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Riders will get off trains just a few feet from stores

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

The New Westminster SkyTrain station will become fully integrated with a $60-million, 170,000 square-foot retail project to be developed over the next three years, city and SkyTrain officials announced Wednesday.

The development is believed to be the first in North America to fully integrate an elevated transit system with a major shopping and housing complex. The station platform is expected to be widened to accommodate SkyTrain riders who will get off and walk to shops before resuming their travel.

The retail project will be part of a $250-million development — Azure at Plaza 88 — that will see four residential towers with a total of 800 condominiums built on a 2.1-hectare site at 8th Street and Columbia, across from the New Westminster Quay.

“This is the type of project that will bring New Westminster to where it should be and truly revitalize the downtown,” New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright said in an interview.

The retail development will be anchored by a 37,500-square-foot grocery store, a 17,500-square-foot drugstore and an 11,600-square-foot liquor store. Project developer Michael Degelder said they are in the final stages of negotiations with Save-On-Foods to occupy the grocery space.

SkyTrain chief executive officer Doug Kelsey said SkyTrain won’t get any revenue from the New Westminster retail development because it’s a private project but noted the transit system is pursuing retail projects at other stations on land it owns so it can gain additional revenues. He said the Lougheed Town Centre station is a likely candidate for future retail development.

“Developments like this move a station from being just a train station into a true community station, with services that make sense for riders on their travels,” Kelsey said.

He said criminal activity that takes place around SkyTrain stations such as New Westminster station can be driven away by developments such as Plaza 88 that encourage people to congregate in public places.

“Where there are people, there is typically less crime,” Kelsey said. “You end up moving the people that don’t belong there and they go elsewhere. We have seen that in other rejuvenations.”

He noted the retail project will use features such as open spaces and extra lighting to deter criminal activity.

“This particular station has been very long on my hit list of places that need to be rejuvenated,” Kelsey said. “We want to do anything we can to reduce the incidence of crime. Our vision is for SkyTrain to be a place where you go to be safe.”

The SkyTrain passenger-level shopping area will feature 120,000 square feet of retail space while another 50,000 square feet of space will be built on the lower level under the SkyTrain guideway.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

 

Retail-residential at station

Wendy Mclellan
Province

A $250-million development in New Westminster‘s neglected downtown area may be the catalyst the Royal City needs to rejuvenate its historic centre.

The project, called Azure at Plaza 88, includes 800 suites in four residential towers set atop 170,000 square feet of retail shopping. The entire complex is to be integrated with the existing New Westminster SkyTrain Station on Columbia and 8th Street.

“The city is quite anxious for us to begin because they would like to revitalize Columbia Street,” said Mike Degelder, president and CEO of the Degelder Group, the Vancouver general-contracting company that assembled the 2.1-hectare site over a six-year period.

“The city is hoping the project will be a catalyst to get redevelopment going.”

Construction on the first two towers is scheduled to begin in February on the site, which stretches from Columbia to Carnarvon Street between 8th and 10th Streets. Shops will be built along the SkyTrain ticket platform, which will become an open street rather than developed inside a mall.

SkyTrain passengers will be able to get off the train and shop before heading home — and residents of the towers will be able to commute to work and do their shopping on the way home without going outside.

Degelder said the residential units in first tower are nearly sold out, and the second tower is 50 per cent sold.

The city has not yet given final approval for the other two residential towers or the retail development. The project, which is being co-developed with Charter Pacific Developments, will take about three years to complete.

Degelder said the company is in the final stage of negotiations with Save-On Foods as an anchor tenant in the shopping complex, which will also include a “well-known” drugstore and a liquor store.

SkyTrain president and CEO Doug Kelsey has been working for nearly a year to bring retail shops to SkyTrain stations around the Lower Mainland in an effort to better integrate the stations with the surrounding community. He said he is “very close” to finalizing agreements with some retailers.

“From our perspective, it’s a clear example of needed rejuvenation in the area,” said Kelsey. “This moves it from a transit station to a community-based station and takes it beyond just running trains. I think it’s excellent for the community.”

New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright hopes the Degelder development will trigger further redevelopment in the area.

“This new transit village to be built around the New Westminster SkyTrain station, with the mix of residential and retail, should be the catalyst for redevelopment of Columbia Street which was once the area’s major shopping district,” he said.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

 

But Olympics bringing building-capacity risk

Brian Lewis
Province

B.C.’s still-booming economy is outpacing expectations and will hold the No. 2 spot behind Alberta this year, a Royal Bank forecast said yesterday.

