[New West] The Shops at New West (Plaza 88) | Completed

[urbancanadian]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

Also a mid-rise at about 310 Agnes Street, kitty-corner to Qayqayt Elementary School.

That's right. Two buildings, now addressed as 318 and 328 Agnes Street. The city's documents all list them as 6-storeys, but the drawings indicate the "downhill" sides as having 8 floors.

[CanSpice]

Tonight's Council meeting will be kicked off with a Public Hearing for rezoning necessary to build the fourth tower. I have no idea which way this one will go, but judging from the correspondence received by council, most residents are opposed to it.

[TourOdeon]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

Tonight's Council meeting will be kicked off with a Public Hearing for rezoning necessary to build the fourth tower. I have no idea which way this one will go, but judging from the correspondence received by council, most residents are opposed to it.

Why would they oppose it? Its in such a prime location, building a high-rise there is obvious.

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

Tonight's Council meeting will be kicked off with a Public Hearing for rezoning necessary to build the fourth tower. I have no idea which way this one will go, but judging from the correspondence received by council, most residents are opposed to it.

I wish they would get this one going already, however I think a provision should be that the new material concealing the parkade should be extended to cover the entire parkade along Carnarvon to make up for the terrible street presence of the 3 older towers in the development.

On a side note does anyone know who owns/plans to develop the empty lot at 51 Elliot St. On Albert Crescent park? I used to live in Skyline towers (the twin 70s towers next door) and wss painfully waiting for the 2 big empty lots next door to be developed. The lot at 188 Agnes was strewn with dumped furniture and an empty house for years before the 'Elliot Street' condo was built.i actually sent a letter to the developer to clean up the site because I lived next to a dumping ground. The mansions that were formerly on these properties were relocated to The Queens park neighborhood in the early 90s for the planned development but it was continuously put off.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by TourOdeon

Why would they oppose it? Its in such a prime location, building a high-rise there is obvious.

Because it's New West. *sigh* They're against expanding their roads 'cause they think it'll make more people want to drive through New West - as opposed to moving the traffic that's already there. Plenty of New West residents seem to want it to be like a small town in the middle of the province instead of the reality of being in the middle of the metro area.

[Archtype]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

I wish they would get this one going already, however I think a provision should be that the new material concealing the parkade should be extended to cover the entire parkade along Carnarvon to make up for the terrible street presence of the 3 older towers in the development.

On a side note does anyone know who owns/plans to develop the empty lot at 51 Elliot St. On Albert Crescent park? I used to live in Skyline towers (the twin 70s towers next door) and wss painfully waiting for the 2 big empty lots next door to be developed. The lot at 188 Agnes was strewn with dumped furniture and an empty house for years before the 'Elliot Street' condo was built.i actually sent a letter to the developer to clean up the site because I lived next to a dumping ground. The mansions that were formerly on these properties were relocated to The Queens park neighborhood in the early 90s for the planned development but it was continuously put off.

AP SIX HOLDINGS LTD is the title holder of 51 Elliot St, or was in 2008 when they proposed an 22 story tower on this site with 8 townhomes at ground level.
Nothing has been put through on this property since and the 2008 proposal has expired.

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by Archtype

AP SIX HOLDINGS LTD is the title holder of 51 Elliot St, or was in 2008 when they proposed an 22 story tower on this site with 8 townhomes at ground level.
Nothing has been put through on this property since and the 2008 proposal has expired.

Thanks for the update, I wonder what all the procrastinating is about. Its a beautiful spot next to the park with amazing views of the north and south mountain ranges and fraser river.

Also I cant find any info at all about that holdings company, what and where is it?

[NewWester]

Well, they are currently building an apartment on one of the empty lots: http://www.censorio.com/collection/elliot-street/plans/

The hole is dug and the crane is up and the foundations are going in.

I should really take my dog for a walk around all of the projects on the go in downtown New West and snap some pics. There are more towers in various stages of application or construction than this board appreciates.

[urbancanadian]

^You reminded me to post some pics I took on Monday. Not much - and no pics of Elliot - but I covered three other projects:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=3127

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by TourOdeon

Why would they oppose it? Its in such a prime location, building a high-rise there is obvious.

I hope they oppose it because 172 studio units, 43%, is a joke that no council in their right mind should ever allow. The number should not pass 10-20%, assuming the city is in the business of guiding development to improve the quality of life in their city.

398 units, 172 will be studios, 72 will be one-bedroom, 132 will be two-bedroom and 22 will be have three bedrooms.

Also when they originally proposed plaza 88, some 10 years ago, the fourth tower was supposed to be hotel or commercial. Rental might be better then market residential but it still brings no jobs to the city and goes against the spirit of the original rezoning. Obviously though like usual the developer never had any intention of building any commercial space in the 4th tower, instead they just waited long enough for most people to forget and the council / mayor to change up, and now we are here, more residents, no jobs.

