November 14, 2012

Burnaby’s Kingsway corridor grows up

Thousands of residential units to be included in towers along key Metro thoroughfare

Several developers have multi-tower developments between Boundary Road and Metrotown that promise to substantially increase area density with some of the tallest towers in Metro Vancouver.

The two biggest multi-tower complexes are:

  • the set of three 30-storey towers with 1,100-units on the Vancouver side of Boundary Road – a project winding through rezoning hearings, which Rennie Marketing Systems president Tracie McTavish told Business in Vancouver that he expects to start marketing by spring 2013; and
  • the five tower, 1,800-unit community that Anthem Properties is teaming up with Beedie Development Group’s Beedie Living residential development division to build adjacent to the soon-to-be-redeveloped Station Square mall.

Greg Zayadi, Anthem’s director of sales and marketing, told BIV that he expects all of the development’s towers will be completed within the next eight years.

On October 20, Zayadi helped sell all but a handful of the mega-project’s 269-unit, 35-storey first building.

Future buildings in the project are potentially set to soar up to 57 storeys, which Zayadi pointed out would be the tallest in the province.

Other skyscrapers set for Burnaby’s burgeoning Metrotown neighbourhood include Bosa Properties’ Sovereign project at the corner of Kingsway and Willingdon Avenue. That 45-storey tower is set to be 500 feet tall, which would be the second tallest building in the province.

Bosa Properties last year sold 202 condos on the day it launched sales and set a record for Burnaby of $98 million in real estate sales in a single day.

Other projects in the neighbourhood include:

  • Intracorp’s 343-unit MetroPlace, which is under construction and has eight units remaining;
  • Intracorp’s 290-unit Silver development, which has 72 units remaining and will be under construction next year;
  • Polygon’s 249-unit Moda development, which has about 100 units remaining and is set to be completed by 2014; and
  • Polygon’s sold-out 245-unit Chancellor development, which is set to be completed by spring 2013.

The area around Edmonds is the eastern anchor for Kingsway corridor development.

Burnaby council authorized staff in August to work with Cressey Development Group, which is proposing to build a mixed-use community on a site that is currently occupied by Value Village at 7350 Edmonds Street and a multi-tenant building at 7338 Kingsway Avenue. The project would include a five-storey office building, 214,000 square of mostly street-front retail and three residential towers that would be 25, 30 and 40 storeys tall. Burnaby council has also authorized staff to work with Kevin Rakhra, who owns sites in the 6200 block of Kingsway that is currently occupied by businesses such as the Intercity Motel, Church’s Chicken and Pizza Hut.

Rakhra wants to rezone the land for redevelopment, which could include a four-storey, mixed-use project with commercial space at grade under several storeys of residences.

Read more: http://www.biv.com/article/20121106/BIV0111/311069945/0/SEARCH/Burnaby’s-Kingsway-corridor-grows-up#disqus_thread