With traditional retail changing and a rising demand for houses, savvy developers have been turning shopping centres – along with their vast parking lots – into mini cities. Here, we take a look at one that’s doing just that: transforming Burnaby’s Lougheed Town Centre mall into The City of Lougheed.

Led by Shape Properties, it’s among several mall redevelopments that are currently taking place around Vancouver, with other sites including Oakridge and Brentwood. What makes Lougheed unique is that it is purportedly the largest master planned community in Canada. The project will see 40 acres transformed into The City of Lougheed over the course of 30 years. When finished, it will house some 10,000 residents.

At $7-billion, the community will be complete with:

• 1.4 million square feet of retail
• 23 towers
• 300+ new shops and restaurants
• 5 aces of public parks and green space
• 2 onsite SkyTrain lines

Boundaries

• Cameron Street (north)
• Lougheed Highway (south)
• North Road (east)
• Bartlett Crescent (west)

Lougheed’s History

Up until the 1960s, the land that now makes up Lougheed Town Centre was entirely rural landscape. In 1969, Lougheed Mall opened, offering a wide of selection of stores, such as The Bay, Safeway and Woolco. There was also a three-screen movie theatre. In 1986, the mall was expanded to be twice the size. And in the early 2000s, it was extensively renovated once again. Many customers have turned to online shopping in recent years, which has caused business to slow down at the Lougheed Town Centre. And so, it was time for something entirely new.

Living

The plan will see the construction of four new apartment towers. The units sizes range from 550 sq. ft. to 1,250 sq. ft. The suites offer some perks: all have outdoor patios, parking, storage, heating and best of all, central air conditioning. The buildings will also be complemented with a library, pool and recreation centre.

One bedrooms will start at $329,900; two bedrooms from $463,900; and three bedrooms at $613,900. The first tower at The City of Lougheed, Tower One, have already been put on sale. Towers Two and Three are both condo towers, and began presales in 2017. Tower Four will be a rental apartment tower.

The opening certainly attracted a lot of attention among Vancouverites. In fact, over 50 people hoping to snatch up a place camped outside Lougheed Town Centre for four days before the condo sale in 2016! Read more here.

Shops

The redeveloped shopping centre will be home to over 300 retailers in an open air and galleria format. So far, the City of Lougheed plans to have a Walmart, Hudson’s Bay, London Drugs, Sport Check, H&M and Whole Foods, among many others.

Transportation

The City of Lougheed sits in the middle of a major transportation hub. The Millennium and Evergreen SkyTrain Lines are directly on site, the mall is served by a bus loop with routes going to the Tri-Cities area, and there’s Lougheed Highway.

According to James Chen, the architect behind the project, “people will walk everywhere. When you move to Lougheed, most of the time you won’t have to use your car. Everything is self-sufficient. You go downstairs and walk outside and you have everything.”

30% of The City of Lougheed has been purposefully designed to be shared open spaces enhanced by lush landscaping. This includes the community’s green streets, small and large parks, urban trails, view corridors, landscaped rooftops, water features, and other natural and built features.

Timing

• Master Plan Rezoning: Complete
• Food Court Construction: In progress
• Phase 1 Construction Start: Q1 2018
• Food Court Delivery: Q2 2018
• Phase 1 Delivery: Q2 2021

If you would like more information on the City of Lougheed, and/or mortgage information from Vancouver and Burnaby mortgage brokers, please give us a call and we would be very happy to help you with all of your home mortgage and financing needs.