Savvy investors are setting their sights on Coquitlam, British Columbia, where well-crafted masterplans are driving the City’s transformation to an exciting regional urban hub.
Both redevelopment and new growth in this central Metro Vancouver city are providing a wealth of residential and commercial development prospects. The City itself is leading the way, with progressive plans and processes based on the principles of smart growth. Here is a look at three promising areas.
The region’s downtown
Coquitlam City Centre has served as the region’s de facto downtown for decades, but the arrival of SkyTrain in 2016 sparked a reboot of the City Centre Area Plan.
The draft plan to be adopted in early 2020 charts a course for strategic enhancements and redevelopment as City Centre’s population almost doubles to 58,000 by 2046. Some of the principles:
• To create a vibrant and active environment day and night: Concentrate population and job growth around the SkyTrain stations in a commercial core featuring restaurants and pubs, shops, offices, residential high-rises, and hotel and conference space.
• To stoke job growth: Increase commercial floor space in the core and continue opportunities on the periphery for enterprises that need more space.
• To welcome residents at all stages in life: Public amenities, a new elementary school and range of housing options within walking distance of jobs, transit and parks.
• To build community: A network of parks, open spaces and new civic amenities.
• To enhance transportation: Pedestrian-friendly streets, pathways and greenways.
“The evolution of Coquitlam’s City Centre will take a major step forward with the adoption of the new plan,” said Andrew Merrill, Coquitlam’s Manager of Community Planning. “It has already generated a lot of interest and I expect to see heightened activity in the near future.”
Learn more at www.coquitlam.ca/CCAP
The Burke Mountain lifestyle
A short distance from City Centre is another gem: Burke Mountain, a growing hillside community in northeast Coquitlam and one of the region’s largest greenfield developments. The City, as a major landowner, is influencing its design through thoughtful, comprehensive master planning that includes offering pre-zoned, fully serviced development sites.
About 13,000 residents already call Burke Mountain home, drawn by its panoramic views, access to nature for hiking and mountain biking, and proximity to schools, parks, and transit.
The future 39-acre Burke Mountain Village will anchor this fast-growing lifestyle-driven community and be a unique regional destination. When complete, it will offer a variety of housing options, street-front retail, a large public plaza, neighbourhood park and state-of-the-art recreation centre.
“Burke Mountain offers the type of lifestyle many people want today, whether they are raising a family, a young professional or an empty-nester,” said Curtis Scott, Coquitlam’s Manager of Land Development. “The City is invested in our long-term vision for the area.”
Learn more at www.coquitlam.ca/burkemtn
Burquitlam renewal
Construction will begin in early 2020 on a new YMCA recreation facility, community amenities and housing in Burquitlam that will help deliver the vision laid out in the 2017 neighbourhood plan update: walkable, complete and transit-oriented, with a mix of housing types and access to shopping and amenities.
The joint project of the City, YMCA of Greater Vancouver and Concert Properties will redevelop the Burquitlam Park site, located next to the developing commercial zone at Clarke and Como Lake that includes the Burquitlam SkyTrain station.
Learn more at www.coquitlam.ca/ymca
For more information about investing in Coquitlam, contact the Economic Development Office at 604-927-3442
