Developer buys land in Burnaby to be part of area’s transformation, VP says
Joanne Lee-Young
The Province
Grosvenor Group’s Michael Ward, senior vice president of development, and Marc Josephson, vice president of development, at the parcel of land that Grosvenor Group has purchased near Brentwood Mall. Francis Georgian / PNG
Grosvenor Group recently finished buying an eight-acre piece of land across from Brentwood Town Centre and the SkyTrain station in Burnaby. The south side of it faces the end of a short strip that runs parallel to Lougheed Highway.
It’s an intriguing plot to amass for the London-based company, which dates back to 1677 and owns some of the most expensive real estate in that city’s Mayfair and Belgravia areas, and now manages investments for the 7th Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, an aristocrat known as the world’s wealthiest person under 30 based on land, property and other assets.
“Five or 10 years ago, we would not have been buying,” here, said Michael Ward, Vancouver-based senior vice-president for Grosvenor Americas.
The company made its first Vancouver area acquisition in 1953, but for decades, it didn’t do much in the residential realm here until the latest condo boom when it launched expensive, near-waterfront, luxury condo projects in West Vancouver’s Ambleside area and on downtown Vancouver’s Hornby Street.
But this site near Brentwood, which is in the very early days of seeking approvals and about a decade from completion, is a different ambition covering two city blocks.
The parcels have a combined assessed value of $273 million and are currently occupied by an old, eight-storey office building and some surface parking space. There used to be a car dealership.
They are also surrounded by an array of highrise towers popping up along the SkyTrain route.
“The area has hit a level of maturity in terms of a critical mass of people, retail amenities and transit,” said Ward, citing increasing foot traffic and transit ridership numbers, as well as other developers having already broken ground.
“So we can come in and be part of the last 10 years of building a complete community.”
It’s part way through a longer plan in Burnaby of transforming transit areas into a so-called forests of towers at a time when there are some conflicting views about higher towers, rental housing and transit-oriented development.
Grosvenor plans to seek approval for five towers up to 51 storeys, plus four other buildings of up to six storeys and 280,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space.
There are already some very tall buildings in the works here and elsewhere in Burnaby. Nearby, Onni Groups’ Two Gilmore Place will be 64-storeys and some 214 metres tall, putting it over Vancouver’s tallest existing buildings, the Living Shangri-La and the Trump International Hotel and Tower. Over at Lougheed Town Centre, also in Burnaby, developer Pinnacle International is proposing an 82-storey condo tower.
“They’re a bit impersonal without a proper ground plan,” said Ward. “Towers are a way to achieve density that works well with transit services. It’s good, but it’s far more important to be interesting on the ground level.
He said there will be a focus on spaces where residents will want to gather and interact such as galleries with art and theatre programs and retail options that include local, small businesses rather than larger chains.
While some other towers also include both condos for sale as well as purpose-built rental units, Ward said Grosvenor is aiming for a higher mix of purpose-built rental with both market and non-market units.
A higher number of purpose-built rental units will allow the company to weather changing market conditions and also rising acceptance of renting over owning homes and using transit rather than driving, he added.
© 2020 Postmedia Network Inc.
