More than a decade after the excavators first began digging up a former brownfield site on Harbour Road to start the innovative Dockside Green project, the development site has been sold.
Dockside Green Ltd., a subsidiary of Vancity, has been purchased by Bosa Development, a Vancouver-based company perhaps best-known here as the owner and renovator of the Empress Hotel and partner in the construction at Bayside Place, just up the road from Dockside.
The sale was announced Tuesday and takes effect Dec. 15.
“We’re thrilled and very excited to have found an organization that shares our vision for the community,” Dockside Green president Norm Shearing said in a release. “Bosa has what it takes to build on this, and to let Dockside Green fulfill its true potential.”
The master-planned, mixed-use development site was considered state-of-the-art in the days after the former contaminated site was bought at a discounted price from the city, and such environmentally sustainable features as a sewage treatment plant and biomass energy facility were incorporated into its design.
READ: Dockside Green clears hurdle to continue
But the development halted under the sluggish economy in 2009 and little visible progress was made up until this year, when Dockside Green received the zoning approval for the next phases of the project. Its website lists seven separate “precincts” for the 15-acre site, one of which includes existing residential buildings along Tyee Road.
Vancity looks to Bosa as a “like-minded” developer that can complete its vision for the property.
“Dockside Green is an award-winning project that’s led the way in building a dynamic and sustainable local community,” says Ryan Bosa, president of Bosa Development. “We love what has been created and we feel honoured to be playing a part in helping to write the next chapter.”
Bosa has agreed to build the project to LEED-ND (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – neighbourhood development) Platinum standards. While around a dozen new buildings, including seven residential towers, have been in the works for the development, the plans also call for various public amenities, including walkable greenways, a dog park, children’s playground and a central park.
At full buildout, Dockside Green is expected to be home to upwards of 2,500 residents. Bosa anticipates the construction of new buildings to start on the site as early as summer 2018.
