NEIGHBOURHOOD RENEWAL
Tria Homes’ 8888 Osler to take its place in a revitalized Marpole
Marpole, the largely residential Vancouver neighbourhood stretching from West 57th Avenue to the north, the Fraser River to the south, Angus Drive to the west and Ontario Street to the east, is being revitalized as part of a new community plan and the family-owned Tria Homes is poised to be part of the change.
In keeping with other neighbourhoods in Vancouver, Marpole will see an increase in residential densification along its major arterial routes. Tria is among the first developers to take advantage near Oak Street with 8888 Osler, a multi-family home development along Southwest Marine Drive.
“Marpole is a historic community,” said Tria president Raj Nijjar. “Over the years, it’s become a bit of a forgotten part of the city, with a lot of attention being focused on Commercial Drive and the Main Street corridors.
“With the Marpole community plan that was passed a couple years ago, there has been a lot of interest from developers and buyers looking to reinvigorate this area. Our project will be the first under the new plan.”
The 8888 Osler project will be a six-storey building with groundfloor commercial spaces along Southwest Marine Drive and a total of 76 homes, including studios and units of between one and three bedrooms. The homes range in size from 431 to 1,101 square feet and prices start in the $500,000s.
Tria Homes is a local company and Nijjar explained that it started with his father building singlefamily homes in the mid-1980s in Vancouver. Over the years, the company transitioned into townhomes and other multi-family projects in the Lower Mainland.
The developers own the Coast Hotel next door to the project site and worked with the city to rezone the parking lot of the hotel – which is where the homes will be built – and come up with a design that is compatible with the community.
“The project is in a great school catchment, we’re three blocks from Marine Gateway, close to the airport and also just a few blocks from the new Arbutus Greenway,” Nijjar said. “The Cambie Corridor is essentially built out – there’s not a lot of sites left there – so now there’s a real interest in the area west of that to see how Oak Street and Granville Street will develop. We’re pretty much at the bottom of Oak Street and our prices are more competitive than what people would pay along Cambie.”
Residents of 8888 Osler will also benefit from the exclusive use of a large outdoor terrace on the fifth floor of the building that will have barbecues, green space, communal gardens and a children’s play area.
“For a 70-unit, boutique project, that’s actually quite rare,” added Nijjar. “We’ve also incorporated Lumon glass balcony enclosures for the homes along Southwest Marine Drive.”
Daniel Eisenberg of GBL Architects, the lead architect for 8888 Osler, said the enclosures will buffer the noise and give the units much more privacy.
“It’s still indoor-outdoor space, but they will allow residents to have an enclosed balcony when the weather is not good,” Eisenberg said. “In winter, they could also work nicely to capture some of the heat from the south and heat up the units — kind of like a greenhouse effect.”
“We’ve tried to respond to the different orientations of the building. The homes on Osler Street will be west facing, so what we’ve done for those balconies is to provide sliding solar screens to manage the amount of sun that comes directly into the units.”
Homes at 8888 Osler will have laminate flooring throughout living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms, Blomberg front-loading washers and dryers, roller blinds and air conditioning.
Kitchens feature two-toned cabinetry, porcelain tile backsplashes imitating the look of Carrara marble, quartz countertops, under-cabinet precision lighting, revolving corner cabinets and hidden garbage and recycling centres. The European Bosch appliance packages include 30-inch integrated refrigerators with freezers, 30-inch five-burner gas cooktops, 30-inch single wall ovens, 30-inch integrated pullout hood fans and Panasonic microwaves with Inverter Technology. “We have really efficient layouts, spacious kitchens with lots of storage space and multi-functional islands that act as food preparation areas as well as for dining and entertainment,” Nijjar said.
Bathrooms feature bathtubs with inclined backrests, frameless glass showers in select homes and medicine cabinets in all bathrooms.
Ensuites are enclosed in floorto-ceiling tiles, there’s custom millwork shelving for added storage and vanity bar lighting.
“All of our one-bedroom homes are under $700,000 and it’s very difficult to find that with a westside address,” said Nijjar. “Twobedroom homes start in the low $900,000s and there are no other westside projects that I know of at that price point.”
Nijjar said he expects 8888 Osler to be completed by October 2020.