Qualex-Landmark has broken ground on a significant condo and rental complex in Coquitlam the company says wouldn’t be viable if they were starting the development process today.

The boutique Vancouver-based developer started excavation on its largest project on May 6 in West Coquitlam, in Metro Vancouver.

Called Ironwood, the project includes a 42-storey concrete condo tower and a second six-storey concrete rental tower at Como Lake Road and North Road. 

Now selling with an expected completion date of 2028, Ironwood will have 446 one-, two- and three-bedroom homes ranging from 485 to 1,612 square feet. Ironwood also includes 18 affordable rentals for single mothers and their children through a partnership with the YWCA Metro Vancouver and BC Housing.

The buildings were designed by high-profile Vancouver architect James KM Cheng. 

An uncertain spring market

In its April 2025 Presale Pulse Report, MLA noted this is "setting up to be one of the most uncertain spring markets in the last decade". 

"Of the limited new projects coming online, the ones attracting buyer attention are sharp on price and positioning," Garde MacDonald, MLA's director of advisory said in the report. "Given today’s landscape, existing projects that have started construction will outperform new launches as they can be more flexible on negotiations and have the benefit of being in the ground.”

The report noted that eight condo projects launched in April, with a total of 1,145 units. That's up from March, which saw 910 units in six projects launched; and February, which saw 602 units in eight projects launched. 

In March, eight per cent of the 910 units released were sold. 

As many developers have been forced to shelve projects and return deposits, Qualex-Landmark met its pre-sale threshold of nearly 50 per cent sales and decided to move forward with construction, said Jordan Beach, vice-president of sales and marketing with the company. 

Market conditions defied by early construction agreement

Qualex-Landmark was able to move forward on the project by locking in construction pricing about 14 months ago, which is relatively early in the development process with its building contractor Axiom Builders, Beach said. 

That is the best approach regardless of market conditions, Beach said. But with current headwinds and a slower condo pre-sale market, it allowed Qualex-Landmark to lock in its major costs and get ahead of the slower market with the sales program well in advance of tariff concerns and inflation risks related to construction. 

"We know what price we need to sell it for," Beach said. "A lot of developers don't have that benefit. So, what they typically do is they start selling, and at the time . . . they're negotiating their construction costs, and then oftentimes they find out: ‘oh, we sold for too low’.”

He said the market is currently experiencing plenty of condo project delays and even cancellations after buyer deposits have been taken by developers. 

"I haven't really seen this since 2008," Beach said, referring to the global economic situation. 

"In this case, the numbers worked, and we could sell the project at really good value by Coquitlam standards," Beach said, noting that making construction arrangements far in advance eliminates many surprises for the company and its buyers. 

Couldn’t start a project of this size right now

He said the project, had the firm started the entire development process today, would likely not happen given market and economic conditions. The developer is building Ironwood on a site assembled from seven single-family homes.

Two things need to occur for more projects like this to move forward: construction costs need to ease, and buyer appetite needs to pick up, he said. 

"We launched at a great time,” he said. “We've been on the market for . . . just under 10 months, and at the time that we launched, there weren't a lot of projects similar to ours for sale.”

Beach said the project is close to 50 per cent sales. "So yeah, we were able to get our financing — our construction financing commitment — and Axiom is clearing the land.”

Qualex-Landmark is a Vancouver-based development group that has been building boutique residences for more than 30 years. Beach said it is currently quite active in West Coquitlam. 

In addition to Ironwood in West Coquitlam, Qualex-Landmark is also now selling and building Botanica, a complex comprising three, six-storey buildings with a total of 239 condos; and Seasons, a 116-unit rental building. 

"We see (the area) as the best of both worlds," he said, describing it as an attractive central location in the suburbs, but close to the mountains and communities of Port Moody, Burnaby and Coquitlam. Vancouver's core is easily accessed via the Evergreen SkyTrain line. 

"It's central, but quiet,” he said.