Transit-oriented community for 6,000 residents at Capilano Mall redevelopment | Daily Hive

Transit-oriented community for up to 6,000 residents envisioned for Capilano Mall redevelopment

April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

The preliminary planning for the major redevelopment of Capilano Mall has reached a significant milestone with the submission of an Official Community Plan (OCP) amendment application to the City of North Vancouver.

The proposed high-density development, along with a concentration of community amenities and public spaces, is envisioned to transform the site into the western gateway of the municipality. The site is located at the border with the District of North Vancouver.

QuadReal Property Group first began the planning process in 2018 and resumed work in 2022 following a pandemic pause, with the developer revealing its early draft master plan concept in Fall 2024.

The master plan has since been revised with additional detail and various major refinements, based on the feedback received from the public and City staff, and input from the expanded project team. QuadReal is working with architectural firms Dialog, Farrells, and Aplin Martin, as well as landscape architectural firm PFS Studio.

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The mixed-use development’s overall floor area density and the number of high-rise towers have remained the same — 11 towers reaching up to 40 storeys, which would be centrally located at the 16.5-acre development site. The next tallest building heights reach 34 storeys and 33 storeys, while the lowest is 23 storeys. This is in addition to the six-storey base podiums beneath the towers. Generally, the height of the buildings gradually transitions to the lower buildings of the neighbouring sites.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized on Tuesday, Paul Faibish, the senior vice president of development for QuadReal, says one of the key changes made is the redesign of the retail and restaurant spaces.

Previously, there was an incoherent and disjointed retail experience, with a larger cluster on the north side fronting Marine Drive — where the new replacement Walmart will be built — and a secondary cluster on the south side fronting Third Street West and industrial uses across the street, plus other smaller pockets of retail and restaurant uses elsewhere along a north-south, pedestrian-only street.

Now, the revisions and added detail call for a continuous, seamless winding retail strip that begins from a new major public plaza on Marine Drive and ends at a neighbourhood plaza on the south side at the intersection of Third Street West and Hanes Avenue. This includes an east-west high street with wide sidewalks fronted by retail, restaurants, and patios.

capilano mall redevelopment north vancouver april 2025 concept

Site of the Capilano Mall redevelopment in North Vancouver City. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

Existing condition:

Existing condition of Capilano Mall in North Vancouver. (Google Maps)

November 2024 preliminary draft concept:

capilano mall north vancouver redevelopment concept quadreal november 2024

November 2024 preliminary draft concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Quadreal Property Group)

April 2025 preliminary draft concept:

April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

Overall, the entire master plan continues to call for a pedestrian-friendly layout, including a car-free promenade and courtyard that form the northern segment of the retail strip, as well as car-free, east-west and north-west mews for pedestrians. These mews are fronted by townhomes and some retail and restaurant units.

Altogether, there will be about 202,000 sq. ft. of commercial space for retail and restaurant uses. This is about half the size of the existing indoor mall’s 420,000 sq. ft. of leasable commercial space, with most of this space being underutilized or vacant for years. The largest existing anchor tenant is the 120,000 sq. ft. Walmart, while a portion of the former Sears department store was recently briefly used for the 65,000 sq. ft. indoor North Shore Bike Park, which closed in March 2025.

The project’s primary use of residential space will span about 2.69 million sq. ft., generating 3,408 homes. Strata market ownership housing will be the main tenure, but the project also aims to set aside 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the units for secured purpose-built rental housing. Furthermore, there is an overarching target of having at least 10 per cent of the units set aside for “mid-market affordability.”

November 2024 preliminary draft concept:

November 2024 preliminary draft concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Quadreal Property Group)

April 2025 preliminary draft concept:

Ground-level uses; April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

Upper-level uses; April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

Building heights; April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

There could be roughly between 5,100 and 6,100 residents living in the development when fully complete, based on the industry’s conventional calculation of an average of 1.5 to 1.8 residents living in a unit, according to Faibish.

