New Westminster Updates

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

"tah-mah-sout" is not difficult at all. If you can't take the fifteen seconds it takes to learn it.

I wasn't originally planning on spending more time on this nonsense, but it has to be said that hand to the heart (unless that's too triggering), absolutely none of us will remember how this, or any of the 20 other recent aboriginal names, are either written or pronounced without googling it every. single. time. and then copy-pasting the search result every. single. time.

What are the aboriginal names for Rainbow Park or Belcarra Regional Park? Anyone replying with the answer is a liar and they very well know they had no idea and had to google it.

I hereby rest my case over this nonsense. Coquitlam and Kelowna are fantastic names I really enjoy, but all modern ones are just pure bs and we all know it.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I think there is a nice variation in height, but that train yard and the overhead Skytrain is going to make for a noisy living and disconnect this from what is otherwise a pretty great waterfront. I guess this is the natural way for the skyline to grow and I wonder if this will help make a case for a new Skytrain station west of New Westminster?

I mean, living in a noisy place describes most of Downtown New West, let's also not forget the road noise from Royal/Stewardson, I've lived near here and that was much worse than the trains. If anything this could justify a ped/cycle bridge across the railyard from Royal, as it's pretty much adjacent to New West station.

[Lexus]

2023, June 24

We are loosing green Shrek

IMG_2151 by Lexus LX600, on Flickr

[jollyburger]

More concept sketches on that Columbia Square proposal. MCMP Architects.

Those businesses will remain as Phase 1 begins construction and could then transfer over to new space once it’s complete. The intent is to work with all tenants to re-envision them into the space, the developer says.

The proposal integrates 10 per cent of housing in a stand-alone site for an affordable housing provider, plus additional sites for 10 per cent market rental housing. On this aspect, city staff will continue working with EDGAR to finalize a plan, and submit to council for approval.

The commercial components will include a mix of uses, including office and "many forms of retail," McClenaghan said. "There's going to be day care and we're in very early conversations with the school board . . . looking at (whether) there's an opportunity to incorporate an urban school for that location."

EDGAR is expecting a 10- to 15-year build-out that would also include:

Accessible walkways throughout the site;
Bike routes that tie into the city’s existing network;
Several play spaces, plus day care for residents, employees and the community;
Park and open space that covers 50 per cent of the site;
The introduction of new trees and a strategy to potentially support mature trees on site;
Vehicle diversion to an underground parkade, creating a pedestrian-only ground level.

https://renx.ca/edgar-8-tower-redeve...ew-westminster

[Lexus]

2023, July 7

Hospital and a tower near Amazon Warehouse by Braid Station

Untitled by Lexus LX600, on Flickr

[Vin]

Originally Posted by ryanbc48

After this, hopefully the downtown New West will look a lot more like a "downtown" Curious to see how the people will react. The proposed hotel nearby is only 1 building and already got so much nay lol

Technically downtown New West is further up the hill, but this old heritage area is fast rising from the ashes to become the new centre of New West. It is already starting to look like a proper downtown, especially if you look up the valley of talls here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2005...8192?entry=ttu

Nevertheless, I'm excited about this new development although it is sad to see that a slew of services and restaurants from the current strip mall, which is quite attractive by North American standards, would likely not return.

[rickvug]

Originally Posted by Vin

This old heritage area is fast rising from the ashes to become the new centre of New West. It is already starting to look like a proper downtown.

Vin, I will just leave this here for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewWest/com...ing_to_council. Hot off the press, doesn't hit council until Monday. Downtown NW is expanding west in a big way should these two major multi-tower developments move forward.

Edit: Update with local news article that was just published: https://newwestanchor.com/p/new-west...treet-proposal.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by rickvug

Vin, I will just leave this here for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewWest/com...ing_to_council. Hot off the press, doesn't hit council until Monday. Downtown NW is expanding west in a big way should these two major multi-tower developments move forward.

Edit: Update with local news article that was just published: https://newwestanchor.com/p/new-west...treet-proposal.

Wow, great! I was thinking the lower twelfth area would just sit waiting for the city's master plan, good to see a catalyst project for the area.

From the city report:
-20 storey, 200,000sqft office tower
-three residential towers 32-42 storeys w/ 20% below market rental
-85,000sqft of retail/ultra-light industrial in the podiums


Image from Arcadis IBI Group

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by rickvug

Vin, I will just leave this here for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewWest/com...ing_to_council. Hot off the press, doesn't hit council until Monday. Downtown NW is expanding west in a big way should these two major multi-tower developments move forward.

Edit: Update with local news article that was just published: https://newwestanchor.com/p/new-west...treet-proposal.

What about east, towards Columbia Station? That area is still pretty underbuilt.

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by fredinno

What about east, towards Columbia Station? That area is still pretty underbuilt.

