[Surrey] Park Place | 2*36fl Phase 1 | Completed

[BodomReaper]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

can someone take a few photos of it for us Downtowner's please?????

Lucky for you I visited Central City today, so I snapped these from the top floor of the SFU campus! I wanted to take a more thorough tour through the actual development itself, but my friends were getting cranky and demanded to leave

[Cypherus]

Originally Posted by jhausner

Holland Point will be no different. That's the life in a large scale high-rise building unfortunately.

As for the stomping above, not sure about that in his case. I have only a few times heard things from people above me and they were extremely faint bumps. I've also asked my neighbors about sound from my place and they don't hear my music or TV and I tend to have it loud.

When things are completely quiet aka you're coming to sleep and everything is off, then you can hear some sounds if people are jumping around, have their TV up very loud, or are yelling. I _have_ heard my neighbors yelling a few times but not loud enough that I could make any words out and it was only when everything in my place was completely quiet.

Having grown up in townhouses, I can say the units are WAY quietter than a townhouse with wood frame construction. Your friend is either used to detached homes, or his neighbors are extremely crazy and making a lot of noise.

My beefs are minor. For my unit, there were 3 minor defficiencies and it was mainly grout clean up when I went through my inspection. They were all fixed by the time I moved in. I had my washer break, something was wrong with my dish washer after 3 uses, and my microwave burned a hole in the side afrer about 5 uses. All were fixed by Trail Appliances within a week and I can't really fault the developer for those issues.

I don't know your friend but 34 defficiencies seems a bit high. Either he got extremely unlucky or he is extremely picky. I've spoken to about 50 owners so far off and on in the building and all have shared the same opinion as me. Units are great, elevators are a bit problematic but improving, overall everything is good and the issues are minor and being looked into which is comforting.

My opinion though may be tempered by the fact that I purchased my unit back when they originally went on sale as Infinity Phase 2. After discounts from Concord and a whole slew of things thrown in, I ended up paying imo next to nothing for my unit. It is already assessed $80,000 higher than what I paid. With 20% down on it too that may be why my opinion is a bit more tempered than your friend. If you friend paid the max amount then I probably would be as picky as they are.

Noisy neighbors though regardless should and from what I can see, are being dealt with. Takes time though. Not like the strata or management company can go in and put them in hand cuffs.

Like I said though, life in a high-rise tower. I have friends who live in towers in Burnaby and downtown, some old, and some new in Yaletown. All experience exactly the same issues.

Thanks for sharing your experience. From hindsight, it appears his negative experience may be an isolated case and somewhat over-the-top in terms of pickiness. I currently live in a low rise condo, and despite the building being only 1.5 years old, it already had its first flood caused by a burst sprinkler system in the attic. It flooded 2 units and caused thousands in damage. The cause was improper installation and poor insulation from outside elements. The flood details in the meeting minutes are going to make any prospective buyer turn away. So current owners are going to be taking a hit. To me, I'd rather live in a high quality, concrete-constructed building like Park Place with the odd noisy neighbors that will quiet down over time once strata exerts its control, then a low-rise wood-frame building with low quality construction but with quiet neighbors. It's clear that hi-rises seem to be the better investment and your resale value is a great example of it.

[Cypherus]

Thanks for the pictures. It's amazing how Infinity already looks out-dated like it was built in the 90s....

[BodomReaper]

100% agreed. Infinity I is a disaster in almost every regard - street interaction, form (I thought we were done with slabs in the 70's), color, glazing, and mechanical penthouse/roof treatment. The two newer towers are a considerable improvement architecturally, but nothing can ever compensate for killing off the corner of King George Blvd. and 100 Avenue

[Nites]

Originally Posted by Cypherus

Thanks for the pictures. It's amazing how Infinity already looks out-dated like it was built in the 90s....

I'm not a fan of the design at all either. Hopefully Ultra turns out nice. I'll take a night time shot of this sometime soon from the same view. They have the crowns of the buildings all lit up now.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by Cypherus

Thanks for sharing your experience. From hindsight, it appears his negative experience may be an isolated case and somewhat over-the-top in terms of pickiness. I currently live in a low rise condo, and despite the building being only 1.5 years old, it already had its first flood caused by a burst sprinkler system in the attic. It flooded 2 units and caused thousands in damage. The cause was improper installation and poor insulation from outside elements. The flood details in the meeting minutes are going to make any prospective buyer turn away. So current owners are going to be taking a hit. To me, I'd rather live in a high quality, concrete-constructed building like Park Place with the odd noisy neighbors that will quiet down over time once strata exerts its control, then a low-rise wood-frame building with low quality construction but with quiet neighbors. It's clear that hi-rises seem to be the better investment and your resale value is a great example of it.

