Six towers with 2,000 homes, retail village eyed for Port Coquitlam | Daily Hive

Six towers with nearly 2,000 homes and retail village proposed for massive Port Coquitlam mixed-use redevelopment near SkyTrain

Concept for the redevelopment of Poco Place at 2755 Lougheed Highway, Port Coquitlam. (GBL Architects/Wesbild)

If this project is approved and goes ahead, it would be the single-largest mixed-use tower development in the history of the city of Port Coquitlam.

Local developer Wesbild has submitted a rezoning application to redevelop Poco Place shopping centre, which is located at 2755 Lougheed Highway — the northeast corner of the intersection of Westwood Street and Lougheed Highway.

This 8.4-acre site is located on the westernmost edge of Port Coquitlam, with Westwood Street being the municipal border between Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam.

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The Poco Place property is a transit-oriented development site directly served by the Westwood Street bus stops for the R3 Lougheed Highway RapidBus. It is also a 15-minute walk from SkyTrain’s Lincoln Station or a 20-minute walk from SkyTrain’s Coquitlam Centre Station.

According to the developer, this would be Port Coquitlam’s first-ever “transit-oriented, high-rise development.” The property is on the geographic fringes of Port Coquitlam but is immediately adjacent to the core of Coquitlam’s designated city centre area — within the realm of influence of the adjacent municipality’s emerging downtown and next to their future high-density redevelopments.

Currently, Poco Place is home to businesses such as H-Mart, IHOP, Pomme Natural Market, and Michael’s craft store, with the combined retail/restaurant floor space totalling over 90,000 sq ft.

An existing seven-storey office building with 72,000 sq ft of office space accounts for a major portion of the property’s total 164,000 sq ft of leasable commercial floor space. But as a strip mall, much of the property’s footprint is used for surface vehicle parking.

2755 Lougheed Highway Port Coquitlam Poco Place Wesbild

Site of Poco Place strip mall at 2755 Lougheed Highway, Port Coquitlam. (Google Maps)

Existing condition:

Site of Poco Place strip mall at 2755 Lougheed Highway, Port Coquitlam. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

2755 Lougheed Highway Port Coquitlam Poco Place redevelopment Wesbild

Concept for the redevelopment of Poco Place at 2755 Lougheed Highway, Port Coquitlam. (GBL Architects/Wesbild)

Replacing the 1981-built strip mall, Wesbild is looking to build a mixed-use commercial and residential development with six towers reaching up to 45 storeys.

It would contain nearly 2,000 homes, including a mix of strata market condominium ownership housing and secured purpose-built rental housing, with both market and below-market rental units.

Beneath these residential towers will be commercial base podiums, which will effectively provide new replacement retail/restaurant spaces. These active commercial uses will be configured as an outdoor retail village. Altogether, there will be 80,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant spaces.

Moreover, this retail village will have a pedestrian-oriented public realm, including pedestrian-only streets lined with retail/restaurant units.

The tallest tower reaching 45 storeys is situated near the intersection corner, fronting Lougheed Highway, containing market rental housing, non-market rental housing, an 8,000 sq ft childcare facility, and retail/restaurant uses. This tallest tower represents the second phase of the project.

The first phase entails a 37-storey rental housing tower and a 35-storey condominium tower, with a commercial base podium of a grocery store as an anchor retail business.

The third phase will generate a 33-storey rental housing tower and a 31-storey condominium tower, with additional commercial space in the base podium, while the fourth phase will be a 31-storey condominium tower with townhouse units within the base podium.

Concept for the redevelopment of Poco Place at 2755 Lougheed Highway, Port Coquitlam. (GBL Architects/Wesbild)

Residents of the project will have access to 3.3 acres of shared outdoor amenity spaces, with much of these amenities situated on the base podium rooftops, including a 400-metre “wellness” walking loop.

Westbild has partnered with GBL Architects for the project’s design needs. It is noted that Poco Place’s existing seven-storey office building — which includes existing retail/restaurant uses on the ground level — will be retained as a part of the redevelopment.

“This will significantly revitalize the property with new pedestrian activity, retail and housing in an area that is currently a suburban strip mall,” said Lilian Arishenkoff, senior vice president of Wesbild, in a statement today.

“Wesbild has been developing land and homes in the Tri-Cities for over 40 years, and this will be an exciting addition to our commercial and residential portfolio. We look forward to working to create a unique retail experience and build a complete community with much-needed housing supply in close proximity to transit options.”

If approved, construction on the first phase could begin in 2027.

Within the Tri-Cities, Wesbild is particularly known for the vast residential developments of Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain on the mountain slopes of Coquitlam.

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