A SENSE OF SITE
50 Electronic Avenue speaks to its Port Moody location
Twenty years ago, when Kush Panatch bought a 3.5-acre parcel of industrial land opposite Port Moody’s downtown, he knew it might take a long time for it to appreciate in value.
What he hadn’t anticipated was that the new SkyTrain Evergreen extension or the nearby West Coast Express station would make it excellent space for a 358-unit condominium development.
“I remember coming here. I went down and walked around the park. It was simply a big industrial area with a sawmill,” said Panatch, a first-generation Canadian whose family fled Africa for a better life in Canada.
Called 50 Electronic Avenue, the two six-storey buildings are part of a transformation the former industrial area has been undergoing over the last few years, with some of Metro Vancouver’s best-known developers investing heavily in new projects there.
Panatch’s family business, the Panatch Group, is fuelling that urban renewal with an offer to help young families get started in real estate by offering a rent-toown scheme for 30 homes in the complex.
The plan, developed after some Port Moody council members expressed concern about the lack of affordable housing in the neighbourhood, provides below-market rentals for qualifying families. Panatch said those families are given the option two years later to buy the home by applying the money they have saved on the discounted rent and receiving credit for all rent payments they have made.
That offer is just one of several ways the development demonstrates its community spirit. The homes share a 9,000-square-foot amenity building with everything from a doggie wash to separate areas for adults, teenagers and children’s activities.
The project, designed by Rob Ciccozzi and his firm Ciccozzi Architecture Inc., works hard to engage with the community and to “activate” street life on both Murray Avenue and Klahanie Drive, which the two buildings border, Ciccozzi said.
The east building is entirely residential, while the west building has commercial and retail space on the ground floor.
“I can see a coffee place and a little deli, the kind of commercial spaces that would activate the street,” said Ciccozzi. “We want to encourage the public to walk up and down the streets. You can’t do that without having the critical mass (of residents.)”
To encourage that interaction, Ciccozzi broke down the massing of the two buildings with a walkway between the two, complete with a water feature. There are exterior details, such as glass railings, balconies up to the fourth floor, and a parapet for top levels that makes the building heights a little less imposing. The materials used— red brick, steel and rough timbers —also make the buildings attractive, while paying homage to the industrial history of the rapidly evolving neighbourhood where a brewer’s row and accompanying restaurants have popped up over the last few years.
The building interiors were also designed to combine traditional elements with modern innovations to make family living more convenient and practical, say Cheryl Broadhead and Nicole Duval of BYU Interiors.
“We had a lot of conversations at the beginning with the developer about how to build community into the project, making sure that neighbours knew neighbours, and that they had comfortable homes that had character that they were proud of and that really worked for them,” said Broadhead.
“People have space within their units that can really house their belongings or display them if they want,” she said. “Family values really seem to come through. It’s a joy to work with a developer that is like that.”
A tour of the two show homes — a two-bedroom unit with a rooftop patio and a one-bedroom unit — illustrate how the firm maximized the use of space. The homes make liberal use of pantry cupboards extending into the space adjacent to the kitchens. The two-bedroom home features his-and-hers closets and drawers in a corridor leading to a spacious ensuite bathroom, leaving the bedroom free of a space-hogging chest of drawers or other furniture. Medicine cabinets are incorporated into all bathrooms, as are the accompanying niches for storage and design appeal around the mirrors.
“People have space within their units that can really house their belongings or display them if they want,” said Broadhead. “It’s kind of like boat design: you try to use every little bit because every bit counts when condos are selling for so much.”
Broadhead said BYU also tried to mix the old and the new, building in details such as small-scale hexagons on the bathroom floor and in the tub surrounds, reminiscent of the traditional “penny rounds” of yesteryear. In the kitchen, the team made use of subway tiles at counter level, a throwback to another era, as a complement to the clean lines and background colours of the cabinetry.
The two-bedroom model also shows off the convenient staircase that leads to a spacious, tiled private roof garden on top of the buildings.
BYU was also responsible for planning the use of Club 50, the three-storey shared amenity building, which allocates a separate area for children attached to an outside playground, a video arcade for teens and a lounge area for adults.
The amenity also has a fitness facility, a yoga studio, a dog-wash room, a bicycle repair room, a media room and co-working space with two boardrooms. Outside,
there is a one-acre elevated private backyard that includes a dog park and children’s playground, green lawns and quiet courtyards.
The well-planned kitchens come with a premium Bosch high performance wall oven, a 30-inch gas cooktop, and quiet dishwasher with custom panel, a 36-inch Fisher & Paykel French-door refrigerator with ice maker, a Panasonic stainless steel microwave and Venmar hood fan. Countertops are quartz with a waterfall edge and porcelain tile backsplash.
The homes come in light and dark colour palettes and have open floor plans with nine-foot ceilings. All closets include custom millwork organizers.