HIGH STYLE IN BURNABY
Amacon’s Juneau to take its place in amenity-rich Brentwood neighbourhood
The Brentwood area in North Burnaby has a lot going for it. There is a multitude of shops, amenities and services in and around Brentwood Town Centre, rapid SkyTrain transit and a growing number of multi-family residential buildings, which provide for more affordable living relative to what one might find in downtown Vancouver.
Juneau, a new offering in Brentwood from developer Amacon, is a residential tower of 147 homes with one to three bedrooms at Juneau Street and Willingdon Avenue.
Amacon has roots going back some 50 years in Vancouver, starting out as a family-based landscaping firm. Since that time, it has grown into a company that has built homes in Vancouver, Burnaby, Port Coquitlam, Edmonton and Mississauga, Ont. Grace Austin, Amacon’s manager of marketing and sales, has a personal connection to Brentwood and remembers it fondly.
“I actually grew up in North Burnaby and I was born at Burnaby General Hospital,” she said.
“I remember the original Brentwood mall from the ’70s, and it was basically just one strip of stores in a covered shopping centre. With the rezoning of Brentwood Town Centre in more recent years, we’ve seen a complete transformation. There’s been a flood of new amenities coming to this area. It’s like night and day looking at it now compared to what it was like when I was a kid.”
At 23 storeys, Juneau will not be as tall than other highrises in the area, and has something of a boutique feel in its design by architects at IBI Group.
The zoning in the area is designed to have the line of residential towers gradually slope down toward the SkyTrain.
The location will position the development as a gateway to Brentwood Town Centre for people arriving from Highway 1. The building is terraced up from south to north so that it blends in seamlessly with its surroundings. Juneau includes five townhouses arranged around a protected courtyard and there will be a public art installation on the southeast corner of the property.
“People really appreciate that there are no bridges in Burnaby to get to Vancouver, Coquitlam and other surrounding areas,” Austin said. “It’s really centrally located. If you took a picture of the Lower Mainland and put a dot right in the middle, Burnaby is right there at the centre of it all. It’s really accessible and after the Millennium Line went in a few years ago, you can get to downtown Vancouver in less than 20 minutes. Simon Fraser University and BCIT are also super close, as well.”
Austin said there’s been a surge in demand for homes in the neighbourhood and Amacon is pulling in buyers with luxury finishes, air conditioning, nine-foot-high ceilings, front-loading washers and dryers and a choice of Ecru or Walnut colour palettes.
The kitchens at Juneau will include appliance packages featuring 36-inch french door integrated fridge/freezers, (24-inch in the one-bedroom homes), 30-inch convection wall ovens, five-burner gas cooktops and slide-out hood fans.
They also come with microwaves, multi-cycle integrated dishwashers, full-height flat-panel cabinetry and polished stone, waterfall-style countertops.
The doors and draws are softclose, there are single-basin undermounted sinks and chrome faucets with pull-down sprays.
Bathrooms feature polished stone countertops, porcelain sinks and polished chrome lavatory faucets. Ensuite bathrooms have frameless glass walk-in showers with rain heads and hand-held wands.
There are deep soaker bathtubs and the walls and floors are lined with 12-by-24-inch oversized porcelain tiles. There are framed, mirrored medicine cabinets with extended ledges.
Juneau includes a concierge service and a social lounge with landscaped outdoor private courtyard. There’s also an Amacon “Think Lab” — a collaborative co-working space for residents — in addition to a fully equipped fitness lounge with a yoga studio and a games room to entertain family and friends.
Other on-site amenities include an electric car-share program, a bike repair studio and two carwash stalls.
“Coming from that area originally, I may be a little bit biased, but it’s a really beautiful place, with Burnaby Lake Park not that far away as well,” Austin added.
“Brentwood will definitely see a lot of growth and change over the next little while, but with that will come even more amenities and services — things that the single strip mall in the ’70s certainly didn’t offer.”
The map for Juneau’s sales brochure features no fewer than 14 restaurants and cafés in the immediate area, including JOEY Burnaby, White Spot, Cactus Club Café, Earls Kitchen + Bar, Starbucks, Steamworks Brewery & Taproom, Kita Sushi and Creme de la Crumb bake shop. Recreation and health options come in the form of Steve Nash Fitness World & Sports Club, Oxygen Yoga & Fitness, Gold’s Gym, Dance Express and Kensington Pitch & Putt.
The sales centre at 2287 Willingdon Avenue features a two-bedroom show home fitted by False Creek Design Group in a mid-century modern style, using Juneau’s architecture as a cue. Completion is expected for the fall of 2019 and prices start in the mid-$500,000 range.