University District Real Estate

College Heights

This neighbourhood of about 400 homes is perched on a knoll above the university and the Parkway. Many of the homes are large and have incredible views toward downtown and across to the coastal mountain range and Vancouver.

Hawthorne

Very desirable for families, this subdivision near the university includes mostly mid-2000s detached homes, as well as a European/loft-style cluster of townhomes at the corner of Wakesiah and 2nd St. Another phase is under construction in 2020/21.

560 Fourth St & 361 Howard Ave
Locals will recognize this large vacant property on Fourth St in Harewood, just a couple blocks from VIU. It was owned by the school board for decades, with a daycare and a karate studio operating out of a small schoolhouse before it was demolished in the 1990s. The property has sat vacant since, and is often the site of fires from homeless encampments. Now, there are plans to redevelop the property, as well as the 2-acre property next door (currently has a beautiful 1945 house and orchard) into a townhome complex with 18 buildings and a total of 219 units, at least half of which will have 3+ bedrooms in order to accommodate the municipality's call for family dwellings.

The first buildings in this development were built in 2019-2020 at 525 3rd St & 308 Hillcrest Ave. (See a full breakdown of those here) You may know the "Bee's Knees" café which is in one of those buildings.

These newer phases involve a 31-unit apartment building (plus commercial space) east of the Bee's Knees (see the orange cirlce below), plus two 6-storey buildings with a total of 171 units at the south of the site (red circle).

I don't know anything else about these new phases yet, but you can contact me for updates.

This will be the first condo development at College Heights, and only the second condo development EVER west of the Parkway (the other is the 1990-built townhome complex at Harwell Place near the Jingle Pot Pub).

The views are going to be phenomenal from these Westcoast-style rowhomes. The plan is for 14 buildings with a total of 79 units, all of which appear to have garages and multiple balconies.

In May 2024 this development application was approved by the City - the permit expires if they don't start construction by May 2026.

Located in the desirable Hawthorne neighbourhood near VIU, this development will include 7 buildings with a total of 22 townhome units (and a kids playground!). The City approved the development in early 2022 and there has been a lot of anticipation. The developer is signalling they expect to complete in summer of 2025, with presales coming soon (winter 2024/2025), starting at $589,000.

The rendering you see here was submitted along with the application and gives a sense of the layout and types of buildings.

Below is the location in relation to Buttertubs Marsh and the other homes in the area.

(Still in approval application stage)
There's an application for redevelopment of this 4-acre property at 2186 Jingle Pot Rd. It would become a little cul-de-sac area with 13 new lots. This is very near to the location of the Jingle Pot mine from the first decades of the 20th century (a geo-technical assessment is likely a part of the re-development application process). This will be a very convenient location, and probably surrounded on all sides by trees. However, noise from the Parkway will certainly be a factor.

Current/Ongoing
In the mid-2000s there was an initial phase of homes built near Buttertubs Marsh in the University District. Almost twenty years later, Hawthorne is still recognized as a very desirable neighbourhood. About half of the land was left undeveloped until recently.

This newer phase appears to be characterized by larger homes than the first phase, with more secondary suites. And while the first phase was characterized by a lot of tree-planting (and those trees have matured very well), such trees are noticeably missing in this newer phase. However, there are great mountain views, and the homes are looking good.