The area around the Lansdown Skytrain station, once home to a cluster of auto body shops and the Richmond Review, is now home to Luxe Lansdowne, a new commercial development merging high density residential, office and commercial spaces near the end of the Canada Line.
For this impactful combination of location and development features, Luxe Lansdowne has been awarded a CoStar Impact Award for commercial development of the year for Vancouver, as selected by a panel of judges with local commercial real estate industry expertise. Liz Firer-Gillespie, Senior Vice President of Asset Management at Balfour Pacific, said of the project, "The combination of office, retail, residential and community use, all adjacent to transportation, adds a true 'live, work, play' location [that was] sorely needed."
Along with 363 apartments, of which 20 are set aside as low-end market rental units, there are approximately 100,000 square feet of new commercial space and 4,000 square feet of community space included in the development designed by Vancouver-based MCM architects.
The office tower is a crystalline form with chamfered corners and glazed curtain walls. The three neighboring residential towers feature offset balconies and fritted glass railings, which ensure equal light exposure for the underlying balconies.
Sustainability is central to Luxe Lansdowne’s long-term performance, having been designed to achieve LEED v4 Optimized Energy Performance. All office, retail, community and residential uses are served by an onsite low-carbon energy generation plant incorporating air-source heat pumps, boilers, and heat exchangers.
About the project: Luxe Lansdowne was developed by a joint venture partnership between Townline, Canderel, and QuadReal, each of which contributed their respective areas of expertise to execute a complex, commercial-led development that integrates public amenities with office and commercial opportunities.
Aside from the Lansdowne Skytrain station across the street, Luxe Lansdowne connects with other modes of transport with protected bike lanes running along both No. 3 Road and Lansdowne Road as well as over 500 secured Class A bicycle parking stalls. There are also Level 2 electric vehicle charging at all private parking stalls and 50 percent of visitor stalls within the development.
What the judges said: "Being very familiar with the Richmond market, I think this project is adding a vibrant, exciting new development into an area that needs it the most," said Shawna Rogowski, senior manager of market intelligence for Avison Young.
"The thoughtfulness put into the design to make it a community hub for Richmond is exceptional," added Justin Smith, president of Hawkeye Wealth Ltd.
They made it happen: The development joint venture team was led by Daryl Simpson, president of Townline; Bryce Margetts, senior vice president, Western Canada, for Canderel; Paul Faibish, senior vice president of development for Quadreal Property Group; and Peter Odegaard, partner with architecture firm Musson Cattell Mackey.