However, on the heels of a 3.8-per-cent growth rate this year, B.C.’s economy should grow by four per cent next year. That’s higher than any previous B.C. forecast for 2006.

“B.C.’s growth has outpaced expectations and virtually all sectors of its economy are performing well,” said RBC chief economist Craig Wright.

“But while we expect healthy growth prospects for some time, there is reason to be concerned about long-run risks related to building capacity pressures.”

B.C.’s economy is already operating at near capacity, he explained, while the peak of building for the 2010 Games has yet to occur.

“The challenge will be to use fiscal prudence and long-range planning to sustain solid economic growth.”

A four-per-cent growth rate in 2006 would put B.C. in third place behind Newfoundland (6.5 per cent) and Alberta (4.9 per cent).

The RBC report forecast Canada‘s economy will outperform the U.S. economy next year. It calls for national growth of 2.9 per cent this year in Canada with an increase to 3.4 per cent in 2006.

It also said that Canada‘s economy has shown “impressive resilience” to the higher Canadian dollar and higher energy prices.

It predicts that this resilience will continue.

However, RBC also said that the Bank of Canada will likely continue with its series of small interest-rate increases to keep inflation under control.

The report forecasts a modest decline in the dollar next year to 82 cents US.

Residential growth looms as a significant municipal election issue throughout the Lower Mainland

Larry Pynn
Sun

The traditional single-family detached home, once considered a virtual birthright along with a luxury car and job security, is fast becoming a dream in burgeoning Greater Vancouver.

The region we once knew is transforming before our eyes, and the single-family home is struggling to reinvent itself as rising prices and a limited land base force residents to live in more compact homes on smaller lots or switch to townhouses and condos throughout the region.

“We’re going to see more and more innovation all the time,” predicts Peter Simpson, chief executive officer of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association.

“People still want a place to put their lawn chairs and barbecue. They treasure their own little piece of land, even if it’s a lot smaller than we’re used to.”

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. statistics track the dramatic shift since 1980, when single-family housing accounted for 56 per cent of 16,780 housing starts in the region as opposed to multi-housing units such as condos, apartments, and townhouses.

The proportion of single-family dwellings dropped to 35 per cent of 17,970 new housing starts in 1990, and is forecast to drop even further, to 29 per cent of 20,000 units in 2005.

That trend is generally good news for proponents of regional density, creating compact town centres where residents have access to shops, services, transportation and jobs, while reducing pressure on an overburdened transportation system and a land base constrained by the Coast Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, protected areas such as Burns Bog in Delta, and the agricultural land reserve.

The tough part is finding the right fit — one that works for people and the regional good.

As voters gear up for the municipal elections on Nov. 19, residential growth looms as a significant election issue, which includes debate on the future of the single-family detached home.

Robert Brown is a principal of Resource Rethinking Building Inc., a Vancouver-based development and consulting firm specializing in creative, sustainable residential projects.

Brown recently converted a 1910 home on West 11th Avenue, next to Vancouver city hall, into three strata townhouses. Density credits for saving the heritage home gave him another 1,200 square feet of building space, enough to create a detached coachhouse dwelling unit on the same site.

At Hawkes and Keefer in Strathcona, Brown converted a car repair shop dating back to the early 1940s into two loft townhouses, and the parking lot into four new row townhouses.

His latest project is to renovate five detached single-family homes dating to 1912 on a 50-foot deep lot with 125 feet of frontage, on East 27th Avenue near Main Street, helping to invigorate an otherwise weary block.

Brown said his philosophy is to work with older buildings rather than simply tear them down, a policy that saves both materials and heritage. At the same time he likes to add density, put more people into already established urban areas instead of creating new developments that rely on cars to get anywhere, while ensuring the flavour of neighbourhoods is respected.

“Densification on its own is not the perfect solution,” he says. “Neighbourhoods must still be livable.”

Mark Holland, a Vancouver urban planner and director of the Community Energy Association, says densification can carry a negative connotation, but progressive modern projects put an equal focus on livability, something that must be communicated to the public. The alternative to densification, he warned, is “traffic nightmares” and increased costs for building and servicing highways and other municipal infrastructure.

