Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Prep for Aviara has begun

Another development by Ledingham McAllister began preparation this past summer with the levelling of a warehouse on the southeast corner of Gilmore Ave and Douglas Rd.  The longtime presence of the Fiji Canada Association at the corner of Douglas Rd and Halifax St will be gone as the property it has occupied for over 2 decades was sold by the Association to McAllister Properties on December 8, 2009.



McAllister Properties in turn sold the property to LM Aviara Properties which leased the property back to the Association, rent free for 1 year.  The Association has been looking for a new home while it has been allowed to continue renting the building on a temporary basis.  A sign advertising the future Aviara development has been installed at Douglas and Gilmore as well as at Douglas and Halifax.

The project is described on the City of Burnaby site under Major Projects as being a residential high-rise, townhousing, and public park expansion at 1680 & 1710 Gilmore Ave and 1771, 1779 & 1791 Douglas Rd which will include 235 residential units.  The project will also involve the closing of Douglas Rd to allow Willingdon Heights Park to take up the closed portion of the road space.  The project, referenced as REZ # 07-59, is at the second reading stage.


9 comments:

  1. Is the triangle land just for ONE highrise? I know a warehouse is still there open for business. Do you think this project will start soon? By the way, I saw there is a REZ # 11-22 for Brentwood Mall from this June, do you know what it is? Must be something exciting!

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  2. My guess is that it will be at least 1 more year before construction begins. The project will involve 1 high-rise tower with townhouses making up the rest. The space taken up by the development will most likely include some portion of Douglas Rd that will be closed between Halifax and Gilmore. As for the other warehouses that exist in the triangle, I don't know if they will be part of the development.

    The Brentwood Mall redevelopment is expected to be huge. It will involve multiple residential and office towers mixed with commercial space.

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  3. The brentwood Mall redevelopmetn - where will the residential towers be - on the East side of Willingdon or lougheed?

    re; Avaria, won't the closing of Douglas force traffic up Carleton or will that street dead end at the new park space? Where can i find this info on the city of BBY site?

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  4. As for the BW Mall redevelopment, the towers are most likely to be dispersed throughout the site. The Lougheed front is expected to have a commercial/retail front facing south. The office towers will most likely be along Lougheed Hwy above the commercial front and the residential towers will probably be situated further in on the site off Willingdon Ave. That's just my guess. The Mall itself should see an addition to it to add more retail space.

    The closing of Douglas is expected to coincide with an extension of 1 Ave across Gilmore to connect with Douglas Rd further southeast. This connection should improve traffic flow which bottles up at 1 Ave and Gilmore with cars having to either go right or left. The public hearing minutes on this project provides some insight into what the project might look like. I will paste it into the following comment under this post.

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  5. The whole PDF on the public hearing is too large to post in the comments.

    Here is the link to get you close to the PDF file for this hearing on the City of Burnaby website dated October 27, 2009:

    https://burnaby.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=10083

    PUBLIC HEARING
    2009 October 27
    A Public Hearing (Zoning) was held in the Council Chamber, City Hall, 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C. on Tuesday, 2009 October 27 at 7:30 p.m.

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  6. It's fenced off and demolished one building already. I checked the 2009.10.05. minutes it says this project has 2 parts. North side is for road and park. Two warehouses in the middle are not included.

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  7. I wonder if Halifax St west of Douglas Rd will be closed off to make room for the development. That would calm traffic on Halifax between Douglas and Gilmore.

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    1. According to the pics (https://burnaby.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=10017) Douglas Rd won't be closed off, but it's not main route.

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    2. That's a great link. It shows exactly how the road access will look. It looks like drivers are going to have easier access to Carleton Ave to run through the neighbourhood. The residents there aren't going to like it (just my guess).

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