Broadway development renter evictions

Good morning! 

I had the pleasure of attending an event exploring the St. George Rainway Project earlier this week. The tour walked through the history of the rainway project, which uses a series of rain gardens and bioswales to reduce flooding and increase biodiversity in the area.

I walk by the project every day, and never really noticed it before. It’s an example of how nature, with a little help from us, can serve a key part of urban design and city building. They host future events, which you can sign up for here.

While the intro is a bit on the lighter side, today’s main story is not.

Let’s dive in.

— Geoff Sharpe, Lookout media founder and managing editor

PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free. 

WEATHER

Friday: 8 🌡️ 7 | 🌧️

Saturday: 9 🌡️ 7 | 🌧️

Sunday: 8 🌡️ 2 | 🌤️

Monday: 4 🌡️ 1 | ❄️

HOUSING

Mount Pleasant developer offered to pay tenant to pressure neighbours out of Broadway Plan site

By Nate Lewis. Read the story online. 

It’s the last Friday of the month and there’s an air of tension hanging around a row of houses on East 10th Avenue and St. George Street in Mount Pleasant. It’s moving day for Nicole Caron and Corey Walsh, two of the rental tenants who lived in a strip of five single-family homes set to be demolished to make way for a 19-storey rental tower. 

“It's Vancouver. This is the city of moving,” Walsh, who’d called on friends and family to assist, ruefully told Vancity Lookout. 

“I think it's been really confusing for my six-year-old,” Caron, a mother of two, explained. “He goes to school just two blocks away from here and [doesn’t] really understand why we have to move.”

It’s not easy to explain to a young child that their home of five years was bought in 2023 by a numbered company linked to Fastmark Development, after the city instituted an ambitious area plan, augmented by provincial policy, aimed at adding a significant amount of rental housing in the form of towers around the Broadway Subway’s under-construction stations.  

The planned development on East 10th would replace five houses, which hosted 12 rental units, with 142 market rental units, 33 more units at 20 per cent below market rate, and a private childcare space with room for 25 kids.  

“I think everyone's been on edge, looking for stability and feeling like as a renter here it's just not possible,” Caron said.

Caron’s is one of eight households in the project eligible for enhanced tenant relocation protections (TRPP) instituted by the city as part of the Broadway Plan. But, contrary to city guidelines, Caron and her family have yet to receive the first of two approximately $10,000 payments from the developer, which are intended to bridge the gap between the rent at their old house and their new apartment. 

Another former tenant, who spoke with Vancity Lookout on the condition of anonymity, said Fastmark was several months late in paying them TRPP benefits and a $6,000 bonus for moving out early.

There have been other instances of late payments under the TRPP, according to a city spokesperson, who said they have “had to follow up with applicants to remind them of their obligations,” but didn’t share details about individual cases or how common that situation was. 

“Every step of the way, we've had to seek out what is being offered to us,” according to Caron, who didn’t know that the developer is required to begin paying eligible tenants on or before their move-out date. “If you don't put your own effort in … you kind of just get screwed,” Walsh added.

According to the city, the developer or applicant “holds full responsibility for delivering all required tenant relocation supports,” including “communications, compensation, rent top-ups, moving expenses, relocation assistance, and managing Right of First Refusal commitments.”

Even with the payments required under the TRPP, Caron estimates the additional uncovered cost of displacement for her family, including increased transportation, storage, and workspace costs, will be just under $43,000 over three years. “It’s just ridiculous,” she said.

“While I recognize that the standardized compensation may not fully align with every individual circumstance, my role is to apply the program rules consistently and fairly,” Fastmark Development founder Hans Fast told Caron and her partner by email. 

Caron said Fast’s claim is hard to take seriously, pointing out that some people were paid more than the compensation required under the TRPP.

When reached by phone, Fast declined to answer questions and told Vancity Lookout he had no comment on the eviction process at the East 10th properties.

However, in a 2023 Globe and Mail story about the development, Fast commented that Mount Pleasant is “historically anti-development, and so we are expecting pushback from neighbours,” adding that “the Broadway Plan got approved for density on quieter streets, so that’s just the way the city is going.”   

Fast, who founded Fastmark in 2020 in his mid-20s, comes from a family with significant real estate connections in Vancouver. He’s one of nine children of Paul Fast, the founder of the engineering firm Fast + Epp, and his four brothers are all in the building industry, working as architects, engineers, and construction managers, Fast said in a 2022 podcast appearance. 

Meanwhile, Walsh’s situation is a bit different from Caron’s. Walsh and his roommates moved into their house in the summer of 2024, knowing it was up for redevelopment. It also meant they were one of the four households in the project that wasn’t eligible for the extended tenancy protections under the TRPP. 

Walsh took the opportunity to build a large, complex skate bowl in the backyard. “When we were moving into this place, we joked with our property manager about building a backyard skate park … it's kind of been a dream to be able to do that,” Walsh said. But things got more complicated when Fastmark used the fixture he built as leverage in an attempt to convince Walsh’s household to take a deal to move out early.  

