[Surrey] The Urban Village | 102m| 35fls | Completed - Page 11

LotusLand · #**201** Posted **Jul 24, 2009, 12:15 AM**

True Jhausner, however keep in mind that Vancouver had numerous proposals for towers taller than 600 ft, however they were quickly squashed because of height restrictions. Once those restrictions were lifted (in two designated spots) they quickly got snapped up.

Surrey fell behind in my opinion during this building boom. Vancouver must of added atleast a hundred more towers in the past few years. Surrey added what 10 (the olympic village is more than that)? For a city its size and "vision" I expected more investment out there. However, Surrey has a lot going for it and against it. It still trying to shake off a stigma and it will never be as scenic or touristy as downtown Vancouver. Never. I hope that it succeeds but it is competing with Burnaby, Richmond and to a lessor extent New West for corporations and not Vancouver. Big firms who want the best talent want to be located where the action is, until Surrey builds more cultural and shopping districts within its core it ain't gonna happen. Now which will come first is up in the air.

Sometimes we forumers get to excited to see things go up fast, kinda like me in simcity. Reality has to set in. When Surrey sees its Vision 2075 come to fruition remember Vancouver and the rest of the lower mainland will also continue to build up. Who knows maybe Doug McCallum will swoop in and build his long envision 800 footer one day

Whalleyboy · #**202** Posted **Jul 24, 2009, 12:38 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhausner

To people annoyed that CC2 won't be a massive tower, how long did it take Vancouver itself to get a 600 foot tower? 60 years? There were over 600 highrise towers in Downtown Vancouver before they got their first 600 footer. There's a grand total of something like 15 in the Central Surrey core right now. Surrey has a long ways to go before it gets a massive super tower.

Like I've said a million times, until the proposal goes through and has a building permit, everything is up in the air. They scaled it down due to the economy. Today the Bank of Canada said we're pretty much coming out of recession and Canada is the first country in the developed world to have recovered. A lot is speculation though but if correct, that means things could be starting to roll. I still think you're going to see sputtering until the US economy recovers or at least pulls out of recession, so we're a few years away still.

Ultimately though, more new highrises is a good thing, massive or not. Another CC2 even if the same size as CC1 is STILL GOOD because it means 1 more building, 1 more anchor for downtown, and 1 more insentive for business to look towards Surrey instead of Vancouver/Burnaby.

People just need patience and to not get all their hopes up when some person builds a 10 minute Sketchup model of a 900 foot tower in Central Surrey.

your right
to be honest as long as they keep the civic plaza and things like the performing arts centre and new library i will be happy
mainly the civic plaza though=P

LotusLand · #**203** Posted **Jul 24, 2009, 12:48 AM**

^ Don't worry Whalleyboy they'll be keeping the civic plaza, however in the rendering I saw it looked similar to the one at CC1. Hopefully it is bigger. They are going ahead with plans for the library and a performing arts centre as well. When is anybodies guess. I think we'll know more in Sept. At least that is what westone told me.

Whalleyboy · #**204** Posted **Jul 24, 2009, 1:12 AM**

i hope its just a little bigger so central can scoop up the biggest building outside of vancouver again

Diet Butcher · #**205** Posted **Jul 24, 2009, 8:47 PM**

Anyone have an update of the Power Status at Agenda? Last I heard it might be Monday/Tuesday before it was restored

usog · #**206** Posted **Jul 25, 2009, 7:18 AM**

Powers up now, but I had the joy of moving in today with no power D=< God, never doing that again. But yeah power is up now. If anyone was wondering, apparently they hired some shoddy or shady electrician who not only fried himself but also the electrical equipment he was working on, knocking power out to Agenda for a day or two.

Just a sidenote, apparently a bunch of SSPers live in the area? Just curious~

jdguru · #**207** Posted **Aug 11, 2009, 1:30 AM**

We have rented our condo in Agenda. What kind of insurance, if any, shall we go for? Please suggest.
Thanks.

GMasterAres · #**208** Posted **Aug 13, 2009, 5:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LotusLand

True Jhausner, however keep in mind that Vancouver had numerous proposals for towers taller than 600 ft, however they were quickly squashed because of height restrictions. Once those restrictions were lifted (in two designated spots) they quickly got snapped up.

