[Surrey] The Urban Village | 102m| 35fls | Completed - Page 15

whalley13 · #**281** Posted **Oct 13, 2010, 5:24 AM**

November was their latest construction date .....and it is coming up quick....is this building delayed again?

Diet Butcher · #**282** Posted **Oct 13, 2010, 2:59 PM**

Latest from the Weststone CEO is they are in for Building Permits now and optimistic about a January start. They are actually working with the Strata councils of the other Urban Village buildings right now and have a mini excavator coming out today to do some cleaning.

GMasterAres · #**283** Posted **Nov 2, 2010, 8:05 PM**

Let's hope it doesn't become January comes around and the CEO is optimistic about a March start, have a mini rock washing machine showing up to do a bit of clean up then in March they're optimistic about a June start have a mini hot-dog selling truck there to provide a nice environment for pedestrians wondering 🞵🞵🞵 is going on.

pomonke · #**284** Posted **Nov 4, 2010, 5:31 AM**

Concord Pacific's Park Place is saying that it's 90% sold.
Yet, Weststone is delaying Ultra's start forever..

Geez, i wonder why some developers underachieve than others

c2128 · #**285** Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 1:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by phesto

Didn't mean to imply that 0% of the project was sold, certainly some of the buyers will have stayed on, including yourself, after the heavy discounts they offered to keep as many buyers as possible.

It's a good project, I just don't believe the 60-70% figure though, even the sales staff aren't mentioning the total sales level, which is never a good sign. Plus they're already starting to offer discounts in this round of sales to entice buyers, but it's a soft market right now.

Again, I think it's a quality project in a good location, but you'll likely see Concord introduce smaller units at prices much closer to $400 psf, and they will likely sell before Ultra does (and not just because it is closer to complete).

How much were the discounts??

GMasterAres · #**286** Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 4:32 PM**

The issue with all these developments was the investment push. You had a _lot_ and I mean that of asian investors showing up with 25 family members wanting to put 0% down on a lot of condos. Even for Infinity when I went to purchase mine they had some sign saying something to the affect of "Only 2 family members per overall purchase" or something trying to limit that.

With the market crash and rule changes that means those investors have vanished and the condo sellers must now do the dirty work of finding actual purchasers that will live in the units. That takes a lot longer to do given the amount of pre-sale inventory in Surrey and around the Lower Mainland. Once these buildings fill and are built, you'll see things start to ease off and become more steady.

A purchaser looking for a unit in Surrey right now has a lot of choices and unfortunately Ultra is still quite over priced when you look at other options that are not that far in location.

Diet Butcher · #**287** Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 7:04 PM**

I believe Ultra is also priced higher because it has a better location than Park Place, it doesn't border a busy street like King George, and the walking distance to the Major City Center Initiatives is significantly closer.

It all depends what you are looking for...

phesto · #**288** Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 7:17 PM**

Apparently Ultra is just over 50% sold. They're supposedly going to close the sales centre and proceed with construction in the new year, while selling the balance of the units closer to when it is completed.

Keep fingers crossed. It appears this one could be subject to another delay if the market has another hiccup.

c2128 · #**289** Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 8:43 PM**

This area is getting better and better

whiteshadow · #**290** Posted **Nov 8, 2010, 11:39 PM**

In the first go-round (circa Oct'2007), a 2-bed 870sqft suite on the 27th floor was $399,900.00 and a 1-bed 600ish sqft was around 289,900.00

Not sure how much they're been reduced for today's market though...

c2128 · #**291** Posted **Nov 9, 2010, 1:59 AM**

when will they start the construction?

whalley13 · #**292** Posted **Dec 5, 2010, 6:37 PM**

Any news on this project, if its getting any closer to starting up?

Diet Butcher · #**293** Posted **Dec 6, 2010, 5:37 PM**

Developer is still targeting January

sryboy · #**294** Posted **Dec 8, 2010, 5:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diet Butcher

Developer is still targeting January

More like when is the other shoe going to drop...

surrey1 · #**295** Posted **Dec 8, 2010, 6:40 AM**

lol...they have been saying "next month or so" for over 2 years now. they should stop insulting everyones intelligence and just say they dont know

GMasterAres · #**296** Posted **Dec 8, 2010, 8:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diet Butcher

I believe Ultra is also priced higher because it has a better location than Park Place, it doesn't border a busy street like King George, and the walking distance to the Major City Center Initiatives is significantly closer.

It all depends what you are looking for...

Really? I don't know about that or your definition of better location.

