Burnaby’s Brentwood Town Centre could see another 12 highrise towers come to its northwest neighbourhood, as council reviews a proposal for the Buchanan West master plan.
The 10.68-acre site between Gilmore Avenue, Halifax Street, Madison Avenue and Lougheed Highway is larger than any of the Brentwood master plans approved last year.
The site would see up to 12 mixed-use residential and commercial towers, with “upwards of 6,000 homes,” a new neighbourhood park, two new streets connecting Gilmore Avenue to Madison Avenue east-west, and Halifax Street to Lougheed Highway north-south.
The development would include a variety of uses beyond residential, such as retail, office and hotel space.
With potential for “thousands of jobs in the retail, hospitality and knowledge-based industries,” the report to council states the “most significant goal” of the master plan is creating a “truly pedestrian-oriented neighbourhood.”
The city’s next steps are to host open houses for public consultation on the master plan. The open houses will be announced later this year, likely in the fall.
Brentwood a growing district
Coun. Pietro Calendino celebrated the plan at council on Jan. 23, noting the area had not been developed because ownership of the land is not consolidated.
The master plan would be an incentive to owners to move ahead with development, Calendino said.
“I hope that this gives an incentive to the – whoever the owners are there – to maybe get moving and start some development, because it’s undeveloped area; it’s not very appealing to look at.”
Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley told the NOW the overall plan for Brentwood will see about 60,000 people reside in the neighbourhood.
“Now – who knows when it will all get built, depending on the economy,” Hurley said.
“But certainly, that’s why we’re building the new community centre, because we want to make that a walking community.”
Last year, four master plans at Brentwood were approved: Grosvenor Brentwood, the South Yards, the Bassano site and Brentwood West totalling 19 towers and a minimum of about 8,100 residential units.
What’s planned
Grosvenor Brentwood
By Boffo Developments
Between 3,000 and 3,600 housing units
Located at 4600 block of Lougheed Highway, between Alpha and Beta avenues and Dawson Street
Six towers
7.9 acres
Includes city-owned community centre and almost three acres of green space
The South Yards
Owned by Anthem Properties and KingSett Capital (the property was sold for $215 million last January, according to Bloomberg Tax)
About 2,500 housing units
Located at 2223 – 2375 Alpha Avenue, 2350 – 2430 Willingdon Avenue and 4500 – 4554 Dawson Street
Five towers ranging from 36 storeys to a maximum of 47
Eight acres
Bassano
By Boffo Developments
About 1,240 housing units
Located at 2100, 2160 and 2210 Springer Ave. and 5334 Lougheed Hwy.
Four towers ranging from 34 to 45 or 50 storeys
4.1 acres
Plans to provide non-market rental housing as a “swing site” to temporarily house tenants displaced by development in Metrotown.
Brentwood West
By Bosa
About 1,400 housing units
Located at 4430 and 4488 Halifax St., 4461 Lougheed Hwy., 1801, 1925, and 1967 Willingdon Ave. (across the street from Brentwood Mall, where the Petro Canada gas station is)
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
