Suburban Updates - All Other Metro Vancouver Municipalities

[squeezied]

Huge fire in Richmond broke out at a construction site at around 11:30pm Tuesday night. Apparently the victim of the fire is the Remy condominium development: http://www.cambieliving.com/remy/ Anyone remember the Quatro fire incident in Surrey?

From the Vancouver Sun

A large fire broke out in Richmond Tuesday night at a construction site near a Chevron gas station on Cambie Road at Garden City.


The blaze could be seen for miles, said witnesses. Early reports of an explosion had not been confirmed.


A five-storey building under construction was fully engulfed at 11:30 p.m., with flames at least two storeys high that had been clearly visible from the SkyTrain, said onlookers. The neighbourhood is highly residential, with condos and apartment buildings surrounding the site of the fire.


Police had blocked off the area to traffic between Garden City and Shell.


By midnight, according to emergency reports, all Richmond fire fighters were on the scene. Vancouver fire and rescue services had been called in to respond to multiple small fires that had been sparked from burning ash.


Edward Mak, who was standing at the corner of Cambie and Garden City at 12:30 a.m., reported that he could feel the heat from the flames on his face. "The sky is covered with ashes. The two [construction] cranes are still standing but the actual building that is burning is starting to collapse on to Cambie street."


Fire fighters were attacking the flame from Cambie, he said.


According to BC Hydro, 1,221 area customers in Richmond were without electricity Tuesday night due to the fire. The power went out at 11:46 pm and was expected to be restored by 1 a.m.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Flames+...ichmond/4722079/story.html#ixzz1LMt2wXvh

[SpongeG]

i heard about that on facebook - thats too bad

[invisibleairwaves]

Yeah, Quattro was my first thought when I heard about it.

Apparently some nearby homes were involved too. Hopefully there wasn't much damage there. Really sucks for the developer. Quattro, of course, managed to rise from the ashes, so hopefully the same thing happens here.

[entheosfog]

Port Moody:

This is (going to be) The Station, at the corner of St Johns and Moody. The sales office opened a while ago but the soon to be demolished buildings are still there:

[entheosfog]

Port Coquitlam:

The Residences at the Parc, nearing completion, which I believe is an addition to the tower in behind. Located at Glen and Pacific:



Grand Central 2, the Glen Drive side:

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

Port Moody:

This is (going to be) The Station, at the corner of St Johns and Moody. The sales office opened a while ago but the soon to be demolished buildings are still there:

looks decent >> http://www.thestationliving.ca/

[logan5]

I actually kinda like Port Moody. St. Johns is not Main st. in Vancity, but it's not too bad, and it's getting better fast. As well as Suter Brook and Newport Village, and the mountains and the water, I'd call Port Moody Metro Vans best suburb.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

Port Coquitlam:

The Residences at the Parc, nearing completion, which I believe is an addition to the tower in behind. Located at Glen and Pacific:



Grand Central 2, the Glen Drive side:

those are in Coquitlam

area coming along nicely

[SFUVancouver]

I don't remember what the name of this project is that is under construction near Edmond's Station. [edit: It's called Reflections]

Taken by SFUVancouver, May 3rd, 2011.

Mystery project near Royal Oak Station. [edit: It's called Kabana]

Taken by SFUVancouver, May 3rd, 2011.

[Xrayal]

The project names are:
Reflections is the tower near Edmonds
Kabana is the Condos near Royal Oak

[giallo]

Originally Posted by logan5

I actually kinda like Port Moody. St. Johns is not Main st. in Vancity, but it's not too bad, and it's getting better fast. As well as Suter Brook and Newport Village, and the mountains and the water, I'd call Port Moody Metro Vans best suburb.

I agree.
I never really knew much about the area until my brother moved out there to raise his family. I've been pleasantly surprised every time I go out and visit him. Once the Evergreen Line gets going, the area will be almost perfect (as far as suburbs go).

[entheosfog]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

those are in Coquitlam

area coming along nicely

It is?! I thought it was Port. Where's the dividing line between Port Co and just Co??

[Metro-One]

The Coquitlam River in the urbanized areas. Coquitlam arches over top of PoCo in the hilly portions to the north as well to the Pitt River.

[SpongeG]

yah its pretty blurred - its why they call it the tri-cities

[SpongeG]

not really building related but ncie to see the lake can be useful again

Burnaby Lake dredging completed

By Wanda Chow - Burnaby NewsLeader
Published: May 05, 2011 2:00 PM
Updated: May 05, 2011 2:19 PM

The dredging of Burnaby Lake is now complete and already local rowers and canoeists have been making use of the deeper water, said the City of Burnaby’s director of engineering Lambert Chu.