Parks and Recreation:
1. Holland Park is closer to Park Place (PP) than Ultra
2. Whalley Athletic Park / Tom Binnie are closer to Ultra than PP
3. North Surrey Rec is closer to Ultra than PP though via Skytrain it would be technically the same roughly

Ammenities and Services:
1. Hospital is closer to PP than Ultra
2. Surrey Central Mall is roughly the same distance from both
3. New library is closer to Ultra than PP
4. All other services are roughly same distance from both

Work/Rental Oppertunities:
1. SFU Surrey is slightly closer to Ultra than PP though this is marginal at best
2. Hospital is closer to PP than Ultra
3. New RCMP headquarters is closer to PP than Ultra
4. Skytrain is closer to PP than Ultra though added time from King George Station to Surrey Central roughly makes up the additional walking distance from Ultra to Surrey Central so call them a tie
5. Both fairly close to both KGB and one of the additional side boulevards.
6. PP closer to Fraser Highway

So overall for what I'd look for in a condo, I'd say Park Place actually has quite a few benefits over Ultra location wise. You could argue Ultra is more 'central' so should demand a higher price but I still feel (and it appears others feel based on unit sales) that there isn't enough in Ultra to account for the very large price difference.

For example I bought a unit on the 21st floor in Park Place former Infinity 2 for roughly $200k. The same sized unit in Ultra when they went on sale but on the 3rd floor was over $300k and if you scaled up tot he 21st floor at about $2k per floor you'd be sitting around $340k. That's $140k MORE for the same size. Not to mention my building will be completed soon even with some major delays due to the economic downturn and Ultra hasn't even sniffed a shovel.

When Ultra went on sale many moons ago it was nearly double the price as equal sized units in what is now Park Place. Yes Ultra has additional perks in their units and they could be seen as higher quality build wise, I don't think that level of unit demand has really reached Surrey yet. Reputations are improving but you aren't going to get the style of person from Yaletown that expects to pay $140,000 more on a unit to get the illusion that their counters are made of solid gold and are thus 'better'.

Not to mention when it comes to rental units, people pay based on location purely more often than not. Renters don't rent condos in downtown Vancouver for $2500 a month because the counters are marble. They pay that because they are living in downtown Vancouver. Ultra's build quality doesn't mean you can rent the units higher than those in Park Place or even Infinity or the other new towers in the area because the location is in essence the same.

Is there a potential based on location that Ultra will be better in the long run? In 20 or 30 years yes quite possibly. But should you pay higher prices today for the promiss of things to come in 2 decades? I dunno.

jlousa · #**297** Posted **Dec 9, 2010, 5:03 AM**

As far as I know this project is on indefinite pause. There will be an update on it sometime next spring whether it will proceed and when that might be. I don't think we'll see shovels in the ground anytime soon.

pomonke · #**298** Posted **Dec 9, 2010, 10:22 AM**

ok
one is saying that this project is on indefinite pause
the other is saying tht Developer is still targeting January

clearly someone is getting his/her info from charlie brown's teacher -.-

i was SPL Whalley just to quickly pick up a hold this afternoon.
some 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵

was stripping right outside. the clerks had to call the security.
guess this is pretty much the only branch that this happens (on daily base?!) .
now i wonder why people aren't snatching up real estates in this area.

whiteshadow · #**299** Posted **Dec 9, 2010, 4:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pomonke

ok
one is saying that this project is on indefinite pause
the other is saying tht Developer is still targeting January

clearly someone is getting his/her info from charlie brown's teacher -.-

i was SPL Whalley just to quickly pick up a hold this afternoon.
some 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵

was stripping right outside. the clerks had to call the security.
guess this is pretty much the only branch that this happens (on daily base?!) .
now i wonder why people aren't snatching up real estates in this area.

This (among many other crime-related issues) was one of the reasons I moved out of Agenda earlier this year. My condo's view was of the land where Ultra was to be built, and on an almost daily occurrence I witnessed those types of "business transactions" happening. During the summer the homeless often bathed in Agenda's water fountain as well.

That area still needs a lot of work, and I think the units should be priced lower to spur purchases and more development. Having one building that's overpriced while the rest are crack houses doesn't seem to make good sense.

Diet Butcher · #**300** Posted **Dec 9, 2010, 4:26 PM**

The latest update from Weststone last night is that they have made their required presales to obtain Construction Financing and is still targeting late January (which could mean an actual Feb-March start). They want to have it finished by the same time as the new City Hall which is due to break ground March 2011.

Obviously the area is still undergoing transition, but things will improve with the new Library. Once City Hall & Ultra breaking ground, there will be security guards around those construction sites and it will drive that activity somewhere else.

I think too often people (Myself included) have too high of expectations for the amount of time it takes an area to change, or a development to start. We all may not be aware of all of the work and time required for certain aspects.

I hardly think the rest of the area is "Crack Houses", there are a few run down houses in the area, but those have steadily been getting Bulldozed and progress is continual. In addition to Agenda & Element, there are 2 other Condo units on the same block including Ethical Gardens which is quite nice.

The SFU Residence will be another great addition to the area.