Surrey City Centre Redevelopment Plans - Page 30

SFUVancouver · #**581** Posted **Jun 27, 2010, 6:00 PM**

I think the new city hall looks great and when paired with the new library you have a very strong salient to built out from. The new civic precinct and SFU Surrey/City Central tower are two powerful nodes and space in between and immediately adjacent will be much easier to change once both anchors are in place. From there will be a block by block process of rebuilding Whalley into downtown Surrey, and if the Gateway office cluster goes forward there will be another major anchor for the area and the land between it and the first two will begin changing too.

I do think that the process of building out downtown Surrey will take longer than many of its boosters expect and it will take a lot more than a handful of institutional and office buildings to transform the area. If downtown Surrey aspires to be a genuine downtown, and by that I mean a permanent place of culture and entertainment in addition to a centre of employment, then it will require medium- to high-density, walkable surrounding neighbourhoods which themselves must be full of recreational, cultural, and entertainment opportunities. Certainly there will be substantial infrastructure requirements like better transit service, on street parking, shorter blocks with way, way more intersections and safe pedestrian crossings, plus both protected and on-street bicycle lanes, lots more parks of every shape and size, daycares, local community centres and libraries, grocery stores, corner stores, live theatres, cinemas, bars, small to medium sized performing arts venues, restaurants by the dozen, cafes wherever possible, etc., etc., etc. In other words, a city.

Ultimately it will be about creating an environment that fosters "urban" lifestyles that do not centre around the exclusive use of automobiles for personal mobility. That is the challenge and I think that Surrey, and really Metro Vancouver as a whole, is going to be unrecognizable in the not to distant future.

mr.x · #**582** Posted **Jun 27, 2010, 6:37 PM**

Quite jealous. City hall looks great, and it's actually a bit reminiscent of the expanded convention centre.

racc · #**583** Posted **Jun 27, 2010, 8:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Certainly there will be substantial infrastructure requirements like better transit service, on street parking, shorter blocks with way, way more intersections and safe pedestrian crossings, plus both protected and on-street bicycle lanes, lots more parks of every shape and size, daycares, local community centres and libraries, grocery stores, corner stores, live theatres, cinemas, bars, small to medium sized performing arts venues, restaurants by the dozen, cafes wherever possible, etc., etc., etc. In other words, a city.

Unfortunately, Surrey, so far, is pretty clueless about cycling. I don't think their plans include protected bike lanes. While it is great to plan for walkable communities, it will likely take a few decades to build up the densities needed for a truly walkable community. However, even now, many parts of Surrey are dense enough to support cycling. All they need to do is add safe and convenient facilities.

deasine · #**584** Posted **Jun 27, 2010, 9:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by racc

Unfortunately, Surrey, so far, is pretty clueless about cycling. I don't think their plans include protected bike lanes. While it is great to plan for walkable communities, it will likely take a few decades to build up the densities needed for a truly walkable community. However, even now, many parts of Surrey are dense enough to support cycling. All they need to do is add safe and convenient facilities.

Please see:
http://www.civicsurrey.com/2010/06/09/city-centre-green-network-plan-revealed/
http://www.civicsurrey.com/2009/04/12/largest-cycling-investment-in-surreys-history/

Diet Butcher · #**585** Posted **Jun 27, 2010, 11:06 PM**

The new Brochure says

"SFU Expansion -
The City is working with Simon Fraser
University on a proposal for a 200 bed
student residence building in the City
Centre area. This facility will reinforce
the University’s presence in Surrey and
support the continued growth of the
campus in City Centre."

Anyone know how this is coming along and when they expect to break ground?

Whalleyboy · #**586** Posted **Jun 28, 2010, 4:28 AM**

well originally was suppose to be this year then i saw 2011 oh was it 2012...i know but i do know its not far its right beside central around 101 and university drive

theQ · #**587** Posted **Jul 16, 2010, 11:05 PM**

I noticed yesterday that the "For Lease" sign on the old A&B sound building on City Parkway is now showing "LEASED"! Does anyone know who is moving in there? It's quite a large building if I remember right (I did buy some CDs in there 15 years ago). It'll be great to see someone move in there!

paradigm4 · #**588** Posted **Jul 17, 2010, 1:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by theQ

I noticed yesterday that the "For Lease" sign on the old A&B sound building on City Parkway is now showing "LEASED"! Does anyone know who is moving in there? It's quite a large building if I remember right (I did buy some CDs in there 15 years ago). It'll be great to see someone move in there!

Ooh interesting. That building has been quite rundown for the past couple years. I think it would've made a great art or dance studio.

nickinacan · #**589** Posted **Jul 17, 2010, 5:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by theQ

I noticed yesterday that the "For Lease" sign on the old A&B sound building on City Parkway is now showing "LEASED"! Does anyone know who is moving in there? It's quite a large building if I remember right (I did buy some CDs in there 15 years ago). It'll be great to see someone move in there!

To answer your question, The Hockey Shop. The building they are currently in is slated to be town down to build the tower portion of the city centre project.

pomonke · #**590** Posted **Jul 18, 2010, 8:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickinacan

To answer your question, The Hockey Shop. The building they are currently in is slated to be town down to build the tower portion of the city centre project.

I would assume it'd cost a lot more to lease that location than the current Hockey Shop one because of its proximity to the skytrain station and its capacity ? But then again, maybe Collier International lowered the leasing fee since it has been sitting there empty for a long time.

Btw, Can't believe communities like Clayton / Langley got developed further than Surrey Central over the years and how many people willing to pay more for housing and commute just to reside in their so-called 'safer' neighborhoods (good luck on the Portmann toll after 2013).