Surrey fell behind in my opinion during this building boom. Vancouver must of added atleast a hundred more towers in the past few years. Surrey added what 10 (the olympic village is more than that)? For a city its size and "vision" I expected more investment out there. However, Surrey has a lot going for it and against it. It still trying to shake off a stigma and it will never be as scenic or touristy as downtown Vancouver. Never. I hope that it succeeds but it is competing with Burnaby, Richmond and to a lessor extent New West for corporations and not Vancouver. Big firms who want the best talent want to be located where the action is, until Surrey builds more cultural and shopping districts within its core it ain't gonna happen. Now which will come first is up in the air.

Sometimes we forumers get to excited to see things go up fast, kinda like me in simcity. Reality has to set in. When Surrey sees its Vision 2075 come to fruition remember Vancouver and the rest of the lower mainland will also continue to build up. Who knows maybe Doug McCallum will swoop in and build his long envision 800 footer one day

Well I wouldn't say Surrey missed out on the boom. Did they miss out on the boom with regards to building skyscrapers? Sure. But they beat out Vancouver for many years with regards to building permits and amount of development done.

Surrey missed the boom with regards to downtown for 2 reasons and they are:

1) Surrey still has a lot of land that can be developed and right now because costs are so high in Vancouver and most of the Lower Mainland, developers make more money building townhouses and 4 storey condos to pull people to the suburbs that want more land, than building skyscrapers that are more of the same to those same people.

2) Surrey central has only recently (in the last 4 years) started cleaning up so as to attract real businesses and get some anchor residents such as SFU Surrey. For the longest time, it was an unattractive place to locat too as workers didn't want to go and the reputation was unjustly bad region wise.

While they still have some image issues to deal with (talk to anyone outside Surrey and you'll typically hear "SURREY IS A DUMP" even though it isn't anymore) #2 is improving and #1 is also starting to improve due to the forced direction by city hall.

SpongeG · #**209** Posted **Aug 13, 2009, 7:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdguru

We have rented our condo in Agenda. What kind of insurance, if any, shall we go for? Please suggest.
Thanks.

um renters insurance?

Diet Butcher · #**210** Posted **Aug 28, 2009, 6:56 PM**

Theres a new Back Hoe Behind Agenda & Element as of Yesterday, so they may be getting ready to Start Digging for Ultra.

Anyone else have further updates on Ultra?

usog · #**211** Posted **Sep 14, 2009, 7:55 PM**

This is my first time living in this kind of development, but after living here at Agenda for a month, I must say the build quality was quite disappointing. The water lines on my washer/dryer were reversed, the refrigerator required a warranty repair upon moving in, the lights were duds, there's been a ton of break-ins due to the shoddy locks, the mailboxes weren't installed correctly so canada post refused to deliver to them, the garbage is never collected so it piles like a mountain, the faucet in the bathroom has a constant drip, and the build material/installation in general is just...meh. One more thing, they hire unlicensed/cheap electricians one of whom fried the electrical room cutting power to all of Agenda for a few days right when I moved in. Oh and they're demanding more money to fix much of the aforementioned. Is this just par for the course in these kind of things?

hollywoodnorth · #**212** Posted **Sep 14, 2009, 9:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by usog

This is my first time living in this kind of development, but after living here at Agenda for a month, I must say the build quality was quite disappointing. The water lines on my washer/dryer were reversed, the refrigerator required a warranty repair upon moving in, the lights were duds, there's been a ton of break-ins due to the shoddy locks, the mailboxes weren't installed correctly so canada post refused to deliver to them, the garbage is never collected so it piles like a mountain, the faucet in the bathroom has a constant drip, and the build material/installation in general is just...meh. One more thing, they hire unlicensed/cheap electricians one of whom fried the electrical room cutting power to all of Agenda for a few days right when I moved in. Oh and they're demanding more money to fix much of the aforementioned. Is this just par for the course in these kind of things?

you get what you pay for......

CoryHolmes · #**213** Posted **Sep 15, 2009, 12:03 AM**

Ouch. You have my sympathies.

Metro-One · #**214** Posted **Sep 15, 2009, 12:52 AM**

Yeah, there is no excuse for that much bad work.

