Decades-old Safeway on West 4th Avenue in Kitsilano to close this month for mixed-use housing and retail redevelopment

Rental housing redevelopment of West 4th Avenue Safeway in Kitsilano approved

Fresh St. Market opens 20,000 sq. ft. grocery store on West 4th Avenue in Kitsilano

Safeway redevelopment at SkyTrain's Commercial-Broadway Station approved by Vancouver City Council

West Point Grey Safeway redevelopment into rental towers and new grocery store approved by Vancouver City Council

Safeway on West Broadway in Kitsilano eyed for redevelopment

Possible redevelopment of Safeway on Kingsway in East Vancouver

44,000 sq. ft., two-storey grocery store to replace West Georgia Street parking lot in downtown Vancouver

As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, the City of Vancouver’s Development Permit Board approved the development permit application in Spring 2025 to redevelop the property into a horseshoe-shaped, mid-rise complex with varying heights reaching up to nine storeys.

A rezoning application was not necessary as this project aligns with the municipal government’s existing zoning and policies for the site. Furthermore, the site is just outside of the boundaries of the Broadway Plan.

A building permit to demolish the property was submitted in July 2025, and subsequent building permit applications to support the demolition and the construction of the new building were submitted later in 2025.

There will be 385 secured purpose-built market rental homes and about 60,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant space on the ground level, including a new replacement 42,000 sq. ft. Safeway store and 18,000 sq. ft. of smaller commercial units fronting West 4th Avenue to activate and provide the retail strip with new continuity.

Currently, the 2.2-acre property is largely used for surface vehicle parking, with the exception of the 27,000 sq. ft. store building. Upon completion, the new store will be more than 50 per cent larger than the existing store.

Underground levels of the new complex will provide 388 vehicle parking stalls, including 166 stalls for the building’s various commercial uses. The parkade entrance will be located at the northeast corner of the building, fronting Vine Street.

The redevelopment is a joint partnership between local developers PCI Developments and Low Tide Properties, and it is designed by Vancouver-based architectural firm Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership.

The developers acquired the property for $79.2 million in January 2024.

Although the area will be without its Safeway for a few years due to construction, there are other grocery store options within the immediate vicinity, including Whole Foods Market just to the east and some small independent stores. As well, in December 2025, Fresh St. Market opened a 20,000 sq. ft. Kitsilano grocery store at the northwest corner of the intersection of Macdonald Street and West 4th Avenue — about four blocks to the west of the Safeway site.

Further away, to the southeast, a 22,000 sq. ft. Loblaws City Market will open later in 2026 within the newly-built The Stories tower at the northeast corner of the intersection of Granville Street and West Broadway (at SkyTrain’s future South Granville Station), and the former Toys ‘R’ Us on West Broadway will become a new grocery store under the Sobeys brand.

In addition to the rezoning-approved, high-density, mixed-use redevelopments of the Safeway location next to SkyTrain’s Commercial-Broadway Station and the former store on West 10th Avenue in the West Point Grey neighbourhood, there could also be forthcoming projects to redevelop the Safeway locations of West Broadway (on Macdonald Street) in Kitsilano, Kingsway in Collingwood, and Hastings Street in Burnaby Heights.

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