CMHC statistics for the region show 3,711 single-family detached housing starts this year to the end of September, of which 38 per cent, or 1,425, are in Surrey. Langley township recorded 12 per cent, or 463, of the housing starts, slightly more than Vancouver‘s 11 per cent, or 431.

Richmond and Maple Ridge took about seven per cent each, with 281 and 263 single-family detached housing starts, respectively, followed by Burnaby‘s five per cent, or 182 starts.

In Surrey, much of that development is taking place in areas such as Panorama Ridge and East Clayton, a sustainable community near the old Hillcrest Drive-in, featuring rear laneways and garages, homes set close to the street with small front yards and porches, with secondary suites.

Langley‘s fastest growing residential area is Willoughby, around 200th Street and 72nd Avenue, an area predicted to reach a population of almost 40,000 by 2021.

Subdivisions with optimistic names such as Nature’s Landing, Star Point, Jericho Ridge, Sunny Berry and Parkside strike an ironic pose against swaths of forest land being levelled to make way for construction.

Here you will find some of the lowest-priced new homes in Greater Vancouver. According to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, a new 3,245-square-foot home (up to two years old) in Willoughby costs $135 per square foot, which compares with a 2,967-square-foot home in Clayton at $132 a square foot, a 2,849 square-foot-home at Sullivan Station, in Surrey at 152 Street and 64 Avenue, at $140 a square foot, and a 2,738-square-foot home in Aldergrove at $148 per square foot.

Builders in Willoughby put up 322 single-family homes and 516 multiple-family dwellings, mainly townhouses in 2004 alone, about 2.5 times that of Langley‘s Walnut Grove residential area to the north, near the Colossus movie complex.

All those residences are ramping up the pressure for more highway infrastructure, especially along the Highway 1 freeway. But they are also part of an orderly planning scheme that complements the commercial mecca that exits just down the road in the Willowbrook area at Fraser Highway, argues Langley township Mayor Kurt Alberts, a former township planner.

In counterpoint, veteran Coun. Kim Richter claims the municipality is beset by excessive population growth, lack of highway infrastructure and an emphasis on compact housing developments that stand to become future ghettos.

“We’re growing far too fast,” she said. “We won’t recognize Langley in 10 years.”

The retail tangle in downtown Langley is so extreme that it’s impossible to know where the township ends and the city begins. An imaginary boundary line even extends right through the heart of the Bay department store in Willowbrook Shopping Centre.

“The menswear is in the city,” confirms Alberts.

That kind of oddity makes you wonder whether merging the two communities might make good planning sense. Alberts is receptive to discussing the idea, but he said the city — founded in 1955, and “celebrating 50 years of divorce” — isn’t the least bit interested.

The city has fewer than 25,000 residents, while the township’s population is approaching 100,000.

Langley city Mayor Marlene Grinnell said the rate of growth around the city is breathtaking to residents of both Langleys, with the added concern that rainwater on the developed slopes on Willoughby could lead to flooding in lower-lying areas.

Langley city is receiving kudos in planning circles for its vision for downtown, and Grinnell has no plans to amalgamate with her larger neighbour.

The city is unusual in that its homes have water meters, a conservation measure year-round. The development focus is multiple-unit buildings rather than detached homes, complete with a pedestrian-oriented downtown that includes a new hotel-casino-convention centre. Seniors especially like that they can walk to shops, including Army & Navy.

“People enjoy smaller government here,” says Grinnell, noting the last political wannabe who touted the idea of amalgamation was “soundly stomped” by city voters.

The going rate for even the cheapest new homes in Greater Vancouver forecast the day when the price of a single-detached home lies outside the reach of all but the affluent or those lucky enough to inherit one.

One potential alternative currently being touted by the GVRD is freehold row housing, the sort of development popular in cities such as Toronto yet almost unheard of in B.C., where strata condos are the name of the game.

The concept could prove especially popular with young families, seniors and anyone downsizing their homes or moving to Vancouver from areas of the country where housing prices are lower, says housing policy planner Beverly Grieve.

She is aware of only five freehold row-housing projects in the region — four in Burnaby and one in Port Coquitlam — and they date back about 35 years or longer.

The advantage is that you don’t have to go to others to seek permission to alter your place; the drawback is that you have no control over what the next person does. Neighbours do sign an agreement covering matters such as maintenance of common walls.

“People say they’re happy to live in more dense situations, but they want to own the land,” Grieve says. “There’s a huge interest in this.”

