy consultations with Railtown’s key businesses and stakeholders, and the municipal government’s leadership in the urban planning department.

Concerns were also raised about the resulting possibility of the gentrification of Railtown — similar to the previous transformation of Yaletown from a historic warehouse district with railways running along what are now roads, into an area dominated by condominium towers.

“This isn’t about gentrifying it, wiping it out, and creating a new Yaletown with, you know, condo towers and the like,” said Fry.

Bligh added, “These conversations have been had in earnest with the coalition for a very long time. And the general take is, not that there’s anything wrong with Yaletown, but the intent is not to create a Yaletown out of Railtown. This is about honouring the creative hub that Railtown is.”

Orr, who cast the only vote in opposition, argued that the amended motion’s calls for an unspecified diverse housing mix were “codes for gentrification,” and expressed a preference for affordable housing in the area. He also invoked political theory, describing it as an example of “dominant classes trying to reclaim urban industrial spaces from marginalized groups.”

During the same public meeting, City Council also approved ABC city councillor Mike Klassen’s member motion directing City staff to come up with a temporary occupancy pilot project in the Downtown Eastside, allowing vacant ground-level commercial retail units to be used for up to 12 months without rezoning or changes that do not relate to meeting minimum safety standards.

It is estimated the Downtown Eastside has a storefront vacancy rate as high as 32 per cent, which goes against CPTED principles and contributes to the area’s further decline and public disorder and safety issues. The pilot project would prioritize temporary uses such as artist studios, small retail, cultural spaces, commissary kitchens, pop-up restaurants, and other uses that align with the area.

Immediately south of Railtown, under a completely separate effort, City of Vancouver staff are currently developing new policies for the core of the Downtown Eastside to allow significant added density, with new building height allowances of up to 32 storeys and a requirement for active commercial uses at ground level.

These changes would support both public and private development projects by improving the financial viability of new buildings that incorporate market rental housing alongside social and/or below-market housing components. In turn, this approach aims to create a net gain in affordable housing and accelerate the replacement of aging single-room occupancy (SRO) units and deteriorating social housing. City staff are expected to present their recommended policies to City Council in November 2025 for review and approval.

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