The Brentwood neighbourhood may be getting most of Burnaby's development-related attention with the transformation of the Amazing Brentwood, but significant redevelopment of the Metrotown area has continued, flying somewhat under the radar. The massive redevelopment of Station Square quietly completed in September, and now the Sun Tower buildings right behind it are also complete.
First proposed by Belford Properties back in 2016, the Sun Tower project is located on 4458 Beresford Street, near the SkyTrain tracks and Metrotown Station.
Sun Tower 1, which completed construction in October 2021, is 41-storeys, including a six-and-a-half-storey podium with approximately 11,000 sq. ft of commercial space on the ground level, as well as 15,000 sq. ft of restaurant space and 5,000 sq. ft of childcare space on the second floor. On the four-and-a-half floors above is 54,000 sq. ft of Class-AAA office space. The 285 condominium units in the residential component are housed in the tower.
Sun Tower 2 is 26-storeys, located just behind Tower 1, at 6398 Silver Avenue, and consists of 194 units without a podium. It was scheduled to finish in Winter 2022, and was confirmed to be complete in a LinkedIn post on Friday by IBI Group, who served as the architects on the project. This marks the completion of the entire Sun Towers project.
Middle front: Sun Tower 1 on Beresford Street. Middle back: Sun Tower 2 on Silver Avenue. (Belford Properties)
Ground level view from Beresford Street and Silver Avenue. (Belford Properties)
Residents or commuters who passed by the Sun Towers site when construction was just starting may remember the colourfully-lit hoarding wall surrounding part of the site, decorated with a mural of umbrellas drawn by elementary school students, and outlined by LED lights.
The installation was created by Limbic Media and initiated by Belford Properties after the developer donated $15,000 to the Burnaby Neighbourhood House for the sponsorship of after-school art programs at Maywood Community School, located just a few blocks away from the site.
(Belford Properties)
The Sun Tower project is also notable because it was one of many in the Metrotown area that was proposed at the cost of existing rental stock -- a trade-off that has occurred in Burnaby so frequently that it's developed a reputation for so-called "demovictions."
Metrotown Station has consistently been one of the busiest transit hubs in Metro Vancouver, resulting in the area being targeted for transit-oriented development. This saw older, affordable rental buildings demolished to build new, more expensive housing, oftentimes turning much-needed rental stock into condos, as was the case with the Sun Towers.
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Since then, however, Burnaby has flipped its reputation around, with a Rental Use Zoning Policy that mandates a 1:1 replacement of rental units subjected to redevelopment, as well as a province-leading Tenant Assistance Policy that protects renters whose buildings get redeveloped.
Mistakes, as they say, are only mistakes if you don't learn from them.