According to Walsh, Fastmark told them that they would be responsible for removing the bowl if they didn't sign an agreement to move out early, neither of which they did. “It's gonna die with the house,” Walsh said.

Fastmark initially offered all tenants a bonus payment, first of $2,000 each and then increased to $6,000 each, if everyone agreed to end their tenancies and move out ahead of schedule, according to Walsh, Caron, and other tenants. 

“It caused a lot of tension between the neighbours, some wanting to make a deal, and some not,” Caron said, particularly given that a third of the households were not eligible for TRPP benefits and the deal being offered by Fastmark required all tenants to agree to it. 

According to one former tenant, Fast personally offered them an additional $40,000 bonus if they convinced all the other tenants to take the deal. 

“I just thought it was manipulative. I would only get paid out if everybody signed. I knew everybody didn't want to sign,” the former tenant recalled, saying they declined that offer. 

“This kind of tactic goes against the intent of the TRPP … It is not appropriate for a property owner to pay one tenant to pressure other tenants into accepting an early move‑out deal,” the city told Vancity Lookout. 

The city said it was “not able to comment on specific details” when asked whether it had any knowledge of Fastmark using this tactic in this situation.  

The last three months before moving were “pure chaos and stress,” Walsh said. 

In the winter of 2025, three households, including Walsh’s and Caron’s, attempted to have their four-month eviction notice cancelled by the province’s Residential Tenancy Board (RTB), which adjudicates disputes between tenants and landlords under the Residential Tenancy Act. 

At the time, Walsh said his household was offered $6,000 and four months free rent by Fastmark to withdraw the RTB dispute. Walsh said he and his roommates decided to accept the offer three weeks later, only to be told by Fast that the deal was no longer available.

“There's absolutely no empathy that they are displacing someone from somewhere that they called home,” Walsh said, speaking about his interactions with Fastmark.

The RTB hearing proceeded in late November, where the tenants argued that Fastmark did not have all the necessary permits in place. However, their claim was ultimately dismissed by the RTB arbitrator, who found Fastmark’s permits were sufficient to proceed with the evictions. 

Specifically regarding the cancelled deal between Walsh and Fast, the arbitrator said they “do not assign the negotiations any significant weight given the absence of any agreement formed.”

Thyrza and Erez Segal owned the home next door to Walsh and had lived there for over 20 years. In the midst of packing, Thyrza told Vancity Lookout she felt Fastmark was “really fair … [and] quite ethical” in the sale process, especially compared to other developers and agents they had been approached by. 

“It was very egalitarian with the selling process, but then [Fastmark] started trying to pit us one against the other by telling one tenant that if they managed to talk other people into leaving at a certain date, then he would pay out those people,” Thyrza explained. 

“It didn’t seem right to me that some people got paid and others didn't,” Thyrza said, referring to Walsh’s household next door. 

But, ultimately, Thyrza said she felt like Fastmark would do a good job with the development, and she’s glad to see more rental buildings coming to the neighbourhood.

“I think that with the 19-storey rental building, it'll be better for the city. We just need more rentals.”

Fastmark has another project, a 17-storey tower with 138 rental units, in the pipeline just one block west. Current tenants at that site are also displeased with being displaced. At a rezoning hearing last summer, Fast said the company would consider extending assistance to help relocate tenants who don’t qualify for tenancy protections at that site.

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THE VANCOUVER NUMBER

$30,000

There may be hope that Car Free Day is saved this summer after the organization announced it would not run the popular event this year due to a lack of funding. Two city councillors, Sean Orr and Lucy Maloney, are introducing a motion to provide the organization with $30,000, arguing that the ABC-dominated council provided $2 million for a fireworks show. [Urbanized]

THE AGENDA

🚶 Those who love walkable cities will be excited to know that Granville Street, from West Georgia to Davie, will be pedestrian-only from June 11 to July 20 during the FIFA World Cup. The area will host live music, patios and other activities. Cross streets at Robson, Smithe, Nelson, and Helmcken will remain open to traffic. Read more. [CBC]

💧 The park board is weighing whether to adopt a Lost Lagoon tidal reconnection project that would allow tidal water to be flushed from Coal Harbour and English Bay into the Lagoon, in an effort to improve water quality and other environmental issues. The cost of the project is pegged at $30 million, but there is currently no funding set aside for it. Read more. [Urbanized]

✋ An organization advocating to save the 50-metre pool at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre says that City of Vancouver staff did not follow proper procedures and tampered with the renewal process that eventually resulted in the 25-metre pool option. The group is seeking to overturn the decision through a judicial review. Park board commissioner Scott Jensen plans to bring a motion next week to invite the auditor general to review the decision as well. Read more. [CBC, park board]

