Porte Development has submitted a rezoning application for a 46,239 SF site at the corner of Dawson Street and Madison Avenue in the Brentwood Area of Burnaby. Unlike the rest of Brentwood, this proposal is not for a tower but for a 6-storey woodframe building with retail at grade and 92 residential units above. The plan includes:

• a total density of 2.2 FAR
• 100,828 SF of buildable SF
• 7,890 SF of CRU space
• 21 one-beds, 60 two-beds and 11 three-beds
• 178 underground parking spaces

Woodframe product is relatively scarce and will be a welcome project amid Brentwood’s thousands of highrise units in various stages of development.

The second half of the site was assembled earlier this year after the other half was bought in 2006 for a blended cost of approximately $47 per buildable SF.

Aggressive urban planning around SkyTrain stations in Burnaby is turning the municipality into Metro Vancouver’s hotbed for condo development, according to an Urban Development Institute report.

Heavy pre-sales in projects such as Station Square at Metrotown and the redevelopment of Brentwood Town Centre added up to almost 30 per cent of all new-construction sales across Metro Vancouver, outpacing Vancouver’s downtown and west side neighbourhoods.

Throw in the city’s east side and Vancouver still sold more condominiums, but Burnaby’s high-density push is bringing development levels between the two cities closer together.

To the end of the third quarter, Burnaby saw 1,613 presales of condos under development compared with 1,394 for downtown and west-side Vancouver combined, UDI reported.

In total, developers have projects that add up to 14,548 units in the planning stage in Burnaby, within striking distance of the 14,766 in the City of Vancouver’s planning process.

Another week, another highrise proposal for Brentwood. This one is from Polygon Homes for an 81,414 SF site at the foot of Madison Avenue. The rezoning application is based on the RM4s designation under the City of Burnaby’s Brentwood Town Centre Plan, with a total density of 3.6 FAR, or 280 units.

Interestingly, due to high groundwater and challenging geotechnical buildings, the parking is above-grade and is proposed to be located behind street-oriented residential units.