Chinese Company pays 30 million for 4,000acres near Squamish

[tdma800]

http://www.theprovince.com/business/Chi ... story.html
http://www.southbritannia.com/

Its somewhere near Lions Bay and the Squamish Nation

A Chinese development company feels it has struck gold with a $30.5 million purchase of land surrounding Britannia’s infamous mine.

The Taicheng Development Corporation plans on constructing a sustainable community of up to 4,000 homes after scooping up close to 480 acres of land through a court-ordered, cash sale.

The property includes the gravel pit directly south of Britannia mine, the former Makin Lands, and land that stretches up to the top of Furry Creek, said project manager Paul Prade on Saturday.

“(Taicheng) have been scouting projects in different areas and when they saw this, the owner, Peter Cheng, just absolutely fell in love with the property and its location,” Prade said.

“It was something he couldn’t believe was available.”

This is the first major project Taicheng has been involved in outside mainland China, where the company has developed high-density communities and hotels for nearly 15 years.

Prade said the company envisions a “truly Westcoast-style development” with a first-nation theme to complement the already standing community of 200 to 300 Britannia residents.

“It’s a clean canvas. One of the goals is to build a complete community that’s sustainable, with enough people to support the amenities that are needed,” said Prade.

The official community plan for Britannia in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District envisions a development of between 1,800-2,000 homes — not big enough to include amenities Taicheng wants included such as a grocery store, medical clinic, schools, rec centre, a marina and maybe a library, said Prade.

“We’re looking to push that number up towards 4,000 residential units which would be everything from small lot housing to large lots on the hillside, to condos and town houses,’ he said.

The company is also in talks with the Government to purchase Crown land on the largely inaccessible Britannia Beach waterfront to make it a “truly oceanfront community.”

The first in a series of public consultations took place Thursday, with close to 100 Britannia, Lions Bay and Squamish residents voicing their excitement, and their concerns.

“Without a doubt, there were some people who were skeptical because literally that site’s been sitting there as a kind of gravel pit for two decades or more,” said Prade. “We’re trying to show people that Taicheng has the financial capabilities to carry a project like this through, plus the experience,” he said.

The former owner of the land fell into financial hardship and had been unable to sell the property.

The first phase of the development, called South Britannia, is between one to two years away from the start of construction, and will feature a town centre at the gravel pit location with some commercial space and residential units.

Taicheng will bring in more funds to complete the project.

Civil engineers drilled wells in the area in late 2011, and water levels will be tested for 12 months.

A water treatment plant built in 2005 can facilitate more growth, said Prade.

Local environmental consultants and local leaders — including the Mayor of Lions Bay Brenda Broughton and Squamish Chief Bill Williams — have been engaged in the process.

Neither were available for comment Saturday.

“We want to see their view and what the support level would be — and it’s been very positive,” said Prade, who described “a good feeling” between Taicheng and the Squamish Nation.

“We want culture and character to be reflected in the community, in collaboration with the Squamish Nation,” said Prade.

Taicheng has also created a website for the development.

[WreckCreation]

Should this development become a reality it will be interesting to see how it will be marketed/sold, locals may have limited or no opportunity to buy in as it won't be offered here. This could be the start of the next "phase" of offshore ownership, large ready built, culture/language friendly communities.

[eyesthebye]

translation - Chinese will be buying in Squamish in two years. Buy land and property now and wait for the tsunami

[unicas]

with opening of T & T at Park Royal, north shore is becoming much more Chinese friendly. Big name Chinese agents now make daily trips there to show homes. It was never the case even a few years back. I wouldn't be surprised Squamish to be turned into Coquitlam type of city in 10 or 20 years.