Another major change, he says, is the project’s phasing, which now has 10 different phases.

The location of the initial phases has now changed; previously, a new mixed-use residential and retail building with a new replacement home for Walmart — located at the northeast corner of the site, fronting Marine Drive — was envisioned as the first phase. Now, the first phase involves the project’s secondary lot at the southeast corner, across from the main mall lot, replacing the surface vehicle parking lot south of Save-On-Foods.

“It’s just a surface parking lot today. We’ve actually now said that that would be the first phase as it just allows the mall to continue operating a little bit longer and for us to sort of establish a start to the redevelopment without disturbing the existing mall,” he said.

The northeast corner parcel — with the new Walmart, other retail and restaurant space, and residential uses and the courtyard — is now slated to be the second phase of the project, followed by an adjacent retail, restaurant, and residential parcel for the third phase.

Phasing plan; April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

The fourth phase at the northwest corner will see retail, restaurant, and residential uses, along with the completion of a section of the promenade and a 21,600 sq. ft. standalone public community centre building — prominently located next to Marine Drive and the new and expanded Creekside Park adjacent to McKay Creek. This also involves naturalized restoration work for the waterway, and the expanded park and open spaces are made possible by closing the section of Hamilton Avenue next to the mall.

This new Creekside Park will feature a large open field for leisure use and as a major flexible space for events, as well as a children’s playground, an outdoor fitness equipment area, and a boardwalk-like lookout area above the creek and naturalized areas.

New pathways along MacKay Creek will connect to the North Shore’s Spirit Trail to the south.

Along the mall site’s frontage with Marine Drive, there will be wide sidewalks lined with retail, restaurants, and patios.

The project’s last three final phases span the mall site’s southern edge — where the existing Walmart and surface vehicle parking lots are located. The final phase incorporates the public benefit of a childcare facility.

Building heights; April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

April 2025 preliminary concept of the Capilano Mall redevelopment. (Dialog/Farrells/PFS Studio/Aplin Martin/QuadReal Property Group)

Faibish notes that the pace of the entire project depends on market conditions. But if all goes as planned with the forthcoming City reviews for the project’s various applications, construction on the first phase could potentially begin in late 2028 or early 2029. The full build-out of the entire Capilano Mall redevelopment could take approximately 15 years.

For the first big regulatory hurdle, QuadReal is hoping City Council will review and approve the OCP amendments in late 2025 or early 2026.

Currently, the suburban-style indoor mall features approximately 2,000 vehicle parking stalls, including several large surface-level parking lots. If fully realized, the redevelopment will generate a total building floor area of 2.92 million sq. ft. — representing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is four times larger than the size of the land area — and a combination of underground and some curbside on-street vehicle parking within the new internal roads.

The success of this redevelopment largely depends on its evolution into a truly transit-oriented community, supported by significantly improved public transit over the long term.

At present, the site is served by bus stops for the R2 RapidBus, which runs along Marine Drive between Park Royal and Phibbs Exchange. TransLink plans to extend the R2 route in 2027, across the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge to connect with SkyTrain’s Brentwood Town Centre and Metrotown stations in Burnaby.

Over the longer term, the R2 could be upgraded to a full Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). TransLink is also exploring alternative rapid transit options for the corridor, including Light Rail Transit (LRT) and SkyTrain.

“[Public transit] is quite a significant factor. The City is challenging us to make this redevelopment as car light as possible. And so, in the current TransLink plan to put a BRT line connecting Metrotown to Park Royal, they’re looking at having a stop on the Marine Drive frontage of Capilano Mall,” Faibish told Daily Hive Urbanized during the interview.

“And so that’s a link into the overall transit network. Maybe one day, SkyTrain, who knows? A lot of our thinking and planning is around that being a rapid transit hub for the North Shore.”

Capilano Mall. (QuadReal Property Group)

Existing condition of Capilano Mall in North Vancouver. (Google Earth)

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