There are really four spots that are going to be built up, although nothing's been announced:

1. TransLink owns the Boucher Centre, which sits above the Columbia SkyTrain Station. There's an empty lot next to it that they'd be crazy to not buy (and the owner would be crazy to not sell it to them because it's too small to do any worthwhile development on its own). The two buildings between Boucher and 4th Street (where The Met Hotel, GameDeals, an escape room, and a hair salon are) could potentially be part of a large assembly and redevelopment by TransLink in conjunction with a station redesign.
2. Jacqui Cohen needs to sell the old Army & Navy and get that redeveloped ASAP.
3. The mess of a building at 4th and Columbia needs to be redeveloped ASAP.
4. The empty lot where the old Cobb Shoes building was at McKenzie and Columbia is being used for staging for various large infrastructure projects; it used to be used by Metro Vancouver and now I'm pretty sure it's used by MoTI for the Pattullo replacement. Once that's done hopefully the owner redevelops.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by rickvug

Downtown NW is expanding west in a big way should these two major multi-tower developments move forward.

Considering the size of these sites there's absolutely a need for one of them to provide a school and the other to provide some sort of other substantial community amenity.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by rickvug

Vin, I will just leave this here for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewWest/com...ing_to_council. Hot off the press, doesn't hit council until Monday. Downtown NW is expanding west in a big way should these two major multi-tower developments move forward.

Edit: Update with local news article that was just published: https://newwestanchor.com/p/new-west...treet-proposal.

The more, the merrier. Excited about all these proposals.

[madog222]

I missed this in the council report, the recently mentioned Lower 12th proposal would retain and relocate onsite the Terminal Pub (built 1940) and Westminster Boiler and Tank Co. (built 1941) buildings. They're shown in the render above in the centre of the development.

Also, the office tower could be changed to rental residential. It sounds like that's what the developer wants in exchange for the City getting a new firehall and community space on the site. A new firehall at the city owned 231 Twelfth St lot a block away has been on the backburner for years.

Re-envisioning lower 12th Street: Highrises, retail and a fire hall?"

Parb Rehal, manager of development at the Weststone Group, said the company submitted this application to the city “quite some time ago” and discussions are underway within the company about changing the commercial office building to rental housing.

“So more rental area for the project is what we’re considering right now,” he said.
...

Nakagawa said the City of New Westminster has been having casual conversations about the need for a new fire hall. She noted Victoria and Vancouver have both built fire halls that have housing on top.

“It seems to me that this is a very ideal location for our fire hall,” she said.

Saying she was on “Team Fire Hall”, Coun. Tasha Henderson said the projects in Victoria and Vancouver provided affordable housing above the fire halls.

“It seems to me like that fits this theme of residential meets industrial uses and other uses, and I think that it just could be a really key spot for that,” she said. “That’s a real priority for me and others. So I’d love to hear just some discussion on that and see where that goes.”

Rehal said the Weststone Group has discussed uses such as a fire hall and community space for the site.

“We’re absolutely open minded to doing those things. Now, everyone knows that it can’t be done unless it’s economically viable,” he said at Monday’s city council workshop. “That’s why we are here; we want to find a way to compromise with the city, with community, with our staff — trying to make it work.”

From Theresa McManus & New Westminster Record https://www.newwestrecord.ca/highlig...e-hall-7264554

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by madog222

I missed this in the council report, the recently mentioned Lower 12th proposal would retain and relocate onsite the Terminal Pub (built 1940) and Westminster Boiler and Tank Co. (built 1941) buildings. They're shown in the render above in the centre of the development.

Also, the office tower could be changed to rental residential. It sounds like that's what the developer wants in exchange for the City getting a new firehall and community space on the site. A new firehall at the city owned 231 Twelfth St lot a block away has been on the backburner for years.

From Theresa McManus & New Westminster Record https://www.newwestrecord.ca/highlig...e-hall-7264554

Really doubt about the viability of the light industrial here.

Commercial > Industrial is probably going to happen (Metro wants the big box stores to move out of the industrial zones, and the rents for industrial are rising constantly despite the largest increases in supply in Metro history) but this is probably not the place for it.

Unless you're talking dealerships. Do they have some sort of deal worked out for a new dealership on the ground floor or something?

The Fire Hall seems like a good idea though. The closest one is in Uptown New West. Having a downtown one too makes sense.

[officedweller]

From TrishJewison Twitter August 28th:


https://twitter.com/TrishJewison/sta...69696834142629

[jollyburger]

Footing for some tower near 7th Avenue/6th Street for PC Urban. Q4 2025 completion

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzOzAl-xV1A/

https://www.pcurban.ca/project/sixth-street/

[jollyburger]

Actually the crane is also up for this project:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzHLCZsxOQG/

[Lexus]

2023-11-12

Only one crane left at the hospital

Untitled by Lexus LX600, on Flickr

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

Douglas College / Stantec released some renderings of the project at 808 Royal in New Westminster:

808 Royal (Douglas College) Renderings by Brad Cavanagh, on Flickr

808 Royal (Douglas College) Renderings by Brad Cavanagh, on Flickr

This will be a 20-storey academic and student housing building. 244 student housing units, plus over 240k sq.ft. of academic space. Council voted last night to waive Public Hearing for this project, which should help speed up the process.

Construction fencing has gone up around this site. I'm guessing excavation is going to be starting soon!

[officedweller]

618 Carnarvon

From GBL twitter Nov 16th:


https://twitter.com/GBLArchitects/st...50311269519813