Can't wait to see a whole new downtown core (that's unique and different from Metrotown/Lougheed/Coquitlam/Brentwood)

whalley13 · #**591** Posted **Jul 20, 2010, 5:25 PM**

I think downtown surrey's problems have to do with economic timing....the builders that got inticed into whalley were all heavily finance dependent...and all that financing died so did those builders....when people are paying money for their place, condo's or townhouses etc they are signing into a community...there was, and still is for some parts, a community that no one wanted to be a part of....but things are changing

Park place and ultra will attract people with income, which will entice more businesses...not just dollar marts or pawn shops....the rcmp building the city hall will bring more jobs and people wanting to be close to work....

All this is a start but it is gonna take a long time to come to fruition...the problem is that surrey is so huge and spread out that whalley is competing with cloverdale guilford and south surrey for the same "clients"

SpongeG · #**592** Posted **Jul 20, 2010, 8:57 PM**

yah but unlike those places central surrey has skytrain

invisibleairwaves · #**593** Posted **Jul 20, 2010, 10:20 PM**

It also has shootings, crackheads, gangsters, and homeless people...or, at least, more of them than the rest of Surrey. For all the "Yaletown in Surrey" marketing crap, Whalley still has a strong and well-deserved stigma, and we're kidding ourselves if we pretend that doesn't matter to buyers. New developments will help the area, but there's some very serious underlying problems that can't be dealt with just by building towers all over the place.

SpongeG · #**594** Posted **Jul 20, 2010, 10:24 PM**

its no different than woodwards development though

it will take a few years to improve but when it does...

look at yaletown - back when it started people thought ugh yaletown really? it had hookers and dive bars, pool halls, now its a desired spot

go_leafs_go02 · #**595** Posted **Jul 20, 2010, 10:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by invisibleairwaves

It also has shootings, crackheads, gangsters, and homeless people...or, at least, more of them than the rest of Surrey. For all the "Yaletown in Surrey" marketing crap, Whalley still has a strong and well-deserved stigma, and we're kidding ourselves if we pretend that doesn't matter to buyers. New developments will help the area, but there's some very serious underlying problems that can't be dealt with just by building towers all over the place.

I find Newton and the area around 72 Avenue & 128 Street to be worse than Whalley.

And from what I've heard - I've only been in BC for the past year and a bit, Whalley is nothing like it was even 10 years ago.

theQ · #**596** Posted **Jul 20, 2010, 10:58 PM**

The good thing about Whalley is that the various levels of governements are spending billions of dollars trying to revitalize it. It's not just plans on paper, it's actual cash.

RCMP e division is supposed to bring 2500-2800 jobs (I've seen both figures)
City hall is supposed to bring 650 jobs
The new hospital and hospital expansion is supposed to bring over 1,000 jobs
SFU expansion more jobs.

Most towns and small cities are excited about a new business that creates 100 jobs, we're getting more than 4,000 jobs (well paying jobs at that) in the next three years in Whalley - that's gotta make a big difference, and I'm sure that's the reason developers like Concord Pacific are investing big $$$ in Whalley - it's not the "vision" that's attracting them, but it's the actual $$$ and jobs that are coming to the area.

Whalleyboy · #**597** Posted **Jul 21, 2010, 1:04 AM**

First off whalley is not the worst area in surrey. Newton is by far the worst. You just have to ask any rcmp officer from surrey. Second Central may be competing with other town centres for stuff yes but city hall has the say where things can go and they are making sure to not make it possible for them to build out of the city centre. In newton they arent allowing huge office towers to be built there. Guildford town centre is kinda mall oriented not so much tower and office live. Cloverdale due to the ground there they can not build any huge building there there for lowering density and chance of office buildings. as for south surrey its kinda way out of the way for the lower mainland.
also once the SFPR comes in central will be a prime location to get to from any where and get to any where from the area.

invisibleairwaves · #**598** Posted **Jul 21, 2010, 7:46 AM**

I'll concede that Newton is worse, but not by a heck of a lot, and Whalley's bad reputation is far more well-known throughout the region.

Sure, Cloverdale, Guildford, and South Surrey aren't going to get towers any time soon, but they do have plenty of development. The vast majority of people, I'm guessing, would rather live in a low-rise condo in Cloverdale or South Surrey instead of a tower in Whalley. And if they'd rather be closer to transit, there's Burnaby and Richmond. I could see Coquitlam taking a huge chunk of potential Surrey buyers once the Evergreen Line goes in. When you look at the region as a whole, it's very hard to fault people for not wanting to live in Whalley.

Whalleyboy · #**599** Posted **Jul 21, 2010, 10:20 AM**

whalley has clean up a heck of a lot better then newton. The thing is no one wants to believe it. I mean people come to the are expecting something so there basically looking for it and in which case they're gonna find it. this is why people dont see the change they're to busy looking for the old instead of seeing the amazing new and changing.

also it isnt helping surrey when people who havent been to the area in years say they've been there and its horrible. You can't go by what you saw years ago and think nothing changes...everything changes. whats even worse is the people who never been and follow what they hear about it being horrible. there judging a book by its cover and not getting to see the real thing.

also just to let you know the views from a tower in surrey are amazing. I post some images on top of central a while back. Central citys on a great spot for views of all the lower mainland and the mountains.

whalley13 · #**600** Posted **Jul 21, 2010, 4:10 PM**

My view on whalley is:

growing up in the lower mainland whalley was a 1 out of 10// they have cleaned up alot of the open drug dealing, but still the majority of the population is still pretty poor, go to whalley festival and this is apparent// with the clean up (crack down on open drug dealing/chuck bailey and central city/agenda and element) i now give it a 3or 4 out of ten

with park place and ultra coming in the library and city hall...i think whalley will come up to 6 out of 10....still needs lots of private business to move in and no signs this is happening