Homes that rise above the rest
Province
A model of Oasis, which will be 37-storeys and the tallest highrise in Coquitlam. Onni’s Shaughnessy on Lions Park, at 26-storeys, will be the first highrise in Port Coquitlam.
Onni’s two new developments — Oasis in Coquitlam, and Shaugnessy on Lions Park in Port Coquitlam — are being marketed from the same sales centre and presentation suite.
THE FACTS
Shaughnessy on Lions Park WHAT: 167 residences, 26-storey building
WHERE: Port Coquitlam
DEVELOPER: Onni Group of Companies
SIZE: 1 bed, 580 sq. ft-735 sq. ft; 2 bed, 830 sq. ft-1,150 sq. ft. PRICE: From $244,900
OPEN: Sales centre: 2950 Glen Drive, Coquitlam; hours, noon -6 p.m., Sat -Thu
Oasis WHAT: 225 residences, 37-storey building
WHERE: Coquitlam
DEVELOPER: Onni Group of Companies
SIZE: 1 bed, 520 sq. ft; 2 bed, 850 sq. ft -915 sq. ft.
PRICE: From $222,900
OPEN: Sales centre: 2950 Glen Drive, Coquitlam; hours, noon -6 p.m., Sat -Thu
The Onni Group of Companies is injecting residential highrises in Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam, and it’s breaking ground in more ways than one.
Each of the towers is a standout — literally. The 26-storey Shaughnessy on Lions Park will be the first highrise in Port Coquitlam’s history, while Onni’s Oasis, at 37 storeys, will be the tallest highrise in Coquitlam.
The organizer of the Shaughnessy sales and marketing campaign, Cam Good of TheKey. com, thinks that the suburban-urban divide is disappearing as downtowns, or town centres, develop in Lower Mainland municipalities outside Vancouver.
“The idea of where is ‘cool’ is shifting,” Good says. “The suburbs have centres with their own restaurants, shops and events.”
The Shaughnessy homes, Good reports, are appealing to a wide range of buyers. About one-third of the homes have been sold, by an equal mix of first-time home-buyers, downsizers and would-be landlords.
“There’s a group of young people who went to high school in this community and they want to stay here, but if they’re going to do that, they want to live in the coolest building,” Good explains. “The investors believe this is going to be the rental hot spot of PoCo. The only other competition is $800 basement suites.”
While the Shaughnessy is a first for Port Coquitlam, Onni’s Oasis project is entering a crowded market in Coquitlam. A myriad of projects are in the process of breaking ground in the immediate area around the Coquitlam Centre shopping mall.
Oasis also will be a bold vertical statement in the commercial hub of the city. The fourth floor common area includes a huge outdoor swimming pool and hot tub, a play area for children, and for golf enthusiasts, a putting green.
Radanka Trubka, one of two in-house interior designers for Onni, used the same design schemes for both Oasis and the Shaughnessy.
“We retained full-sized appliances because many of the buyers are coming from a single family home, and that’s what they’re used to,” she says.
In the kitchen, visual interest is added instead by stacking small rectangular tiles in a dense grouping; in the bathroom, large format rectangular tiles are placed on the vertical plane rather than the more common horizontal.
The kitchen reflects what many consumers now demand in highrise living, with industrial, restaurant-style sinks, under cabinet lighting, and soft close drawers.
Since they’re being marketed out of the same sales centre, Oasis and the Shaughnessy could even be considered competition for each other, but Good doesn’t see it that way.
“Coquitlam is more of a proven entity for this style of living,” he says. “If you have a little more of an appetite for risk, you’re heading to Port Coquitlam.”
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