After the summer break, Council meetings across Metro Vancouver resumed this week, and Coquitlam started things off with one of the biggest development projects planned for the city: Tri-City Central.
Tri-City Central is a master plan community set for an 11.6-acre site along Lougheed Highway, between Coquitlam Central Station and Westwood Mall, and the project is being undertaken by Vancouver-based QuadReal Property Group — the real estate arm of the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) — and Langley-based developer Marcon.
The project site consists of six parcels, with BC Assessment valuing 2950 Lougheed Highway at $18,286,900; 2960 Christmas Way at $70,096,400; 2968 Christmas Way at $79,925,000; 2954 Pheasant Street at $4,148,200; and 2966 Pheasant Street at $7,510,600. for a total value of $179,967,100. Also included in the development is 2976 Pheasant Street, but no BC Assessment records are currently available for the property.
QuadReal and Marcon jointly own the properties under several different entities, including Marcon Central (No. 5) Properties Ltd., Marcon Central (No. 1) Properties Ltd., Marcon Central (MT) Properties Ltd., Marcon Central (OT) Properties Ltd., and Marcon Central (RT) Properties Ltd. — all of which are controlled by Marcon QuadReal Lands Limited Partnership.
For the site, the developers have planned a mixed-use community with 4,000 new homes, office space, hotel space, and retail space, across nine towers. Council granted the proposal a first reading on September 6, 2022, then a second and third reading — conditional approval — on September 26, 2022, after a public hearing.
Under the City's development procedures bylaw, third readings stand for a period of 12 months, by which the developers have to fulfill the remaining conditions in order to receive final adoption. According to a City report, QuadReal and Marcon had a deadline of September 26, 2023, but sought out a 12-month extension to September 26, 2024, and recently requested a second 12-month extension to September 26, 2025.
City staff say the reason for this second extension request is that the developers are making revisions to the master plan proposal, in response to changing market conditions.
"Since the project was granted Third Reading by Council, the project has continued to evolve with the applicant proposing refinements in response to evolving economic and market conditions," said City staff, who add that "the site plan remains relatively unchanged and the proposed changes remain compliant with the proposed CD Zone and the City Centre Area Plan, particularly with respect to density and land use."
An overview of the Tri-City Central master plan planned in Coquitlam.(Perkins&Will, Marcon, QuadReal Property Group)
Originally, the first phase was to include two rental towers with approximately 1,000 units, 153 of which would be provided at below-market rates. The developers are now revising the plan to deliver the two rental towers across the two phases, as the second tower of each of the two phases. Previously proposed was also a 27-storey office and hotel tower, which the developers have now cut to 22 storeys, with City staff noting that the hotel component remains unchanges and the developer redistributing the five floors of office space into building podiums across the various towers.
In the aggregate, the commercial space to be delivered in Phase One has been reduced from 532,000 sq. ft to 388,000 sq. ft, including the amount of office space being reduced by 7,000 sq. ft. In Phase Two, the commercial space will then be increased from 54,000 sq. ft to 130,000 sq. ft. Additionally, the childcare facility that was originally planned for Phase Two will now be provided in Phase One and also be increased in size, from 16,150 sq. ft to around 20,000 sq. ft.
Aspects of the original proposal that have gone unchanged include the six strata towers that would account for approximately 3,000 units, the planned retail space, restaurant space, two new parks, a greenway, a public plaza, and a new pedestrian bridge across Lougheed Highway that would connect the Tri-City Central site to Coquitlam Central Station (where TransLink is exploring redevelopment options).
A rendering the originally-planned 27-storey office and hotel tower.(Perkins&Will, Marcon, QuadReal Property Group)
Discussing the extension request at a Council meeting on September 9, Councillor Robert Mazzarolo said he was "stuck between a rock and a hard place" because he does not like the current unit breakdowns, but also does not want any projects to fall under the "terrible" changes introduced by provincial legislation over the past year, some of which would apply to Tri-City Central if the third reading extension was not granted.
Other members of Council voiced similar sentiments, specifically referring to the changes regarding ACCs and DCCs.
"The law of unintended consequences is if you change the rules such that the new ones are virtually broken, from the perspective of development financing, we will end up desperately trying to hold onto existing applications and make them work, because under the new rules, cities like ours will no longer be able to finance the costs of population growth [using] the development that is required to support population growth," added Mayor Richard Stewart. "We will have to raise taxes to fund it — taxes on existing residents in order to fund new residents. That's the challenge I think municipalities are going to face, and it's the unintended consequence of poorly-thought-out provincial overreach and ill-advised public policy."
Following the discussion, Council voted in favour of granting the extension and City staff say that they anticipate bringing the project forward for final approval in the first half of 2025.
