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Originally Posted by Vin
Why don't you share your "understanding", sir, instead of just blabbering stuff that doesn't contribute to anything?
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Surrey central hasn't reached critical mass yet to justify a much taller office tower honestly. Council should also consider context. That entire block is getting a huge boost in business draw and it isn't like this tower is the ONLY office tower being built.
There is another office tower being built across from Surrey Memorial with the Innovation Boulevard looking to expand by 5 additional towers all the way up to Fraser Highway, all Office.
You then have to include The Hub which is building an 10(12? I forget), office tower across from Coast Capital. This is a LOT of office space to fill up. Heck Coast Capital still has available space for lease and they only had to deal with 4 floors, not 25...
3 Civic which was built right in the heart of Surrey Central could only justify 4 floors for office. It is a tall tower, tallest in Surrey Central, and 95% of that is residential. Why? Because they couldn't justify it. Regular people are stupid enough to pay a huge premium for "a view" they rarely look at. Businesses are not.
So the demand is simply not there and I trust the developer far more with respect to understanding the market conditions and what makes sense right now. Afterall, they are the ones ponying up the money to build this tower and taking the risk. Surrey council is not.
I am 100% in agreement with those that say the city really isn't in a position to be super demandy right now. Would I love that corner to have a 750 foot mega tower? Sure why not. But it doesn't make sense and there is _A LOT!!!_ of empty space through the rest of Surrey Central that will still be filling up 50 years from now.
Downtown Vancouver is well over 100 years old and is still building towers, and tall ones today. It's not like if this tower gets built, we're dooming tall towers in the future. And let's be honest, how many of Downtown Vancouver's mega tall towers are right on a major block corner? And what does that even mean when Surrey Central has an expanded road network? Shangri La is on the corner of Georgia and Thurlow... not extremely major. Wall Center, Hornby and Nelson. List goes on if you look at where they are located. Surrey can have a super tall anywhere and that corner and block will become a new focal point. It's not a mad rush.
The only reason Council thinks this is a major corner is because Surrey Central has frankly a shitty road network that is grossly inefficient and barely meets the traffic needs of today overemphasizing a few "corners" throughout the area.