Site preparation will take five-months-more work

Ashley Ford
Province

Work on the new convention centre is piling up! The result is the driving of piles on the site will take five months longer to complete.

Russ Anthony, Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project Ltd. president and project director, said yesterday the revised scheduling “is not expected to impact the overall construction of the $615 million project.”

“We build by zone, so the additional time needed for pile driving will not impact the overall construction schedule. We’re still on time and scheduled to open in 2008,” said Anthony.

Pile driving that was expected to be completed by the end of the year will now run through to May of 2006.

“We’re dealing with a land and water site that was used as a dumping ground over the past 100 years. This, together with some unique ground conditions has impacted our site preparation work and we have had to slow down,” he said.

All sorts of industrial waste have been dumped into the area over the years, especially big chunks of concrete, through which it is very difficult to punch the steel piles when they come into contact. A couple of dozen damaged piles have had to be pulled.

About 50 per cent of the steel piles, which will be driven to depths varying from nine metres to 55 metres, have been completed.

Availability of pile-driving equipment has also been a problem. Anthony said they were planning to use up to four pile drivers at once but have only been able to get two at any one time, which is further slowing down the process.

However, the rest of the massive project is proceeding well, he says.

Anthony says other work is either on time or ahead of schedule.

Marine densification to support the piles is complete as is the main structure for the elevated viaduct that will connect the foot of Burrard with Thurlow Street. Some road sections have been poured and work is now under way at the foot of Burrard to connect the viaduct to Canada Place.

That viaduct will be open to construction traffic next year with public access following in 2008.

A new parking structure at the west end of the site is ahead of schedule and be completed by year end.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

 

Tom Mayenknecht
Sun

If politicians at all three levels of government are truly committed to making the most of their already significant investment and interest in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, they will not only support the Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium project, they’ll do everything they can to facilitate it as soon as possible.

That’s because making the most of their infrastructure investments far transcends the obvious goal of staging a successful Olympics and Paralympics in February and March of 2010. The true political benefits will be the longer-term economic influences of 2010 — and those will be maximized only by capitalizing on private sector leadership and investment, such as that shown by Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot and his entire organization.

Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium is one of those projects that could be done optimally if it is executed as part of the comprehensive vision for 2010. Improving the Sea to Sky Highway, the RAV rapid transit line and the Vancouver convention centre expansion have been on the podium from the outset. With the right partnerships, the new stadium could serve as the catalyst for positive spinoffs in the areas it touches, Gastown and the Downtown Eastside.

The more in place by 2010, the greater the long-term impact for Vancouver as Canada‘s gateway to the Pacific. The stadium application deserves expedience for a number of reasons.

First, Vancouver needs an outdoor stadium of this size (or larger) — it is the only one of Canada‘s top five cities without one. Second, Kerfoot has already acquired the land for an estimated $20 million. Third, his stadium project is smartly designed above the existing railway lands so as to preserve the lines. Fourth, the plan calls for multi-purpose use and at least 80 events per year. Fifth, his organization has the human capital to pull it off, led by Canadian soccer icon Bobby Lenarduzzi and president John Rocha, who at Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment was a primary architect of the marketing and sales strategies that have led to 90 consecutive sellouts at General Motors Place for the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. Sixth, Kerfoot’s own tremendous vision, selflessness and integrity add considerable value to the project for what it really is — direct community investment that invokes comparisons with what Paul Allen has contributed in Seattle (with government support.)

Yet the most important reason for fast-tracking is the city of Vancouver‘s own proven capacity for ensuring that the project serves the community. With Larry Beasley at the helm, the city’s planning department has gained international recognition for what it has done to facilitate the conversion of industrial brownfields and rail lands into urban jewels such as Yaletown. Kerfoot’s project seems a perfect fit for “Vancouverism” and stands to be another feather in the cap of city planners, particularly given what they could plan around it in “Gastown Shores.”

Those same municipal planners need not look far to see the benefits to urban renewal of strategically situated stadium projects (witness Arthur Griffiths’s vision in building General Motors Place on the small footprint beside BC Place and the impact it has had on the increasingly dynamic downtown entertainment district.)

Two hours down Interstate 5 in Seattle, Safeco Field and Qwest Field have transformed industrial land and revitalized SoDo (South Downtown). In San Francisco, Pacific Bell Park has been a terrific catalyst for the eastern perimeter and waterfront of the downtown core.

