The condominium development Bennet Miemban-Ganata knew would eventually displace her Filipino restaurant seemed a distant threat until she heard the noise of a development application sign going up.
Miemban-Ganata owns Plato Filipino, a restaurant nestled between four other Filipino and Chinese eateries and food stores, all set for demolition if a proposed zoning application goes through near the Joyce Skytrain station in Vancouver. The new zoning would allow for a 32-storey mixed-use property, with commercial residences on the bottom floor, a new branch of the Vancouver Public Library on the second, and residences above.
“We’d been told already that the owner was going to sell this (site) for a highrise building. We asked when it was going to be, and they said, ‘Not soon,’ so we were kind of surprised when this (sign) was here,” said Miemban-Ganata, who rents her restaurant space. “And then suddenly, it’s like that.”