A plan to build six high-rises in southern Coquitlam, near the Burnaby and New Westminster borders, will see a restaurant more than a half-century old razed.
On Monday, Sept. 23, Wesgroup officials stood before Coquitlam’s committee in council to talk about its master development plan for 435–465 North Rd., where Denny’s and the now-vacant Your Independent Grocer are located in Cariboo Centre.
Under its proposal, Wesgroup and Choice Properties REIT — a subsidiary of George Weston Ltd., the company that owns Loblaws and brands like Your Independent Grocer — are joining forces to create the North Road Partnership to redevelop the 7.84-acre site on the eastern side of North Road, south of Austin Avenue.
If OK’d, the gateway property for Coquitlam will include six towers, up to 45 storeys tall, with about 2,470 strata and rental homes plus retail and two childcare centres.
It will be built in four phases, starting at the southwestern corner of the site, said Dean Johnson, Wesgroup’s vice president of development, said, noting a strata and a rental building, grocery and drug stores and daycare will go up in the first phase.
He said Wesgroup is also looking at implementing a district energy system as it has done on its River District parcel, a 130-acre community in southeast Vancouver.
Public consultation on the planned North Road development is expected next year.
Council reaction
In its early feedback to Wesgroup, council touched on the need for the renewed site to stand out given its high-profile spot across from the City of Lougheed in Burnaby.
“Let’s not see some rectangle in the sky,” Coun. Dennis Marsden said, noting he’d like to see something different from the City of Lougheed, which he described as “an atrocious mess. Is that what you really want your community to look like?”
“We don’t want to look like the City of Lougheed,” Coun. Robert Mazzarolo added.
Other councillors called for an office tower given the low vacancy in the Tri-Cities and the property’s proximity to the Lougheed SkyTrain station, while some spoke about the need to preserve the neighbourhood’s multicultural vibrancy.
Coun. Craig Hodge asked Wesgroup to include a restaurant with the loss of Denny’s.
“We want to make sure we have a good variety of services,” Hodge told Johnson.
Meanwhile, Mayor Richard Stewart praised Wesgroup for including a bicycle network in the North Road proposal, which will also have three municipally maintained roads.
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