VARIETY SHOW
A range of residential options are on offer at South Surrey’s Hyde Park
Project: Hyde Park
Project location: 28th Avenue and 156th St., Surrey
Project size/scope: First phase of a 156-home master-planned community with 58 two-, three-, four-, and five-bedroom transitional Arts and Crafts-style townhomes ranging from 1,300 to 3,000 sq. ft.
Prices: $416,990 — $871,990
Monthly strata fees: $177 — $300 a month
Developer: Zenterra Developments
Architect: Robert Ciccozzi Architecture Inc.
Interior designer: Intermind Design
Sales centre: Unit 30 — 2411 160th St., Surrey
Sales contact: Donna Dalkie, sales manager Hours: noon — 6 p.m., daily Telephone: 604-506-1852
Website: Hydeparkliving.ca
Occupancy: mid-August
Hyde Park, a new masterplanned community in South Surrey, boasts such a range of housing options, it has attracted those who are both downsizing and upsizing.
Retired couple Nowell and Eunice Hinch were looking to scale down from their 3,000-square-foot back-split detached house on a nearby acre to a “lock and walk” townhome that didn’t feel like a cookie-cutter design.
By contrast, Kelly Pezansoff and Angela Uppal are planning to raise a family, and were looking to increase their living space from their 765-squarefoot condo in the heart of Vancouver’s “crosstown neighbourhood” at Keefer and Abbott.
They both got what they asked for in this community, which will eventually see 156 townhomes located on 10.6 acres of landscaped property, with three acres set aside for green space.
“My wife and I have been shopping maniacs for the last year and just couldn’t find anything that we thought would be suitable,” said 72-year-old Hinch. “We have a beautiful home now with a huge hedge around it, so it really had to be something different or special to get us to make the move.”
Hinch said his friends wondered why they would want to leave their beautiful home, which they had entirely renovated seven years ago, but he and his wife know some people wait too long to downsize and that they should do it while they are “hale and hearty.”
Hinch, who walks a few kilometres each day to Morgan Crossing and back, said they chose a four-bedroom model. While Hyde Park has some master-on-the-main layouts, they chose a traditional model because they see climbing stairs in their new home as one more way to keep themselves fit and mobile for years to come.
Hyde Park has, in fact, drawn interest from a wide demographic, said Derek Fenton, from development and marketing at Zenterra Development. “When you have a $460,000 range in pricing, you are going to attract a lot of different buyers.”
The homes have three layout models with tandem garage, double garage and master bedrooms on the main, and variations on the three, he said. “If you need a home, we have a product for you.”
With the setting of formerly undeveloped forested land, “we’ve tried to create a community with a village-like atmosphere that promotes a home rather than just row after row of mundane units,” Fenton said.
Aerial-style site renderings show clusters of homes with brick and cedar shake accents surrounded by attractive landscaping and internal lanes for cars and walking paths that lead to other nearby green spaces.
Situated within the development is Lancaster Club, a 5,500-square-foot two-level red brick clubhouse with a gym, media room, games room, kitchen and a fully landscaped outdoor patio with barbecue and seating area.
The larger model homes give prospective buyers a good idea of the kind of spacious, open-concept layouts available.
“It feels like an actual (detached) home when you walk in,” said Pezansoff, a nurse working at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
“Most of the townhouses that we have seen, you walk into the entranceway and you are looking at a big flight of stairs you have to go up.
“With this one, you walk right into the main foyer and the living area, just like you would in a detached home. You feel you are getting a detached home at the price of a townhome,” she said.
The models feature engineered laminate wide-plank flooring throughout the main. Buyers have a choice of Shaker-style or Italian two-toned contemporary cabinetry, islands with quartz countertops and single-slab quartz backsplashes. Appliances in the smaller A, B and C homes feature KitchenAid appliances with a 30-inch, 20 cubic-foot fridge, a wall oven and a five-burner gas cook top, stainless steel dishwasher and a 1.6-cubicfoot stainless built-in microwave at shoulder-level.
Larger D and E plans feature bigger 36-inch fridges and superior KitchenAid appliances, while the F and G plans come equipped with Jenn-Air appliances, including a dual-fuel five-burner range, and built-in microwave and convection oven.
Living rooms come fitted with the developer’s “Signature Entertainment Wall,” a pre-wired system situated over a rectangular electric fireplace. All main levels have a powder room.
Upstairs, the ensuite bathrooms come with heated floors and seamless floor-to-ceiling Italian porcelain tile. They also have custom-designed builtin makeup vanities, frameless shower doors and his-and-hers double undermount sinks.
“The kitchen is incredible,” said Pezansoff, adding she and Angela have been back a few times to show friends and relatives what they consider to be one of their new home’s greatest attractions.
Zenterra is still working out details for offering floor plans that provide some variations on the layout themes, including an even more open-concept plan for the main level that would likely be more amenable to family living.
Hyde Park is close to the Morgan Crossing shopping area, Sunnyside elementary and Southridge private school, Grandview Heights Community Centre, and the beaches at White Rock and Crescent Beach.