[unicas]

A Chinese development company has big plans for Britannia and the dream is off to a $30.5 million start.
The Taicheng Development Corporation wants to develop the former Makin Lands, the large gravel pit at the south side of Britannia, and the lands to the east, west and south to the top of the Furry Creek hill.
The goals of Taicheng and its presdent Peter Chang were outlined at an invitation-only meeting on Monday, March 12 in Squamish. A team made up of two representatives from Taicheng, the project manager, an architect and a community planning consultant walked a small group made up mainly of realtors through Taicheng's plans to move ahead with a proposed development featuring as many as 4,000 housing units.
Paul Prade, the project manager, said the Chinese company purchased the 202 hectares (500 acres) of land through a court-ordered sale in which the court mandated that the purchaser had to pay in cash without any subjects.
Prade noted that Taicheng had no trouble with the amount and one of his colleagues on the project team, architect Ron Lea, said Taicheng doesn't intend to seek any bank financing for the first phase of development work at what Taicheng is calling South Britannia.
"This property is totally unique, it being right on the oceanfront, being set on the mountainside and being in a pristine state as far as that mountainside is concerned," said Lea, a partner in an architectural firm called Folio.
He said the Taicheng vision for the property is not completely set at this point because the developer wants to work with the community to develop the vision with a goal to have construction started as soon as possible using what was described as a "First Nations west coast oceanfront" theme.
Prade and Lea were joined by Taicheng's Vancouver manager Cary Zhou and Long Cheng (son of Peter Cheng), along with Chuck Brook of Brook Pooni and Associates. Brook said consultation so far has included meetings with Chief Bill Williams of the Squamish Nation, Lions Bay Mayor Brenda Broughton and Squamish-Lillooet Regional District director Maurice Freitag, with more meetings to come.
What has been determined so far is that Taicheng plans to develop the project by first creating a town centre at the gravel pit with some commercial space and residential units. Brooks said planned communities in B.C. usually start with residential units to generate revenue to help fund the construction of commercial spaces.
According to Lea, access to the oceanfront is a key component of the Taicheng plan. The oceanfront portion of the property extends from the area across Highway 99 at Galileo Coffee to south of Minaty Bay.
Lea noted that the existing wastewater treatment plant at Britannia was built to handle future growth to the south but a new water intake system will have to be built.
"We have explored the site already," said Lea. "We've dug some wells."
He said the test wells showed that the quality and quantity available from ground sources is excellent and research has also been done into potentially using ground water from Britannia Creek or Daisy Creek.
Brook told the small group of interested Squamish residents on Monday that the official community plan for the area restricts development to 1,000 housing units but he said Taicheng wants to discuss shifting the number up to achieve a viable community for the land.
Prade said the Britannia project is Taicheng's first major project in Canada. The company owns a blueberry farm in Richmond and the development firm is building a 1,900 square metre (20,000 square feet) home in West Vancouver.

[FuturePorscheOwner]

An amazing deal ..

[fishguy15]

It'll be interesting building a town of 10,000+ beside a town of about 18,000 where real estate is not selling.

[unicas]

It'll be interesting building a town of 10,000+ beside a town of about 18,000 where real estate is not selling.

Very likely the developer will use Cam Good's service to pre sell them in Shanghai and Beijing. And never ever under estimated the power of helicopter tour

[eyesthebye]

