Presence of Whole Foods in development elevates the project, marketer says
Sun
Dining in or out A bad meal prepared in a Cross Roads home will be an improbability, and not just because owners and residents will reside in a grocer-rich neighbourhood. Top-notch kitchens The developer has specified a stainless-steel appliance package for the kitchens that consists of an AEG cooktop, dishwasher and oven; an LG fridge; and a Panasonic microwaverange hood combination. Polished granite will top counters and 12-by-24-inch porcelain tile will be underfoot. Veneered doors will provide access to storage, which in some homes will include a “full height” pantry. Tubs and showers In the master bathrooms, the showers will be enclosed by frameless glass, their faucets mounted in the ceiling. Tubs will have a separate hand shower. Vanities will be topped with marble and the floors will be finished in slate tiles.
CROSS ROADS
Location: Cambie and Broadway, northwest corner, Vancouver
Presentation centre address: 536 West Broadway
Hours: Noon to 6 p.m., Sat. – Thur.
Telephone: 604-729-8695
Web: crossroadsvancouver.com
Project size: 80 apartments and eight 2-storey townhouses
Residence size: 652 sq. ft. – 1,020 sq. ft.
Prices: From $390,000
Developer: PCI Group
Architect: Busby, Perkins+Will
Interior design: Scott Trepp Interior Design and Kodu Design
Tentative occupancy: 2008
Cross Roads is equally new-home project and new-neighbourhood harbinger, the latest manifestation of a collaboration between city hall and industry to transform southeast False Creek into a Vancouver residential neighbourhood.
The development is also the latest residential-over-retail arrangement in Vancouver. A Whole Foods store, a McDonald’s, three other restaurants, another major anchor tenant yet to be announced will all be located on the Cross Roads site. Additionally, an office tower, with a health club for Cross Roads residents and tower workers, will be erected.
Two blocks north of Cross Roads the first Save-On grocery in Vancouver will be located, apartments above. Seven blocks south is the almost-ready-for-occupancy Olive, a Capers grocery at street level. Seventeen blocks west is the hole-in-the-ground the Vine, London Drugs at street level.
To the south and east at 12th and Kingsway (more or less) are the Uno and Stella projects, the former with shops along Kingsway, the latter with an automobile showroom and garage.
Further along Kingsway, at King Edward Village a strong retail component was a critical part of neighbourhood endorsement of the project.
Bob Rennie, organizer of the Cross Roads sales and marketing campaign, jokes that whatever project he is currently selling “is the best.”
But, primarily because a Whole Foods will go into Cross Roads, it is especially memorable for Rennie.
“Whole Foods at Cross Roads will be the first [Whole Foods] store in Vancouver. We all know the success of the one in West Vancouver. I’ve wanted to work on a project with Whole Foods ever since I went to the Whole Foods at Time Warner in New York. It’s an experience. You don’t have to cook again.”
Rennie expects Whole Foods will do for Cross Roads what Urban Fare did for Concord Pacific on the north shore of False Creek.
“When you put a Whole Foods, Capers, Choices, Meinhardt [Fine Foods] you’ve elevated the project,” says Rennie.
Given the shortage of available land in Vancouver it makes sense that more residential projects will have a retail component. “There’s not many places left to go,” Rennie comments. ”It’s a perfect fit — residential and mixed use.”
Not surprisingly, the Rennie slogan for Cross Roads is “Live, Work, Shop.”
He expects the people buying at Cross Roads will be young professionals or people who are buying for the view of downtown Vancouver.
“It’s downtown living without living downtown,” says Rennie.
Cross Roads will also be the location of an underground rapid transit station entrance. Both the Canada Line, to the airport, and the east-west Millenium Line will pass Cross Roads.
The city is spending $29 million on a Canada Line station seven blocks north of, and down the hill from, Cross Roads, its hope a transit and retail hub serving 17,000 people in the new southeast False Creek neighbourhood by 2021.
In the city hall review of Cross Roads, homes at Cambie and Broadway are “a good transition to the neighbouring Fairview Slopes residential neighbourhood” and the project itself “has the potential to be a vibrant and energetic place.”
The developer has committed to improving the overall public realm at the corner of Cambie and Broadway with setbacks from the street, special paving, lighting and public seating. A plaza with a wood and glass canopy will link the three Cross Roads buildings, residential, office and retail.
Demolition of the site at Cambie and Broadway has already begun and preview sales will begin later this month. Occupancy is slated for 30 months from now, but banks will guarantee today’s interest rates, says Rennie.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006