Highrise haven
Burnaby garnered attention this year as being the next big place for highrise development, and shopping hubs like Metrotown, Brentwood and Lougheed Town Centre have been key redevelopment candidates. Developers have dug into mall parking lots with plans that push the envelope higher. Shape Properties Corp. astounded people with plans for towers of up to 70 storeys at Brentwood; it’s also spearheading Lougheed’s redevelopment with as many as 23 towers that could soar up to 65 storeys.
But save some love for Edmonds, where an area plan adopted in 1994 remains the basis for development in an underdeveloped town centre.
Cressey Development Corp. has anointed the former Value Village location at Kings Crossing, breaking ground last week on a project that will eventually have 800 homes, 70,000 square feet of office space and up to 90,000 square feet of retail.
With activity happening across the city, developer interest is piqued by Edmonds.
Highgate Village, with 864 residences and 140,000 square feet of retail and office space, was at the leading edge of the area’s renewal in 2003 at the hands of Bosa Properties Ltd., and Cressey is following suit. Ledingham McAllister is also drafting plans to redevelop the former Safeway dairy and distribution facility with up to 20 towers in five distinct precincts.
Burnaby boom
Station Square may well be emblematic of the kind of development rush Burnaby is experiencing.
The final phase of the mall’s redevelopment by Anthem Properties Group and Beedie Living attracted 19,000 registrants for two residential towers. A total of 700 units sold in October, which Michael Ferreira of market research firm Urban Analytics Inc. ranks among the top three pre-sales records in Metro Vancouver. Notably, the other two were also in Burnaby – Concord Pacific’s Concord Brentwood project and Rize Alliance Properties Ltd.’s Gold House near Metrotown.
“They’re certainly being the most aggressive in trying to densify the neighbourhoods that should be densified – anything around transit,” Ferreira said of Burnaby. “They’ve been working on their town centre plans for several years, and we’re starting to see the results.”
It’s not just in residential construction, either.
Projects adjacent to transit typically have some kind of jobs space incorporated into the developments, resulting in business growth.
Big deal
Residential land claimed the biggest share of investment dollars in the second quarter of 2016, with Altus Group pegging the aggregate value of transactions in Metro Vancouver at $1.4 billion.
But the biggest deal south of the Fraser had yet to come.
Frontline Real Estate Services Ltd. reports that StreetSide Development Corp., a division of Winnipeg’s Qualico development group, acquired a 14.5-acre assembly of 15 parcels from Woodbridge Properties Ltd. for $50 million at the end of October. Situated next to Tynehead Regional Park in Surrey, the property is approved for 302 townhomes and 10 single-family homes.
Clarification
Pagebrook Inc. president Mike Grenier responded to last week’s column, clarifying that the Tobiano resort development near Kamloops, rather than Pagebrook, entered receivership in 2011. •