The $20.5-million project was completed about a month ago, months ahead of schedule after contractor Hazco determined the rental costs of the dredging equipment made it more cost-effective to complete the job sooner than later, said Chu.

There was a loss of efficiency with starting up and shutting down the equipment after every shift of eight to 10 hours, so in the final six months, Hazco was running the dredging operation 24 hours a day, for six to seven days a week.

About 180,000 cubic metres of sediment was removed from the lake. While tests found elevated levels of metal contamination, it wasn’t bad enough to require treatment as hazardous waste, Chu said.

The sediment has been moved to a site on the west side of Kensington Avenue where it will eventually be used as fill for a future sports field. The soils will eventually lie below the base and sub-base of the fields, where users will have no contact with it.

...

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/121349114.html

[officedweller]

From the Record:

Massive project in 'Boro
500,000-square-foot, $50- million warehouse space will be leased to Kruger

By Brent Richter, The Record
May 6, 2011

Queensborough will soon be home to possibly the largest industrial building in the Lower Mainland following an announcement from the Beedie Group and paper producer Kruger Products.

The Beedie Group has purchased a brownfield site to the west of the Wal-Mart and is planning to start construction soon on an approximately $50-million warehouse, which will then be leased to Kruger.

"This is a massive building. Imagine 500,000 square feet. It's like a 12-acre building. We think it's the largest single footprint warehouse ever built in Metro Vancouver," said Ryan Beedie, president of the Beedie Group.

According to Beverly Grieve, manager of planning for the City of New Westminster, the building will account for 15 per cent of the total industrial floor space in the city once it is complete, which should bring a windfall in industrial land taxes for the city, though she could not say exactly how much.

"This is why industrial zoning is so good for cities because there's very little extra structural burden placed (for the city)," Beedie said. "Industrial is just such a real winner for the city because it generates income that it otherwise wouldn't have."

The new warehouse will replace two primary warehouses and a number of smaller ones Kruger currently uses on Annacis Island.

Chuck Stewart, general manager region west for Kruger, said the benefits that come with having a single warehouse include being closer to the mill, reducing trips between buildings, easier shipping to customers and better use of storage space.

"All of those things lead to lower costs for us, which is the driving motivation behind this strategic move to consolidate into one large warehouse," he said. "We're in a very cost-competitive industry and the impact of the rising Canadian dollar just makes our markets in Canada a lot more attractive to our U.S. competitors and the ability for us to compete more effectively in the United States that much more of a challenge.".

Stewart said efficiencies created by the new warehouse will likely result in about three jobs being eliminated but the company plans to phase those jobs out through retirement and attrition.

Stewart said the move bodes well for the future of Kruger, which is one of New Westminster's largest employers with about 600 people on the job.

"It really helps to stabilize our whole operation here in Western Canada, locally, and in New Westminster in particular," he said.

He said the news is going over particularly well with employees, who have been taking the news as a "good sign of positive things to come."

Stewart couldn't say the exact length of the lease Kruger has signed with Beedie Group but hinted it was between 10 and 20 years.

"We're definitely looking to be there for the long-term," he said.

The property where the warehouse will sit is already zoned for warehousing and the Beedie Group has been given a development permit. All that's left for the company now is getting building permits, which it hopes to have in time for a June 10 sod turning. Beedie said he expects construction will take about 10 months and require significant new hires to complete.

Kruger manufactures bathroom tissue, paper towel and face tissues at its New West mill.

© Copyright (c) New West Record

[Metro-One]

Excellent, I hope New West keeps its industrial lands to the west of downtown forever, instead of converting them into more condos.

Nice to see industrial expansion still occurring within our urbanized boundaries.

This is why I am actually against Surrey building a waterfront community opposite of New West.

[SpikePhanta]

Would an ILR work? (industrial version of ARL)

[invisibleairwaves]

Saw a development application sign today in New West, right above the west end of the Woodlands Skytrain tunnel. According to the city's site, it's a 20-storey residential tower with some commercial space (presumably on the Columbia St. side). Yet another interesting use of an awkward piece of land in New Westminster.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by invisibleairwaves

Saw a development application sign today in New West, right above the west end of the Woodlands Skytrain tunnel. According to the city's site, it's a 20-storey residential tower with some commercial space (presumably on the Columbia St. side). Yet another interesting use of an awkward piece of land in New Westminster.

Do you mean at 4th and Columbia?