[BodomReaper]

Originally Posted by cornholio

I hope they oppose it because 172 studio units, 43%, is a joke that no council in their right mind should ever allow. The number should not pass 10-20%, assuming the city is in the business of guiding development to improve the quality of life in their city.

What's with all the studio hate on these boards? Students and bachelors need places to live too. We already have all townhouses and single family homes catering to bigger households; there's no need for the government to tell developers they can't serve pent-up studio demand in apartment development.

Some condo towers are exclusively 2-bedroom, I don't see anyone trying to step-in and force them to serve singles.

[NewWester]

Originally Posted by BodomReaper

What's with all the studio hate on these boards? Students and bachelors need places to live too. We already have all townhouses and single family homes catering to bigger households; there's no need for the government to tell developers they can't serve pent-up studio demand in apartment development.

Some condo towers are exclusively 2-bedroom, I don't see anyone trying to step-in and force them to serve singles.

To be fair this tower was originally slated to be ENTIRELY studios and 1 bedrooms until council rejected it. And then the developer threatened that it would never go ahead... and look how empty that threat was.

The issue isn't with building studios and one bedrooms, the issue is that there are too few two and three bedroom apartments being built. The reality that families can just go buy a house isn't true anymore in Vancouver and our stock of townhouses that aren't way the hell off in Langley is well below what I think the future demand of people like me who are outgrowing their 1 bedroom apts but still want to live in the city. Since the developers can make more money from selling three studios instead of 1 two bedroom apartment, they have an incentive to build nothing but studios and it's up to our local governments to intervene for whats best for community interests. (Corporations are, after all, profit bacteria that only care about money making.)

In this case I hope the tower goes ahead. While 172 studios is still kind of bonkers (I would have liked to see more 1 bedrooms and more 3 bedroom apartments), 132 two bedroom rental apartments is nothing to scoff at. Also, as far as locations to build a boatload of studios, New West station with its connectivity to skytrain and local amenities makes a lot of sense.

[officedweller]

VIA Architecture posted on October 15th 2015 that the 4th tower got 3rd reading:


3rd reading received for #Tower4! This is the largest purpose-built #marketrentalhousing building in #WesternCanada!
https://twitter.com/viaarchitecture

Found an article from September:

New West residents raise concerns about Tower 4 at Plaza 88
Theresa McManus / New West Record
September 29, 2015 02:30 PM

Plaza 88 Developments will have to address some concerns of its existing residents before getting the green light to build its fourth and final tower.

...

Following a nearly two-hour public hearing, city council gave third reading to the zoning amendment bylaw for 900 Carnarvon St. Council, however, added an amendment that specific issues raised by Plaza 88 residents must be addressed before the project comes back to council for fourth reading.

“There was an amendment made that the issues relating to the pedestrian crossing, security and the parking issues need to be resolved before it comes back for fourth reading and adoption to council,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “That was put on as a restriction before it comes back, for those issues to be resolved.”

According to Cote, staff and the developer will be working with the individual strata councils at Plaza 88 to address the very specific issues raised in the public hearing – such as the issues related to building security.

- See more at: http://www.newwestrecord.ca/news/new....FZNzgk9A.dpuf

[TourOdeon]

This tower looks a lot better compared to his three sisters

[Marshal]

Originally Posted by TourOdeon

This tower looks a lot better compared to his three sisters

Absolutely, but that's not hard, nor does it mean this tower is particularly well designed.

Resolving the issues council has prescribed should be fairly routine. This should be back for the fourth reading as soon as it suits Plaza 88 Developments' scheduling. What a hard site to resolve the street level aspects of the design. Made even harder by the mess the earlier phases made of Carnarvon.

Exciting anyway. The dirt patch is begging to be put down.

[BodomReaper]

Originally Posted by Marshal

Absolutely, but that's not hard, nor does it mean this tower is particularly well designed.

Resolving the issues council has prescribed should be fairly routine. This should be back for the fourth reading as soon as it suits Plaza 88 Developments' scheduling. What a hard site to resolve the street level aspects of the design. Made even harder by the mess the earlier phases made of Carnarvon.

Exciting anyway. The dirt patch is begging to be put down.

Carnarvon would have felt a lot different had the city insisted on this level of above-grade parking treatment for the earlier phases. I suppose they're traumatized by what they ended up with.

To date, this is my favorite example of above-grade parking. Clean and attractive while honestly expressing the actual use, not pretending it's something else:

[djmk]

Originally Posted by TourOdeon

This tower looks a lot better compared to his three sisters

What an interesting use of gender in a sentence.

[Klazu]

Is this going to be taller than Riversky? If so, then this will be the tallest tower in New Westminster.

I don't mind them departing from the design of the original three towers.

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Is this going to be taller than Riversky? If so, then this will be the tallest tower in New Westminster.

I don't mind them departing from the design of the original three towers.

It looks like this one is going to be 40 storeys (35 storeys of residential on top of 5 storey parkade), and Riversky One is going to be 33 storeys. Looks like yes!

[Klazu]

Great to see New Westminster also pushing the envelope and entering the 40 storeys club. Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam are already there.