Developers are proposing to redevelop a historic Army & Navy department store for mixed-use purposes on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside without city planners’ support.

Bosa Properties recently filed a rezoning application with the City of Vancouver on behalf of Army & Navy Properties owner Jacqui Cohen. Her grandfather Sam Cohen founded the Army & Navy department store chain in 1919, and she ran the business before it folded due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Known as the Cohen Block, the proposed redevelopment straddles the DES and Gastown, which is Vancouver’s oldest district. The project is slated to include the 11-storey Cordova office building and 19-storey Samuel residential tower, which would contain Indigenous social housing and market rental units, as well as retail and other commercial spaces.

City planners support most development and rezoning applications before council considers them for approval. But the planning department, then led by Theresa O’Donnell, refused to endorse the proposed Cohen buildings because they would exceed area height restrictions.

O’Donnell resigned recently for undisclosed reasons.