BUILDING THE BEST IN B.C.
Industry event honours standouts in home construction, renovation and marketing
The short-list envelopes are in, and now it’s a waiting game for the B.C. builders who have been nominated for the 2019 Georgies annual awards honouring the best achievements among its more than 2,000 members in the province’s $23-billion residential construction industry.
“We’re excited to see the number of entries this year has surpassed previous entry records,” said Neil Moody, CEO of the Canadian Home Builders Association, British Columbia, which has organized the awards for the last 27 years.
The 2019 annual Georgie Awards gala will be held on March 9 in Vancouver, where the winners will be announced.
The 46 awards cover a range of categories in residential housing, including condominiums, townhouses, highrise buildings, renovations, landscaping, kitchens, interior design. There are also awards for sales and marketing, and customer satisfaction.
My House Design/Build Team Ltd., a Surrey-based renovation firm, led the field in nominations, tallying a total of 12 nominations for homes renovated in Vancouver, Surrey, North and West Vancouver and Port Moody.
The nominations include Grand Georgies for Custom Home Builder of the Year and Residential Renovator of the Year.
Company president Graeme Huguet said this year’s nominations were for a “diverse range” of projects, from a colonial style house in Surrey to a modern design home in North Vancouver.
“We have a custom colonial home which is very different to what you see in the normal landscape of the Vancouver building market,” he said, adding that the home has a very East Coast look with a red brick facade.
Huguet said his company’s strength is that it handles big and small projects. “That’s what shows our diversity as a company, and as a team, that we are able to meet clients where their needs are and where their budget is at. In today’s marketplace, that is very important.”
Miracon Developments commanded second spot in the nominations race with nine nominations, two better than the company garnered last year and the highest in the company’s history. The nominations include Grand Georgie Awards for Single Family Production Home Builder of the Year and one nomination each for Best Single Family Detached Home under and over 2,300 square feet. Both homes must be built for under $750,000.
“This year we had a lot of projects on the go between the three sites (Southside, Southcrest and Westside in Surrey) where we had 133 homes. We had a lot of categories we could submit for and have had a lot of success in South Surrey.”
Adera Development Corp. was nominated for two Grand Georgies for Marketing Campaign of the Year and Multi-Family Home Builder of the Year plus five others for its Crest project in North Vancouver and its Grandview at South Ridge Club project in South Surrey.
Solterra Development also received seven nominations for its 140-home condo and townhouse project in Burnaby’s Brentwood neighbourhood.
The nominations include one for a Grand Georgie Award for Marketing Campaign of the Year.
Other leaders in the nominations were single-home builders Foxridge Homes, Marble Construction, Scala Developments and Bercum Builders and its associate company, MQN Architecture and Interior Design, all with five nominations each.
Multi-family home builder Zenterra Developments received three nominations for Grand Georgies for Multi-Family Home Builder of the Year, Residential Community of the Year, and Marketing Campaign of the Year plus two other nominations for its SOHO 2 development in Surrey.
Also nominated for a total of five awards was Concert Real Estate Corp. for multi-family projects in Victoria (Capital Park Residences) and in Vancouver for Voda at the Creek and the Railyard Housing Co-op. Concert is also up for a Grand Georgie for Multi-Family Home Builder of the Year.
For some smaller builders, receiving their nomination for the Georgies is one of their greatest thrills and they hope for a boost to their business.
“We’ve been in business for three years now and these are our first Georgies nominations and we’re over the moon about it,” said Kiff Mowat, principal of Davenport Homes. “It has always been my goal to take it to this sort of a level.”
Davenport won three nominations for a townhouse on the slopes of West Vancouver: Best Residential Renovation $500,000 to $799,999, Best Kitchen Renovation Under $125,000 and Best Condo Renovation Over $250,000.
“It really validates what we do and how we do it,” said Mowat.