Towers to mingle with firs in new Musqueam project
The Musqueam Indian Band has revealed plans for their returned land near UBC, amid towering fir trees that will form a 1.2-hectare space within the development that the band likens to a small Stanley Park.
The 2,500-person residential development off University Boulevard near the University Golf Course is on an 8.7-hectare lot and is expected to take 12 years to complete.
It will include four 18-storey condos, a 12-storey rental building and several four- to six-storey buildings and townhomes.
The community, called Lelem, which means home in the Musqueam language, will include a fitness centre and gym, a daycare, retail and coffee shops, a grocery store and meeting rooms.
Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow said the development is a first in Metro Vancouver because it’s being created on land Indigenous people had returned to them. The land was transferred back to the band from the province in 2008 after talks dating back to the Gordon Campbell government.
Sparrow said this development differs from the Tsawwassen Mills shopping centre because that was built on existing Tsawwassen First Nation reserve land.
The Musqueam parcel of land is not a reserve but fee-simple land, rezoned last year from multi-family residential to comprehensive development, according to the band.
“This means we got our lands back, so we can use them for our people,” Sparrow said at a news conference.
The band is selling the market condos on 99-year prepaid leases and will use the profits for housing and social programs for its 1,300 members, its real estate vice-president Doug Avis said.
The band will own the rental properties, from which it hopes to earn a yearly revenue for operating expenses.
“We’re never selling our lands,” Sparrow said.
“They were hard fought for by our community.”
“And we’re not building a casino,” he added.
When complete, there will be about 1,250 condo units and 180 townhomes, of which 15 per cent will be rentals, Avis said.
Roughly one-third of the rentals will be subsidized for people who work on the nearby University Endowment Lands.
Musqueam Capital Corp. is the master developer and is responsible for roads, services and parks.
Polygon has been hired to create the first phase of construction, which is expected to begin in about a year, with completion scheduled for two years after that.
Parts of the park — which will include trails, wetlands, greenways and a meadow to be used as a gathering place — will open before the end of the year, Avis said.
The trees logged from the land have been repurposed for use by Musqueam carvers and smokers and for use in the longhouse, Sparrow said. In June, the band signed a 30-year agreement with the Vancouver International Airport for job and educational opportunities plus revenue sharing worth up to $200 million.