Funny thing they've already had a flood in Park Place too. Some people were flushing sanitary napkins down their toilet and they start blocking the piping causing the flood in several units. Big notice went out to everyone not to flush things down the toilet that aren't meant to be flushed down.

Hope they purchased unit insurance. Unfortunately no building can withstand stupid people if they are bent on breaking things and doing well... stupid things. In your case though, at least the faulty piping would be covered.

For the building though to add a bit to what I said, the only real noise beefs I've heard are from people facing sky train in units where their bedroom is against the glass. Basically the left and right 2 bedroom units facing skytrain in Park Place 2. They can hear the skytrain at night and for some it can be annoying. I live in a 1 bedroom unit so the bedroom is actually off the wall. My living/dining room is against the glass so acts as a buffer. I can hear the SkyTrain changing tracks sometimes through my ventilation though and if I'm in the living room and everything is quiet. It is very faint though and the ambulances make more noise.

So that's something to keep in mind. If you want a really quiet unit for outside noise you'd want to be on 1 of the inner units aka Park Place 2 facing Park Place 1 or vice versa. But the view won't be as nice. Bit of a trade off.

Your friend though is probably right about sound proofing on the floors. I also notice that the even though it is concrete constructions, between the 2 middle 1 bedroom units (I'm in 1) they don't have a concrete wall so it is just a standard wall with metal struts. Had it been concrete the noise would be pretty much non-existant.

But what can you do. Nothing is perfect.

[GMasterAres]

I don't mind Infinity though I agree the street interaction is bad, especially for being at such a prime corner. Nothing we can do about that now though. As for the looks, I think even Park Place needs a paint job. I really REALLY don't like the grey concrete look. Even though they've painted it with a covering the grey just looks ugly to me. Same with the Surrey Central library. Looks unfinished and ugly. I would have loved to see some color thrown in.

If you're at street level it looks better because the commercial building at the base of Park Place is painted and looks a LOT more slick with the coloration. They just didn't extend it up to the towers. Distance shots don't give the towers justice but right at street level, the commercial makes it deceiving.

At the end of the day though, all 3 towers are getting more people down there and Park Place has pulled Concord Pacific to the area. They may not be the prettiest but they are some of the most important recent towers in the grand scheme of trying to bring people and developer to downtown Surrey.

[Nites]

[Nites]

[GMasterAres]

Oh the days of the big giant empty lot and Holland Park being a big parking lot.

[paradigm4]

Originally Posted by jhausner

Oh the days of the big giant empty lot and Holland Park being a big parking lot.

What was that building that's now Best Buy? Didn't it used to be a Sears auto repair centre? Or am I completely nuts here

[Nites]

Originally Posted by paradigm4

What was that building that's now Best Buy? Didn't it used to be a Sears auto repair centre? Or am I completely nuts here

Yes your correct. They actually tore that repair center building down completely and started off from scratch. Remember when they used to have Sears where TNT is currently? After Sears left they turned it into Sears clearance center and now you've got TNT. Also, the Bay use to occupy the spot where Zellers currently is.

[WarrenC12]

How are those buildings to live in? What are the approximate rental prices that owners are asking/getting?

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by paradigm4

What was that building that's now Best Buy? Didn't it used to be a Sears auto repair centre? Or am I completely nuts here

Yep.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

How are those buildings to live in? What are the approximate rental prices that owners are asking/getting?

Last I heard and that was a few months ago, 1 bedroom units are around $950 and 2 bedroom units $1150 give or take. And that's getting.

As for living in them, things are fine. I'm having no issues anymore. The elevators aren't as painful as they were now that the concierge isn't locking 2 of the 3 for moving every other day and only doing 1 now maximum. There were a lot of complaints that leaving 1 elevator open to service 36 floors is just insane. Someone finally listened. For a while there it was actually faster for me to WALK down 21 flights of stairs than wait for the elevator.

I like being able to walk 5 feet to Skytrain and the gym, though missing 1 or 2 machines for my Fitness World routines, is nice and convenient and I haven't stepped foot in Fitness World in about 3 months now.

[CoryHolmes]

Originally Posted by jhausner

I haven't stepped foot in Fitness World in about 3 months now.

At least I'm not the only one

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by CoryHolmes

At least I'm not the only one

Lol we go to the gym in the building 3 times a week now instead of Fitness World is what I meant. Going to cancel my membership actually save $25 a month.

[CoryHolmes]

Originally Posted by jhausner

Lol we go to the gym in the building 3 times a week now instead of Fitness World is what I meant. Going to cancel my membership actually save $25 a month.

Yeah, I know what you meant That's the part I'm looking forward to when I upgrade to a newer building: better amenities than what I have now.

[Nites]

[Track]

Is there any word yet on retailers going into the complex next to King George? It seems to be done from a construction standpoint but it's just...sitting there. Seems like the perfect place for a coffee chain to go into, in my opinion.