This colourful storefront is part of an empty complex at Kingsway and Earles Street in East Vancouver. From what I can figure all four stores at the corner have been shuttered since at least 2009. Since then it seems the property has been the subject of at least two failed redevelopment proposals. One was for a medical office complex and the other was for rental housing. The plan for the rental housing failed the City's Urban Design Panel back in 2014 and it looks like plans were permanently shelved after that. Of course as time goes by the corner looks more and more dilapidated as it's been abandoned for so long. It also makes you wonder that in a busy city with rising rents why the spaces couldn't have been rented out. I'm sure short term leases or pop up stores could have put the spaces to good use in the mean time. But instead they've languished empty for nearly 7 years.
But being Vancouver, the most recent plan put forth in 2015 was to use the Laundry Mat space as a Medical Marijuana shop. Unfortunately the building has not been looked after very well so it's anyone's guess if the space is even useable after being empty for so long. You can see how the corner looked in 2016 with this
link to Google Street View. The bottom photo is from 2012 when the strip still looked relatively presentable. Who knows what will happen in 2017 but I'll be keeping an eye on this corner for sure!
Thanks for posting this. I didn't even know it existed since the purple Purdy's factory across the street dominates the area. I see that the now-closed Top's restaurant is on the corner to the south.
ReplyDeleteI guess the abandonment caught my eye! Also across from Purdy's on the North side was Harvey's Furniture. Kind of a nondescript building they closed in 2015 I believe.
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