The Brentwood neighbourhood will be home to Burnaby’s tallest tower after the second phase of the SOLO District development held its groundbreaking ceremony Saturday.

The project by Appia Developments will stand more than 550 feet tall, second in B.C. only to the Shangri-La in downtown Vancouver. The 55-storey building will have 48 “floors” due to some levels being double height.

Commercial units, including office space, will take up the first 14 floors, while 280 residential units will make up floors 15 to 48. A 5,000-square-foot, indoor-outdoor amenity space for building residents, dubbed “Club 55,” will take up the rooftop.

A public preview of the new homes was held last Saturday with sales to start this weekend, on June 22.

Recent reports of a slowing real estate market and concerns about an oversupply of condos don’t concern Jim Bosa, president of Appia.

Read more: http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/news/212005321.html

A rezoning proposal has been put forward to develop a phased commercial development at 2020 Boundary Road, a site the Northeast corner of Lougheed and Boundary Road in Burnaby. Translink sold the site last year to the Open Road Auto Group for $19.2 Million.

The development will consist of:

• two or three high-end auto dealerships
• a 4-storey fully enclosed glass structured car parkade
• an 8-storey, 85,000 SF office building with underground parking and grade level retail uses
• a total density of 0.77 FAR

The auto dealerships are proposed to be the first phase of the development, with the commercial uses later.

‘Modello’

Boffo Developments‘ project at 6225-6255 Cassie Avenue has now gone through the first reading stage of rezoning, and has been referred to a rezoning scheduled for May 28, 2013. The plan is for a 170-unit, 37-storey residential tower above a commercial podium with frontages on Beresford and Willingdon Avenue. The commercial component will include retail, office and a liquor primary establishment.

The project is being rezoned under the Metrotown Centre Development Plan, which allows higher density for existing RM-3 and RM-5 zoned properties.

Project stats:

• Site area: 46,166 SF
• Total density: 6.28 FAR
• Total floor area: Residential: 224,323 SF; Retail/Rest: 24,959 SF; Office: 33,600 SF
• Unit Mix: 170 units              (36 one-bedrooms, 87 two-bedrooms, 47 3-bedrooms)

Source: City of Burnaby, Boffo Developments

Burnaby NewsLeader – Stuck in redevelopment limbo near Brentwood.

Wiinton Williams will likely one day get a nice windfall from the sale of a property he owns in the Brentwood area. Today, though, his industrial property has a breathtaking property tax bill based solely on its development potential. If only he could develop it.

2450 Alpha Ave

 For now, with the taxes so high, he’s having trouble just leasing out the place. Williams says he can’t redevelop his property and sell it for what it could be worth because Burnaby city hall has been slow to come up with an area plan.

Since 1993, his company, Vernon-based Sako Pacific Properties Ltd. has owned the property at 2450 Alpha Ave. in Burnaby where it also owned and operated Universal Concrete Accessories, a business that first opened there in 1970.

Starting in 1995, Burnaby city hall started sending Williams’ company notices about redevelopment plans for the Brentwood area, including the industrial lands south of Dawson Street where Sako’s property is located.

Read more: http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/news/204309651.html