The Rogers Centre opened as SkyDome in 1989 on rail lands in the southwest quadrant of downtown Toronto. That quadrant has gone on to become its primary entertainment district, with industrial space and warehouses replaced by many of the city’s most popular restaurants and clubs.

In Australia, Sydney had similar good fortune when a series of private initiatives combined with good public planning and government incentives in the years leading to the 2000 Summer Olympic Games to transform the dilapidated warehouses and industrial port area of Darling Harbour into one of the city’s gems, a mile-long horseshoe of restaurants and patio cafes. In Spain, Barcelona had turned its back on the waterfront until the 1992 Olympics served as the catalyst for revitalizing it with restaurants, bars and cafes.

Vancouver is one of the most naturally beautiful cities in the world and is planning to welcome the world in 2010. Now, Kerfoot and company have stepped up to propose a developmental icon for the north waterfront of the city only metres away from the icon that was created at Canada Place 20 years ago for Expo 86 and perfectly complementing the future Convention Centre just west of the now famous Five Sails.

This is more than a great location for a soccer stadium. This is about fully integrated public policy-making and the revitalization of downtown industrial land into beautiful waterfront space. The project will not only invigorate Gastown and the Downtown East side, it will create another larger entertainment corridor on the waterfront; one with the potential to become the city’s best seawall and its finest showpiece 24/7.

The gauntlet has been thrown down, not only for like-minded entrepreneurs, private sector visionaries and community investors, but for all three levels of government to make a good idea even better.

The sooner it happens, the better.

Tom Mayenknecht is a Vancouver-based communications consultant.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Sun

TORONTO — Some of the fire is set to fizzle out of Canada‘s housing market as construction, sales and price growth ease off over the coming year, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says.

Housing starts are expected to reach 223,600 units this year, slipping 4.2 per cent from last year’s 17-year high.

And residential construction will dip further still in 2006, to 207,200 units. Although starts appear to be quickly levelling off, next year is still expected to be the fifth consecutive year that starts exceed 200,000, CMHC said yesterday.

Meanwhile, sales of existing homes are forecast to hit a record of 476,000 units this year but dip to 453,700 units in 2006.

House prices, growing by a whopping 10.2 per cent this year, are expected to increase by only 4.9 per cent next year as the market rebalances, CMHC said.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

John Leech
Sun

Re: Home Inspectors must get serious, editorial, Oct. 21

Consumers deserve better when it comes time to engage the services of a house inspector. Just as British Columbians have come to rely on the professional services of a realtor, lawyer and notary when purchasing a house, they should have confidence that their inspector is qualified, registered and accountable.

There are two major issues with the regulation of house inspectors:

(1) There is not one uniform professional registration process or industry standard.

(2) There is no requirement for inspectors to demonstrate their qualifications and get certified and registered.

On the first point, consumers can be confident with a house inspection service if they call on an inspector registered with the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of BC (ASTTBC), a self-governing professional association of some 8,500 technology professionals in B.C. Once certified and registered, these inspectors become members of the BC Institute of Property Inspectors (BCIPI), one of several institutes set up under ASTTBC. These professionals are listed at http://bcipi.asttbc.org/

As well, consumers should know about the Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors, CAHPI(BC), the second body in BC offering a good standard of care as it applies to qualifying inspectors.

Secondly, without mandatory licensing (as is the case for realtors, lawyers and notaries), many inspectors choose the path of least resistance and do not get certified and registered.

After all, why would someone voluntarily put their credentials forward for full review, agree to abide by a code of ethics and be subject to a full complaint and discipline process similar to the other professionals involved with the real estate transaction?

There is good news to report. Efforts are being made to ensure a better regulatory environment and therefore enhance consumer confidence.

The Homeowner Protection Office was recently asked by the government to undertake a survey of the marketplace. This has been completed and we are awaiting Victoria‘s response.

ASTTBC has approached CAHPI(BC) recommending we work together to put in place one uniform standard for professional certification and registration. And, ASTTBC and BCIPI are working with the Real Estate Council (the licensing body for realtors) to establish “best practices” for house inspectors and realtors.

“Buyer beware” is no longer acceptable. It is time for all parties to come together to ensure a better regulatory regime for house inspections — the part of the real estate transaction that affects health, safety and financial security.

John E. Leech is executive director and registrar of Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of B.C.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005