On December 2, 2010, the new 34,000-square-foot Surrey RCMP Annex opened next to the Surrey RCMP's main detachment. Still to come is an 82,000-square-foot division E headquarters that will consolidate services currently scattered inefficiently across the Lower Mainland and replace the outdated, overcrowded facility in Vancouver. The public-private partnership project between the federal government and Green Timbers Accommodation Partners is the largest federal accommodations project in the Pacific Region to date - for a fixed price of $966 million, Green Timbers Accommodations Partners will design, build, finance and maintain the facility for a 25-year term after completion in December 2012. An anticipated 2,700 jobs will come to Surrey once the facility is open.
In October, Integrated Team Solutions became the preferred proponent for a long overdue expansion to the Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH). "This project will represent the single largest health capital investment in B.C. history, dramatically improving patient care in Surrey," said then health services minister Kevin Falcon in a prepared announcement. The expansion includes a new critical care tower with expanded emergency department, a new perinatal centre for high-risk newborns, a larger adult intensive care unit and, with the University of British Columbia, an expanded clinical academic campus for Surrey.
Additionally, when open in 2011, the new $239 million, 188,000-square-foot outpatient care and surgery centre, the first in B.C. to combine day surgery and diagnostic procedures with specialized health clinics and programs in one building, will significantly reduce congestion and pressure at SMH.
Surrey's average monthly growth remains consistent at 1,000 new residents each month - a number that's spurring residential construction especially in the multi-family sector. In addition to a number of small-to-medium strata projects, three significant projects are in various stages.
Concord moves in
Arguably the most ambitious is Concord Pacific's acquisition of the troubled Jung Development Inc. project located on Whalley Boulevard. Ultimately to be a five-tower master planned community of almost 3,000 homes, the project was renamed Park Place. A new focus on affordability, amenities (including Surrey's first on-site residential bowling lane) and intelligent floor plans paid off: investors and first-time buyers responded. "Within four weeks of opening our on-site presentation centre, we'd sold 90 per cent of the first tower, and a huge number of people had already registered for Two Park Place," said marketing manager Peter Udzenija.
"Concord is a very astute developer," Rempel noted. "There are probably plenty of people who now wish they'd bought the old Expo lands, but the reality is that only Concord had the vision. When a developer of this stature and experience gets on board, you know it's going to drive growth."
Investor condos
Once again making news, in September the Tein Sher Group of Companies acquired an additional two acres for its Quattro project in the Central Surrey area, bringing the total acreage to 12 and making this one of the largest multi-family communities in Metro Vancouver. Four years ago the project made headlines when it sold 116 suites in 67 minutes on opening day.
When an arsonist's fire destroyed the under-construction Quattro2 and damaged the almost complete Quattro1 in 2008, principal Charan Sethi rebuilt not only the two buildings but consumers' good will, returning all down payments with interest. The project relaunched in spring 2010, and the third tower commenced sales in September 2010. More than half the homes here are priced under $200,000 - some as low as $150,000 - once again making this an attractive option for investors and first-time buyers. Sethi anticipates total build-out value of the Quattro neighbourhood will approach $750 million.
After construction stalled in 2007, Weststone Properties' Urban Village is now quietly selling Ultra, its third tower, with virtually no marketing. "We've sold close to $5 million worth of homes here in the last six months - 150 of the 373 total units," said Bob Dominick, vice-president of sales and marketing. "We have now met the level of sales required for our pre-construction financing. The site is closed while we arrange financing and obtain a building permit, and we anticipate breaking ground early in 2011." Future plans for Urban Village include two more phases of low- and high-rise residences, townhouses, as well as, ideally, a neighbourhood commercial component with convenience store and services. When complete, he anticipates the project will bring between 2,500 and 3,000 homes to the area at an investment of close to $1 billion.
Young population
However, Watts stresses it's not business alone that makes a city strong. "It is essential for us to support the quality of life for the families who live here," she said, noting one-third of Surrey's current population is below the age of 25. In addition to more than 400 parks, the city boasts more artificial turf playing fields than any other municipality in the province. The recently completed Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre, initially a Games Preparation Centre for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, has now been adapted as a public 20,000-square-foot recreational centre featuring a gymnasium, youth lounge, preschool area and multi-purpose space.
One particularly innovative example of her commitment to family is the recently approved covered youth park - the only one of its kind in B.C. To be located adjacent to the Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre, it includes a skate park, ball-hockey court, pathways and rain gardens.
"We are committed to creating new opportunities for our youth to participate in healthy activities," Watts said.
Other Surrey firsts include a $25,000 City of Surrey Fire Research Endowment, the first scholarship fund in B.C. specifically supporting public safety research and the opening of Surrey's second hydrogen fuelling station at the operations works yard, making this the only Canadian city with hydrogen fuelling.
from Western Investor, January 2011
