Company’s Kings Landing won last year
Sun
The highrise development of the year in the annual Georgies competition, Concord Pacific’s Spectrum, is an exemplary demonstration of the opportunity to work where you live and play where you live for people who work downtown and make their homes there. Almost 900 households will eventually reside in the four Spectrum towers, numbers that make the expense of pool maintenance, for example, very bearable. Nearby Chinatown and the Granville retail and entertainment district will also keep households close to home.
Developer Concord Pacific came up big at this year’s Georgie Awards, winning a gold for its landmark Spectrum project at the 16th annual residential construction and renovation competition.
Spectrum, a residential highrise adjacent to the Georgia viaduct in downtown Vancouver, took top honours in the best multi-family development highrise category.
Last year, Concord Pacific won in the same category for Kings Landing Development.
“Concord Pacific was pleased to be acknowledged once again by the industry for excellence in delivering industry leading high-rise developments,” said Peter Webb, vice-president of development for Concord Pacific.
“Spectrum was a special project on many levels, and it is nice to see that recognized. In addition to this Georgie, Spectrum receive national acclaim in late ’07 as “Dwelling of the Year” by renowned [Globe and Mail architectural] columnist Trevor Boddy.”
As Boddy noted, the site was a particularly challenging one for the developer, “wedged in between the grim concrete ramps of the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts” and near two huge sports stadiums and a SkyTrain station. (According to Vancouver City Hall, 20,000-plus vehicles travel westbound on Dunsmuir each day and 22,000 travel east on Georgia.)
Also coming up big at the awards, which are open to all B.C. members of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, were developers Portrait Homes and Adera. For the third consecutive year, Portrait won “home builder” of the year for large volume single-family homes, while Adera won its fourth “home builder” of the year for large volume multi-family homes.
Portrait Homes principle Rob Grimm says he was ecstatic to learn the company’s planned community of Silver Ridge, in Maple Ridge, had once again taken home the top prize for large volume single-family homes.
“It’s a hat trick,” says Grimm. “I’ve used the word unprecedented before, but really this is unprecedented, winning three years in a row.”
Portrait also won the customer choice award in the large-volume single-family category.
“Consumer choice tells me the most out of everything,” he says. “We’re in the business of fulfilling purchasers’ dreams.”
Adera, the best home builder in the large volume multi-family category, took home the customer choice award in that category for the eighth time — and for the fifth year in a row. The developer also won best multi-family lowrise for Legacy, a project near the University of B.C. endowment lands.
“We’re very, very proud to be considered and then judged the winner in all those categories,” says Eric Andreasen, Adera vice-president of marketing and sales.
“These awards wouldn’t be possible it it wasn’t for the effort of our employees, trade partners and consultants. We’re certainly appreciative.”
Boffo Construction won for best townhome development for its Surrey project, called Sereno.
The 79 townhomes are well located, close to shopping, schools and transportation.
But as Boffo CEO Mike Boffo noted: “It was not only a well-thought-out site, but a well-put-together product. It’s great quality. We hadn’t applied for a few years [to the Georgies] and this was our first time back . . . so it was great to win again.”
The 2007 winners of the Georgies, named after Capt. George Vancouver, were announced at a gala banquet Feb. 8.
“The Georgie Awards recognize the best and most innovative projects in our province,” says Chris Erb, president of the association’s B.C. chapter. “In 2007, the residential construction industry contributed $3.7 billion in gross domestic product.”
There are 50 award categories, including best multi-family and single-family construction, best renovation project, and best website and best logo. (Westcoast Homes will feature the winners of best single-family construction in next week’s paper.)
Judges come from outside of British Columbia and are selected based on their expertise in their particular field. Up to five finalists are selected in each award category, but only one is deemed a Georgie winner (there are no silver or bronze categories).
© The Vancouver Sun 2008