Park Royal seeks condo highrises.

Park Royal is aiming to be less of a mall and more of a neighbourhood.

The mall’s management announced plans April 30 to add residential towers to the mix, along with a host of new stores and a refurbishment of the north mall.

“The vision is creating, as many shopping centres are doing today, a move from being a single-purpose delivery of goods and services . . . to becoming a much more inclusive neighbourhood. That neighbourhood would include, obviously, residential as a component of the deliverables,” said Rick Amantea, Park Royal vice-president.

If approved by the District of West Vancouver, Park Royal will build two towers, 24 and 19 storeys in height, holding 289 units of housing at 752 Marine Drive, the location of White Spot today.

DNV mulls Lower Capilano draft plan.

District of North Vancouver council appears poised to pass its Lower Capilano – Marine Village Centre Implementation Plan.

If approved next month, the plan will set the stage for the next 20 years of growth and a total redevelopment in the area between Marine Drive and Fullerton Avenue on either side of Capilano Road.

The plan envisions about 1,200 more units of housing in townhouses, mid-rise condos and highrises, 100,000 square feet of commercial space, as well as a public plaza, green space and a new community centre. At an informal workshop Monday, council members reflected on the draft and the two years of consultation that produced it.

“I’m very excited to see the draft at this stage because it has been informed by so much community engagement, right down to the kitchen table,” said Coun. Alan Nixon. “I feel really confident the temperature that has been taken within the community is 98.6 F and we’re in good shape. There are going to be a few tweaks but the most common comment I hear is ‘When can we get on with it?'”

The promised land.

Is the North Shore the next big real estate play?

That’s the question posed at the April 9 Vancouver Real Estate Forum, which, for the first time in its nearly two-decade history is eying up the North Shore as the next investment hot spot.

The forum is slated to include Park Royal Shopping Centre vice-president Rick Amantea, as well as Beau Jarvis, vice-president of development at Onni, which recently won approval for its 344-unit condo development on Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver.

The decision to focus on the North Shore was made by a committee of about 20 real estate executives who cited the overhaul of Park Royal, the Seaspan shipbuilding contract and the possible Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.

Those elements, combined with a scarcity of land south of the Burrard Inlet, have combined to make the North Shore a fertile ground for fresh foundations, according to Mark Stephenson, vice-president at Informa Canada, the company producing the forum.