Gracorp Properties has broken ground on The Neighbourhood Place, a project being developed in partnership with The Neighbourhood Church and BC Builds that will bring 480 purpose-built rental homes to Burnaby, B.C.’s Edmonds neighbourhood along with new spaces dedicated to community services, gathering and programming.

The project was first envisioned in 2021 and the $90-million grant from BC Builds is the largest funding commitment it has made to date, according to Gracorp vice-president of real estate Adrien Rahbar. The balance of the project will be financed with a mortgage.

BC Builds partners with government, community and private land owners. It provides low-interest repayable loans and grants to lower construction costs, speed up timelines, and deliver more homes that middle-income British Columbians can afford.

“The vision that the church had, and Gracorp's ability to turn that vision into a reality by any means possible, was really the big driver,” Rahbar told RENX. “What was important to the church was a high degree of collaboration to make sure that the space would be successful.”

The development site was formerly comprised of the 114-year-old Edmonds Baptist Church and a vacant lot that was being used as a community garden, both of which were owned by The Neighbourhood Church, at 7135 Walker Ave. and 7244 Arcola St. 

The church has vended the land to a new not-for-profit housing operator that it controls. Gracorp will have no ownership stake in the property.

The Neighbourhood Place’s components

The Neighbourhood Place will include a 50-storey tower with 384 units at market rate rents and 96 at below market rents, representing BC Builds’ minimum 20 per cent non-market rental housing requirement.

Approximately 40 per cent of the units are planned to have two or more bedrooms to support a range of households and families.

The 50th floor will be dedicated to resident amenities, including co-working space, a chef’s kitchen, a games room and a theatre. There will be a gym at ground level.

The Neighbourhood Place will also include a six-storey building that will serve both the new apartment residents and the broader Edmonds community. It will be anchored by a new home for The Neighbourhood Church and will include a food bank, dedicated worship and gathering spaces, an atrium, office space, approximately 1,500 square feet of retail space at grade and areas designed for educational programming.

There will be an adjacent single-storey auditorium and gathering space that will be able to seat more than 300 people, according to Rahbar.

There will be five levels of underground parking, with more than 200 stalls, for the complex.

Completion of the project is scheduled for the spring of 2031.

Other Gracorp developments

Gracorp is a division of Calgary-headquartered construction and engineering company Graham. Gracorp is focused on developing purpose-built rental housing, student housing and alternative assets across Alberta, British Columbia and the western United States. It has offices in Vancouver, Calgary and Seattle, Wash.

Gracorp will break ground on three other new developments that will combine to include more than 700 purpose-built rental units over the next six months.

The company will build a 39-storey, 337-unit apartment at Granville Street and West Broadway in Vancouver that will incorporate a secondary SkyTrain station that will be connected to the South Granville station that’s under construction.

Gracorp is developing two 20-storey apartment buildings — the 183-unit Kits East and the 182-unit Kits West — in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Kitsilano that are close to public transit and within walking distance of Kitsilano Beach.

A 19-storey, 181-unit purpose-built apartment building called W39th in Vancouver’s Oakridge neighbourhood is scheduled for completion in January. The development is a partnership with Minto Group.

“Our outlook for the next few years is that we're continuing to grow our presence and our pipeline for residential and student housing in B.C.,” said Rahbar. “We're committed to the region and see really strong long-term fundamentals in the sector.”

Gracorp and Harrison Street have built about 1,500 rental housing units in Calgary’s University District and Gracorp has approximately 800 more units in its development pipeline in Alberta, according to Rahbar.