Builder transforms Whalley location

Province

QUATTRO 3

WHAT: 164 residences

WHERE: Surrey

DEVELOPER: Charan Sethi

SIZE: 425-998 sq. ft.

PRICE: $149,900 -$399,900

OPEN: 114 -10768 Whalley Blvd.

HOURS: noon -5 p.m., Sat –Thur

In 2006, Charan Sethi’s development company purchased 12 acres of land in the Surrey neighbourhood of Whalley.

In retrospect, it looks like a particularly savvy real-estate move on the part of the Tien Sher Group of companies, considering the grand plans Surrey now has to rejuvenate the area.

At first, many in the real estate world thought he was nuts, he says.

“Everybody told me I was a fool, and asking me why was I buying in such a bad area,” says Sethi, adding he always had confidence in the area and in Whalley’s potential. “But it’s been my lifelong dream to develop this area, and every time I think about it, I get goosebumps.

“You don’t get many chances to buy a large piece of land that you could build a community around it.”

Sethi’s Quattro 3, the third installation of a development plan that calls for an eventual fourth building, is two blocks from the Gateway SkyTrain station and four from Surrey’s Simon Fraser University campus. A new Surrey City Hall and public library a planned for a few blocks away.

The development plans, all part of the strategy to create the new Surrey city centre, also include expanding the SFU campus, enlarging Surrey Memorial Hospital, and building a new RCMP headquarters and hotel-convention centre complex.

Quattro 3 has 164 homes: studios, one and two-bedroom suites, and live/ work lofts.

In September 2008, a fire destroyed one of the earlier two Quattro buildings, just two months before move in.

Just 10 months later, however, the Quattro 2 building was rebuilt, along with some damaged areas of Quattro 1, and homeowners moved in.

Sethi says he didn’t change much from the original two Quattro buildings when he designed Quattro 3.

He knew the development would be attractive to young people looking forward to settling within walking distance of SFU, and is hoping the studios will appeal to longtime renters hoping to get a foot in the real estate market.

At just over 400 square feet, Quattro’s smallest homes include stacking washer-dryer units and the same finishings as the larger units: granite counter-tops, wood-grain laminate cabinets and mosaic accent bathroom tiles.

The two-bedroom suites are fitted with one bathroom. The seven two-storey, two-bedroom live/work lofts, at just under 1,000 square feet, the seven two-storey, two-bedroom live/ work lofts also include a half-bath, or powder room on the main floor.

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