Construction of Port Moody’s largest-ever redevelopment project will begin in the fall of 2025.
Tuesday, July 23, council gave its final approval to zoning amendments for the first of five phases of Wesgroup Properties’ Inlet District project, at the corner of Ioco Road and the Barnet Highway.
When the entire project is complete, the 14.8-acre site will be home to about 5,500 new residents. They'll live in six residential high-rise towers up to 31 storeys and three six-storey residential buildings, along with a four-storey office building, two daycares, a grocery store and other retail shops as well as a 2.63-acre Central Park.
The first phase, to be built on the site’s western edge along Ioco Road, is comprised of two 26-storey condo towers atop a four-storey podium where the grocery store, a pharmacy and other shops will be located, along with the office building and the first daycare.j
Brad Jones, Wesgroup’s senior vice-president of development, said the project will be transformative for the city.
“We look forward to bringing our vision to life and contributing to the growth and vibrancy of Port Moody,” he said in a news release.
Over the past several months, the company has been working on clearing the former Coronation Park neighbourhood of its 59 mid-century single-family homes, 10 of which were moved to a First Nations community near Sechelt.
Kate Zanon, Port Moody’s general manager of community development, told council the city is working with Wesgroup to identify trees from the old neighbourhood that could still be saved. But, she added, the size of some of the trees and their root balls is making that challenging.
Zanon said the effort to save trees “will be done on a case-by-case basis.”
As well, the city is still waiting to hear from the developer whether its efforts to secure partnerships to include an affordable housing component in its massive project have borne fruit.
Zanon said if Wesgroup is successful, they will bring its plan back to council for approval.
Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti said she believes that could happen “soon.”
Wesgroup acquired the Coronation Park site in 2019.
Since then, the company’s vision for its future has endured a winding and often rocky journey through several iterations as successive councils expressed their own desires for the development.
At one point, Wesgroup’s proposal included five towers up to 45 storeys.
The prospect of so much density horrified some councillors at the time.
“We may be making the most unfortunate urban planning mistake in the history of Port Moody,” said Hunter Madsen, who wasn’t reelected to council in 2022.
The clashing visions led to several fractious exchanges between councillors and the developers, who at one point threatened to pull the plug entirely.
“We are struggling to see a path forward with this council,” said Jones in Nov., 2021.
But with council’s final approval last Tuesday, any lingering animosity seems to have dissipated.
“Wesgroup is grateful to achieve this milestone after tremendous effort and dedication over the past five years of work with the city of Port Moody,” he said, adding the community will realize about $137 million in financial and in-kind benefits from the massive project.
Some of those include:
- more than $8 million in community amenity contributions
- $6 million towards construction of a new pedestrian overpass across Ioco Road to the Inlet Centre SkyTrain station
- $4.8 million of public art
- a 186 sq. m. civic facility for community use
- $44 million worth of upgrades to infrastructure
- $33 million in municipal development cost charges
- $58 million in Metro Vancouver development cost charges
Jones said the first residents should be able to move into their new homes in the Inlet District by 2029.