A Chinese development company has big plans for Britannia and the dream is off to a $30.5 million start.
The Taicheng Development Corporation wants to develop the former Makin Lands, the large gravel pit at the south side of Britannia, and the lands to the east, west and south to the top of the Furry Creek hill.
The goals of Taicheng and its presdent Peter Chang were outlined at an invitation-only meeting on Monday, March 12 in Squamish. A team made up of two representatives from Taicheng, the project manager, an architect and a community planning consultant walked a small group made up mainly of realtors through Taicheng's plans to move ahead with a proposed development featuring as many as 4,000 housing units.
Paul Prade, the project manager, said the Chinese company purchased the 202 hectares (500 acres) of land through a court-ordered sale in which the court mandated that the purchaser had to pay in cash without any subjects.
Prade noted that Taicheng had no trouble with the amount and one of his colleagues on the project team, architect Ron Lea, said Taicheng doesn't intend to seek any bank financing for the first phase of development work at what Taicheng is calling South Britannia.
"This property is totally unique, it being right on the oceanfront, being set on the mountainside and being in a pristine state as far as that mountainside is concerned," said Lea, a partner in an architectural firm called Folio.
He said the Taicheng vision for the property is not completely set at this point because the developer wants to work with the community to develop the vision with a goal to have construction started as soon as possible using what was described as a "First Nations west coast oceanfront" theme.
Prade and Lea were joined by Taicheng's Vancouver manager Cary Zhou and Long Cheng (son of Peter Cheng), along with Chuck Brook of Brook Pooni and Associates. Brook said consultation so far has included meetings with Chief Bill Williams of the Squamish Nation, Lions Bay Mayor Brenda Broughton and Squamish-Lillooet Regional District director Maurice Freitag, with more meetings to come.
What has been determined so far is that Taicheng plans to develop the project by first creating a town centre at the gravel pit with some commercial space and residential units. Brooks said planned communities in B.C. usually start with residential units to generate revenue to help fund the construction of commercial spaces.
According to Lea, access to the oceanfront is a key component of the Taicheng plan. The oceanfront portion of the property extends from the area across Highway 99 at Galileo Coffee to south of Minaty Bay.
Lea noted that the existing wastewater treatment plant at Britannia was built to handle future growth to the south but a new water intake system will have to be built.
"We have explored the site already," said Lea. "We've dug some wells."
He said the test wells showed that the quality and quantity available from ground sources is excellent and research has also been done into potentially using ground water from Britannia Creek or Daisy Creek.
Brook told the small group of interested Squamish residents on Monday that the official community plan for the area restricts development to 1,000 housing units but he said Taicheng wants to discuss shifting the number up to achieve a viable community for the land.
Prade said the Britannia project is Taicheng's first major project in Canada. The company owns a blueberry farm in Richmond and the development firm is building a 1,900 square metre (20,000 square feet) home in West Vancouver.

that's a nice piece of land. Hope they only develop detached homes here and not ruin it with multi-family construction.

[semven]

You will probably see a blend there ETB. Most NCPs have an environmental component regarding sustainability. (carbon footprint) Look for things we havent seen before on large scale like Community Central Heating (geotherm component here?) and other cutting edge Green Building Technologies. Which they will use to sweeten their proposal to increase the buildout to 4000+. Instead of the 1000 units on the current OCP.

[eyesthebye]

It'll be interesting building a town of 10,000+ beside a town of about 18,000 where real estate is not selling.

more segregation. Chinese in Britannia and (what the new immigrants will consider) white trash in Squamish.
God is using Canada as a petri dish for racism.

[tdma800]

I hope the construction quality will be better than the Olympic Village

[Lady Luck]

This reminds me off all the hype surrounding Furry Creek (next door to this site) when it was first being developed. 15 years later and only 15% has been built. The golf course went through bankruptcy and it is a struggle to sell the current homes. There are train tracks running along the oceanfront which really limits development and access. There are no services. A large parcel was purchased by Chinese in Whistler a few years back. The owner made a bunch of money convincing people in China to invest in the project. It never got off the ground and the owner walked away with the money. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[leftside]

Would be nice to see those train tracks put to better use. A commuter train from Squamish would make me consider investing in the area. Perhaps if/when this project is completed there will be demand for this commuter train?

[Warren12]

This reminds me off all the hype surrounding Furry Creek (next door to this site) when it was first being developed. 15 years later and only 15% has been built. The golf course went through bankruptcy and it is a struggle to sell the current homes. There are train tracks running along the oceanfront which really limits development and access. There are no services. A large parcel was purchased by Chinese in Whistler a few years back. The owner made a bunch of money convincing people in China to invest in the project. It never got off the ground and the owner walked away with the money. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Yes I saw some places for sale there last time I was in the area, but they were still asking big numbers. Beautiful homes though, with fantastic views.