Tall & Urban News

Even more rental housing is now planned for the infill development project of Lougheed Village, located just west of SkyTrain’s Lougheed Town Centre Station and the redevelopment of Lougheed Town Centre shopping mall into the City of Lougheed.

Toronto-based developer Starlight Investments has indicated it has revised its proposal for further densifying its Lougheed Village rental housing complex.

Currently, the 7-acre (2.8-meter) site contains four 1970s era concrete apartment towers with 528 units.

In 2018, the developer initially announced plans to add two rental towers—39 stories and 48 stories—to the complex as infill, without demolishing any of the existing buildings and displacing residents. This initial proposal called for about 1,000 rental homes.

But now, there are plans to add a third tower, creating tower heights of 48 stories, 39 stories, and 36 stories, for a total of 1,200 new rental homes, making it the single largest rental housing development in Metro Vancouver.

When fully complete, Lougheed Village will have a combined new and old total of 1,728 units.

All existing rental buildings have been renovated in recent years, including new balconies, lighting, lobbies, common areas, and environmental improvements.

“What makes this project significant is not just the addition of 1,200 new rental suites, but also the preservation of 528 existing residences,” said Josh Kaufman, the head of development and construction for Starlight, in a statement.

“We’re extending the life of the existing suites and transforming the community through the addition of three new towers and best-in-class resident amenities and landscaping. We are excited to collaborate with the City of Burnaby on improving the community and adding much needed rental stock to Burnaby.”

For the new towers, there will be a range of unit sizes and configurations — from studios to three-bedroom units — and amenities such as a daycare, gym, swimming pool, children’s playgrounds, outdoor gardens, rooftop terraces, a dog run, multi-purpose sports court, and pollinator garden.

Enhanced pedestrian connections will also be made to the adjacent shopping mall and SkyTrain station.

The expanded scale of this rental housing development is fuelled by the region’s continued strong demand for new rental housing. Within Burnaby, according to a new municipal government report, rental housing supply has decreased by 8.8 percent— even with all the new development.

The city’s rental vacancy rate is hovering at between 1.3 and 1.7 percent far out of the range of what is considered a healthy vacancy rate—between 3 and 5 percent for both tenants and landlords. 

Starlight has grown its BC portfolio to about 4,800 rental homes, including the recent acquisitions of Plaza 88 in downtown New Westminster and the portfolio of Northview Apartment REIT.

Just to the east of Lougheed Village, the CA$7 billion (US$5.4 billion) City of Lougheed redevelopment by Shape Properties over the 37-acre (14.9-hectare) mall site will create 20 towers up to 65 stories, over 10,000 units of housing, and 1.5 million square feet (139354 square meters) of new retail—more than doubling the retail space of the existing indoor mall.

For more on this story, go to Daily Hive.