Councillor Sean Orr is looking into all options to fight back against Mayor Ken Sim’s false allegations that Orr gave out illegal drugs on Christmas Day (Orr was not in Vancouver that day). Since making the claim, Sim apologized to Orr over the phone (as he repeatedly told reporters) but only took a few media questions at a news conference after revealing that the false allegations stemmed from an unverified photograph. Read more. [BIV]

🌲 A zip line and canopy tree walk in Queen Elizabeth Park? That’s what a new proposal at Monday’s park board meeting could establish, as well as a visitor centre. Read more ($). [Vancouver Sun]

🧑‍🌾 Farmland declined across Metro Vancouver between 1996 and 2021, and the number of farm operators decreased by 39 per cent over the same period. Meanwhile, nearly 70 per cent of farm operators are over the age of 55. These trends pose challenges for the region’s food security in the coming decades, and we may end up relying more on imported agricultural products, rather than food grown at home. Read more ($). [Vancouver Sun]

👮 An investigation into the stabbing of an 18-year-old at a high school basketball game has resulted in charges against two teenagers, including aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and assault with a weapon. Read more. [CTV]

🏒 The Canucks said goodbye to veteran players Tyler Myers and Conor Garland in exchange for four draft picks during the NHL’s trade deadline. The rebuild looks to truly be on for a team that went to Game 7 of the second round just two seasons ago.

WEEKEND EVENT GUIDE

Coastal Dance Festival | Museum of Anthropology and the Anvil Centre | Mar. 3-8 | Indigenous artists performing from Canada and around the world | Tickets various prices

The Great Yaletown Shakeup | The Brix and Mortar Event Space | Mar. 3, 5 p.m. | Yaletown cocktail masters battle against each other, with attendees voting | Tickets $81

PopCappella with Chor Leoni | St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church | Mar. 6-7 | Pop cappella music with one of Vancouver’s iconic music groups, what’s not to love | Tickets $20+

Polar Plunge for Special Olympics BC | Kits Beach | Mar. 7, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. | Raising money for athletes, with events all across B.C. | Free registration

Vancouver International Wine Festival | Various spots around Vancouver | Mar. 7-14 | The biggest wine festival in the west, say hi to our Lookout team who will be attending | Tickets various prices

Vancouver International Wine Festival | Various locations around town | Mar. 7-14 | 100 wineries from 14 countries featured | Tickets various prices

Smut Slam | Farm Country Brewing Inc. – 20555 56th Ave. #5, Langley | Mar. 7, 8 p.m. | Adult-only storytelling open mic night, with participants telling a five-minute dirty story | Tickets $20

Pippin | Jericho Arts Centre | Until Mar. 7 | Reimagining of a classic, the cost of chasing the high of life inside a decaying nightclub | Tickets $38

Vintage Assembly | Heritage Hall | Mar. 8, 10 a.m. | Pickup some treasures for your home at this vintage market | Tickets $5

Submit your event and it could appear here and reach 30,000+ Vancouver locals

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Ovaltine Cafe partners with non-profits to feed community members

Hungry patrons packed the wooden and red leather booths in the Downtown Eastside’s iconic Ovaltine Cafe earlier this month for a free chicken dinner complete with roast veggies, potatoes and pumpkin pie.

In mid-February, locals were welcomed to the classic 1940s-era diner for the Ovaltine’s inaugural free community dinner. The event was co-organized with the non-profit DTES Emergency Supply Hub (DTES Hub) and Kilala Lelum, an urban Indigenous health cooperative.  

“It just came about in such an intentional and wholesome way,” Evan Reeks, operations manager at the DTES Hub told Vancity Lookout. According to Reeks, nearly 100 meals were given out to community members over the course of the evening. Based on that success, another free community dinner is already being planned, currently set for 6 p.m. on March 22.

Read the story

TOPIC

What readers said about summer road trips

On Monday, I asked all of you whether you’d be interested in hearing about road trips from Vancouver, as the summer season begins to approach.

Well, the results were overwhelming, with 82% of you saying yes, you’d like to hear more about it. And don’t worry, we don’t plan to replace any of our existing stories, but add it every so often.

Do you have any road trips you want us to do? Cool spots outside the city to check out? Reply and let me know!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Here’s a photo of Vancouver from 1968. One thing I always find interesting is seeing how much industry was integrated into the city in the past, in this case with all the log booms in False Creek.

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• Congrats to Vancouver artist Carson Ting, who was chosen to design the FIFA World Cup tournament poster. [CBC]

• That boom you heard in Vancouver recently was a meteor. [CBC]

• A new mid-sized show stage that hosts 1,000 people per event, similar to the Commodore Ballroom, is opening at the Plaza of Nations. [Richmond News] 

• I love these guys’ YouTube channel, and I think you will too. [VanMag]

• A beautiful home built by one of Vancouver’s most well-known architects is now for sale. [Vancouver is Awesome]

• There are some affordable flights to Italy from Vancouver available now. [604Now]

Want to have your announcement featured? Learn how here.

VANCOUVER GUESSER

Here’s a hint — I may have mentioned this one somewhere in the newsletter.