Volksboi · #**215** Posted **Sep 15, 2009, 5:20 AM**

I too am an owner in Agenda and find it interesting with everything you have brought up. If you have concerns, then contact weststone like anyone else has and they will come and fix it for you. I come from a family of realestate investors and the things that needed to be fixed after move in was minimum compared to what I have seen in the past with other buildings. This is all part of the process.
I encourage you to contact the developer with any questions or concerns and they will get anything corrected that requires attention.
Another thing, first off its not Weststone trying to get more money out of you, its your strata. They want to go above and beyond what is required by code to better secure the building do to the recent break ins.
And for the electrician... not sure where you get your information, but he was fully lisenced and it was an unfortunate accident. It happens....

Quote:

Originally Posted by usog

This is my first time living in this kind of development, but after living here at Agenda for a month, I must say the build quality was quite disappointing. The water lines on my washer/dryer were reversed, the refrigerator required a warranty repair upon moving in, the lights were duds, there's been a ton of break-ins due to the shoddy locks, the mailboxes weren't installed correctly so canada post refused to deliver to them, the garbage is never collected so it piles like a mountain, the faucet in the bathroom has a constant drip, and the build material/installation in general is just...meh. One more thing, they hire unlicensed/cheap electricians one of whom fried the electrical room cutting power to all of Agenda for a few days right when I moved in. Oh and they're demanding more money to fix much of the aforementioned. Is this just par for the course in these kind of things?

usog · #**216** Posted **Sep 16, 2009, 2:26 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volksboi

They want to go above and beyond what is required by code to better secure the building do to the recent break ins.
And for the electrician... not sure where you get your information, but he was fully lisenced and it was an unfortunate accident. It happens....

Oh yes and they are charging us a decent amount to do so too. And I was talking to the BC Hydro crew while they were waiting to flip the switch back on again, at the very least they said he was incompetent or that they hired shady labor. Ah and we just got another notice telling us our kitchen lights need to be replaced due to some unspecified flaw...well at least they aren't charging us for it this time.

Volksboi · #**217** Posted **Sep 17, 2009, 7:06 AM**

its less the 200 a unit, thats nothing.. They way I see it is this needs to be done. We want to have a safe and comfortible enviroment to live in and unfortunately due to the area we live in we need to make some adjustments to ensure this happens.
The lights needed to be replaced because they have a hook that connected them to the ceiling, or somthing along those lines. Whats the big deal about that. mine was changed in less then 5 minutes...
As for the electrician.... He was one with over ten years experience and he made a simple mistake. It was a very unfortunate mistake, we all make them... Dont know where you are getting your information from on it being shady labour...
Anywho, see you at the meeting on tuesday.. cheers...

Quote:

Originally Posted by usog

Oh yes and they are charging us a decent amount to do so too. And I was talking to the BC Hydro crew while they were waiting to flip the switch back on again, at the very least they said he was incompetent or that they hired shady labor. Ah and we just got another notice telling us our kitchen lights need to be replaced due to some unspecified flaw...well at least they aren't charging us for it this time.

CoryHolmes · #**218** Posted **Sep 17, 2009, 7:11 AM**

I guess this is part of the problem of buying a brand-new unit. Sometimes the kinks don't quite show themselves until people are living in the new constructions 24-7.

nickinacan · #**219** Posted **Sep 17, 2009, 2:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoryHolmes

I guess this is part of the problem of buying a brand-new unit. Sometimes the kinks don't quite show themselves until people are living in the new constructions 24-7.

Exactly. I work for an organization that deals with multi-million dollar homes. Even these places have issues right after they are first built. The vast majority of them are minor and easy to solve. It is no different than buying a car that is a brand new model. They tend to have more issues than the subsequent years that that model is produced. You really don't find some of the issues with a product until you use it continuously (EG. xbox 360 Red ring of death).

Another theory that some of my friends that have ties to the industry and I have discussed is that the quality of homes during housing booms is actually lower than housing constructed during a recession. Why is that? Generally the more experienced trades and labour are the ones that get to keep working during a recession. On the flip side, during a housing boom many construction and trades take on less experienced people so that they can get the job done faster utilizing more labour hours in a smaller period of time. Remember that this is just a theory and doesn't mean that it is a blanket statement.

twoNeurons · #**220** Posted **Sep 17, 2009, 3:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volksboi

As for the electrician.... He was one with over ten years experience and he made a simple mistake. It was a very unfortunate mistake, we all make them... Dont know where you are getting your information from on it being shady labour...
Anywho, see you at the meeting on tuesday.. cheers...

What happened to the electrician? Did he fry himself too?