New Westminster's Queensborough district will get 1,000 new homes as part of a $500-million revitalization project over the next six years.

Port Royal, located on a 50-acre peninsula point that separates the north and south arms of the Fraser River, will contain single-family homes, including freehold row housing and courtyard houses - new to B.C. but common in California - and a 22-storey highrise that is drawing protests from nearby residents.

"What I tried to do was align all sorts of housing units, from starter units to stacked townhouses right up to high-rises and everything else in between," says Lenny Moy, president and CEO of Vancouver-based Aragon Group, the project's developer.

Port Royal continues the conversion of Queensborough, a former industrial area that was once home to salmon canneries, a shipyard and sawmills, into a suburban waterfront residential community.

Illustration courtesy of the Aragon Group
The Port Royal development in Queensborough is designed to offer a variety of housing settings.

The project is near Queensborough Landing, which is now home to big-box stores such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Home Outfitters, and will also house a new hotel and casino being developed by Gateway Casinos.

As previously reported in Business Edge, the Queensborough casino, due to be completed in late 2007, will replace Gateway's downtown New Westminster casino.

Moy says the freehold properties and courtyard-style houses allow his group to cater to a distinct market niche. The homes will sell for $500,000 and up. "We see this as a new benchmark in terms of housing ... We're essentially building a new piece of land over here, for lack of a better word," says Moy.

Plans also call for a public pathway around the site. A dock, which has already been built, is intended to serve as a terminal for a foot-passenger ferry between Queensborough and the Quayside area of downtown.

New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright says city planners are looking at creating a new ferry service operated by TransLink, Greater Vancouver's transportation authority. Port Royal could be one of several ferry stops, he says.

Queensborough needs more than one dock, he adds. Planners will consider tourism opportunities as well as commuter patterns.

"(Tourists) have asked us year after year after year to spend more time on the Fraser River," says Wright. "They want to spend short times, quality times. When they come over here to Port Royal, they've got some amenities that are close by here, as well as (connections to) the transit system."

The former MacMillan Bloedel property is part of one of the oldest areas of New Westminster.

Nicknamed the Royal City, it was B.C.'s capital in 1859, before being displaced by Victoria in 1868. Wright says the development will "upgrade everything" in the area.

"People will be able to move in and work and play and grow their families in the Lower Mainland," says Wright. "They don't have to move out (to the suburbs) - they can move right here. So they'll save more money by living here than they will living up the (Fraser) Valley and commuting every day.

"If you think of how much gas an automobile will use, plus how much time (is spent commuting), it will make sense."

Wright, who has often stated his goal of returning the city to its glory days as a thriving commercial centre, says Port Royal will also help increase Queensborough's business activity. "Queensborough has location, location, location," he adds.

But the scenic location is one reason why residents on the other side of the Fraser are opposed to highrise development. Aragon suffered a setback recently when Wright's city council deferred a decision on the tower's development permit, instructing city staff to discuss design revisions with the developer and facilitate more public consultation with Queensborough residents.

James Crosty, president of the Quayside Community Board, which represents 1,996 strata property owners, said residents have not had enough time to consider the proposed highrise.

He adds residents may not be opposed, but also indicated the building's 215-metre height is a concern because the tower would be located right on the point of the site, obstructing the view from the north side of the Fraser.

Since the proposed height is above existing limits, Aragon would require a zoning variance from the city to go ahead with the high-rise.

David Roppel, Aragon's development manager, said the tower was sculpted to be higher and slimmer, so that other residents could see around it.

"It's slightly higher, but the views are better," says Roppel.

Aragon decided to put the tower on the point because that location was already zoned for high-rises, he adds.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)