Today marks the official opening of the Salal Apartments for Sanford Housing Society our client with whom we have done some amazing work together over the past 35 years. Sanford is a shining example of what non-profits are capable of in terms of developing, running, and maintain buildings to support affordable housing in the Lower Mainland.
The Salal is a non-market rental development project providing a total of 90 affordable homes in North Vancouver, on the traditional and unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation. This six-storey, affordable family project presents an exciting opportunity for families with a range of incomes to live and work on the North Shore, where affordable housing has been increasingly difficult to secure. The new building is well located, next to the Phibbs transit exchange and features indoor and outdoor amenity space.
There have been several key team members who have journeyed over the past 8 years to make this project a reality including the District of North Vancouver who provided strong leadership to get to our lease and resolve a number of issues over the course of the project. The land for the project was made available through the strong effort of the District’s Mayor and Council’s to support the development of non-market rental housing in the municipality.
The project is funded under BC Housing’s Community Housing Fund. We are grateful for BC housing’s role in this project and empowering the sector with the work that they do. Both CMHC and Vancity Community Foundation provided seed funding to the project which was essential in the early stages to get the project moving.
As Development Manager for the project, Terra worked to coordinate stakeholders and move the project through the development process, finishing on budget. Kelly Lin spearheaded leading the project from the Terra side with support from Imelda Nurwisah and Manuela Tiefenbach. We are also grateful for the work of Hugh Forester who is an independent developer we work with who helped us put the land deal together and work with the District of North Vancouver.
Hollyburn Community Services Society as Sanford’s operating partner was also instrumental in the process of working through various levels of government and community work.
Thanks also goes out to the office of Mcfarlane Biggar Architects + Designers (OMB) and VanMar Constructors BC Inc. for bringing this project from feasibility to completed construction.
We are so proud of this project and the work of the entire team did to get it here!
Find the official announcement here: Ninety new affordable homes open in District of North Vancouver | BC Gov News
