Inside Van: What’s Happening Mar. 21, 2020

On the Coquitlam/New Westminster border, on Blue Mountain Street near Lougheed Highway, the presentation centre for Horizon 21 opened its doors to pre-registered VIPs on Feb. 29. Two-bedroom homes with water views of the Fraser River start from $569,900. It was the last chance to visit the Horizon 21 Presentation Centre before it opened the next day to the public. Door prizes, including discounts, were announced later in the afternoon, and dozens of visitors viewed the model home while snacking on meat and cheese platters and sipping complimentary coffee and tea.

Duet treats

On Feb. 29, West Coquitlam was the destination for lovers of bubble waffles, boba and crisp clean kitchens, when Adera’s Duet sales team served up these treats as a promotion to bring attention to its newest kitchen design, as well as deals on Duet’s Anmore junior one-bedroom homes to the tune of $15,000 off. The streamlined modern new kitchens include a fresh new colour palette of bright white cabinets and Ceasarstone countertops, making minimalist, modern-kitchen dreams come true. Built using SmartWood technology, Duet CityHomes are beautiful, strong and sustainable. Located in the blossoming area of West Coquitlam, all the Duet floorplans optimize living space, offering light-filled interiors paired with a West Coast Modern design.

HAVAN Awards of Building Excellence finalists’ soirée

Formerly known as The Ovation Awards, the HAVAN Awards for Housing Excellence announced this year’s finalists in a sold-out soirée held on March 4 at the Permanent space at 330 West Pender Street. In this writer’s humble opinion, this is always the most fun event on the HAVAN calendar, and that is saying a lot. This year featured sandwich and charcuterie bars, passed canapés, an ice-cream sundae bar as well as the Trail Appliance café upstairs in the lovely art deco space. The packed room sipped on cocktails and networked as they listened to the finalists being announced. A list of the finalists, as well as images of the projects, can be found on havan.ca/awards.

What’s next in mass timber?

On Feb. 26, more than 300 people attended a UDI breakfast at the Pavilion Ballroom at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver to learn about the latest developments in mass timber building practices. The panelists – Russel Acton from Acton Ostry Architects, Paul Fast from Fast + Epp Structural Engineers, and Rocky Sethi from Adera Development – explored how mass timber offers strong, fire-resistant, cost-efficient benefits and addresses key factors of climate change in B.C. Moderated by Katie Dunsworth-Reiach from Talk Shop Media, the panel covered new opportunities presented by the new B.C. building code, which now allows new timber buildings to go from six to 12 stories. As development and construction account for 40 per cent of global gas emissions, it was essential to gather and discuss ways to reduce the carbon footprint of projects and companies in the industry. Adera Development is leading this fight against climate change in B.C., working at the forefront of mass timber research and building practices.

Kelowna Realtor preview event

More than 150 people attended Mission Group’s Realtor event on Feb. 27 for a new project in Kelowna called Bertram. The evening included a presentation of the floorplans, pricing details and also featured presentations by Luke Turri, Mission Group’s executive vice-president, and company CEO Randall Shier. Many high-profile Realtors attended the event, including brokers from the rennie group. Bernard Block is an urban village in the heart of downtown Kelowna. The site, once complete, will be comprised of two residential towers including Brooklyn, which is currently 97 per cent sold and Bertram, plus one commercial tower, called the Block. The evening fostered several conversations about Kelowna’s maturation into a city that is key to British Columbia’s future prosperity and one that offers the ideal setting for young people to start a business, relocate a company and to raise a family.

Did you know?

Single-person households have become the most common type in Canada, and according to Statistics Canada, the number of people living alone has increased to four million in 2016 from 1.7 million in 1981.