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Burnaby: Transit sparks construction boom, from north to south to east

Mixed-use developments are cropping up all over B.C.'s third-largest city, thanks to transit extensions and close proximity to post-secondary institutes
Burnaby and New Westminster

 

Vancouver’s big suburban neighbor, Burnaby, webbed with SkyTrain lines including the latest extension to Coquitlam, is a hub for transit-oriented condo and commercial construction. There are currently more than 100 high-rise buildings in the planning, according to the city. Megaprojects like the development of Brentwood, where Onni Group has proposed the tallest residential building west of Toronto, the re-make of Metrotown and the new Lougheed Centre will help add 120,000 new residents over the next 25 years. As one of the region’s corporate office hubs, home to the campuses of Electronic Arts Canada, Best Buy Canada and D-Wave Systems, the city benefits from a highly educated workforce – 38 per cent of adults of 15 possess a bachelor’s degree or higher – and two major post-secondary institutions, Simon Fraser University and the BC Institute of Technology.