Redevelopment plans for Whalley’s Flamingo Block are moving ahead after city council approved the application Monday night.

Council gave third reading to the project described as “innovative” and “critical” to Whalley’s revitalization.

James Stewart, who has been a lawyer in Surrey for nearly 40 years, told city council that his office in the Gateway tower faces Whalley and that he’s “watched the community evolve, and in some cases deterioriate over all those years.”

Stewart said the development will be “an iconic gateway project that will help rewrite the image of Surrey in general and Whalley in particular” and create a “balanced community.”

“A new community rising out of the wounded community that exists right now,” Stewart continued, “despite the determined efforts of the city and so many other organizations and residents. I don’t believe that Whalley can heal unless physical changes are made that promote and facilitate an influx of new residents. It will be those new residents that form and reform this community.”

The Tien Sher development, at 13665 107A Ave. and 10740 and 10768 King George Blvd., would see a 35-storey highrise and six-storey building constructed during the first phase of the project. Over the next decade or so the developer plans to build three residential towers in all, along with some smaller buildings and some inviting park space on 4.3 acres.

The proposal requires an OCP (Official Community Plan) amendment to increase density, a City Centre Plan amendment as well as a portion of the properties to be rezoned. The developer must now work with the city toward completing the necessary requirement before final adoption.

During the public hearing, 61 people voiced their support for the project (14 who spoke at the hearing), and one was opposed.

“Whalley is at a tipping point,” Surrey resident and CEO of Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing Scott Brown told city council.

Brown said the area is the “disregarded step sister” as King George and Surrey Central SkyTrain stations see more and more development around them.

“This particular development is a critical, critical development for signalling the future of Whalley and actually drawing the positive attention that Whalley already has but needs more of,” he added.

Rourke Anderson, who owns Surrey MMA at 10708 136A St., urged council to approve the project.

“I’ve watched the area in the last year deteriorate even more so,” said Anderson, referring to “a mecca of tents” along 135A Street.

“I unfortunately have the RCMP non-emergency and emergency on speed dial because when we’re teaching people to be better people and right across he street is, in some cases, the exact opposite. It can be very disconcerting,” he told city council. “As a young business owner, I hope you can help this plan. It means the world to all the students that we brought here with us today and the children.”

Several business leaders also urged council to approve the project, including Surrey Board of Trade’s Anita Huberman and Downtown Surrey BIA’s Elizabeth Model.

Huberman said the “innovative” development is necessary for Whalley’s revitalization “into the vision of a city centre.” She urged council to fast-track it.

She also praised the walkability the development encourages as well as other “highly desireable” amenities such as plenty of greenspace that she said will “provide an attractive entrance to the City Centre” and the space for non-profits and arts groups.

“It will be a social, economic and central hub,” Huberman said, later adding, “It will be affordable, increasing our housing supply that we so desperately need. It will create a vibrancy in this area.”

Model said the project is “desperately needed” and referred to a letter the DSBIA sent to the mayor and council asking them to expedite development north of 104th Avenue.

Developer Charan Sethi, with Tien Sher Group, has been building condominium projects in Whalley since 2005, among them three Quattro developments, Balance and Venue.

“I’ve been trying to develop the Whalley area, and trying to get Whalley on the map in a good way, not a bad way,” Sethi said in a recent interview with the Now-Leader.

For nearly two years now Sethi’s been trying to rezone the Flamingo Block.

Sethi also told the Now-Leader that he wants to launch arts and culture in their program.

“What we’ve done is partner up with some of the people in the arts and culture area and say OK, you know what, we’re going to give you space in our building. You’re going to be able to have a base where you can start arts and culture. We need something like that.”

How the Millennial Generation is changing the way agents market and sell homes

With the Millennial Generation taking up an increasingly prominent segment of the home-buying population, real estate agents are beginning to consider the buying trends and needs of this group more in their own daily operations. We had a chance to speak with Mike Rampf and Shawn Anderson, top-producing real estate advisors at luxury brokerage Engel & Völkers, and co-founders of VANCITY Living about their experience working with millennials and how this generation’s home buying characteristics and needs are vastly different from others’. 

Q: What trends are you finding in terms of millennials going into home buying? How are millennials handling home buying differently from other generations?

M: It's very different, the way millennials buy versus the older generations. The older generations are very happy with, and would prefer, face-to-face meetings, sitting across a table, going over a contract, having us pick them up and take them to a showing, or a tour, or an open house. Millennials are much more, "Text me. Email me the contract. DocuSign the contract. I don't need to see you face-to-face." Even just generally, phone calls are a push. Most of my communication with my millennial buyers is via text message and DocuSign. Their approach is much more digital and hands-off. They’ve chosen a professional they trust, so they don't feel the need to meet me as much.

S: Some of my millennial clients do like meeting in person and I do accompany them to open houses. They do like talking about the neighbourhoods in person. Some are fine just texting and emailing. Until they really narrow it down, we don't spend a lot of time together.

Q: Do you find, from an industry perspective, that brokerages are tailoring the way they operate to cater to millennial needs?

M: One hundred percent. Engel & Völkers is one of the first brokerages that we know of that incorporates virtual reality as a standard across our entire network. All of our listings have three dimensional virtual tours that allow you to wear VR goggles and do a complete walkthrough of the property on your computer screen. A lot of our millennial buyers have experienced our listings prior to even stepping foot in the property.

Q: With Vancouver’s high house prices, how are millennials affording to buy homes?

S: I'd say generally they're getting gifted down payments or parental loans. A lot of millennials’ parents are sitting on millions of dollars in real estate, and they realize how tough it is, or impossible it is for their children to get into the market, so that's primarily what we see. You just can't save up fast enough. The incomes in Vancouver aren't high enough to save faster than the rate of price appreciations in the last little while. So the parents are giving them a jumpstart into the real estate market. It might be a gift, it might be a loan, but it's very common.

M: When you look at a lot of moms and dads that we've worked with in the past, you see that they’ve bought their house for maybe $30,000 all the way up to a few hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now they're going to go sell their home for three to tens of millions of dollars, and that hand down of cash to the kids is very, very common. A lot of the clients that we work with are selling the big house on the West Side are gifting their kids a large portion of that money that they've taken from their sale and given it to their kids.

Q: How about millennials who aren’t being supported by their parents?

S: These are ones that typically got in the market, say a decade ago, and they're fortunate that they were in early enough that they rode the market up. As far as first time buyers, we have a few clients that are very successful in their businesses, and they're able to save fast enough to build these down payments. However, it’s not very common that someone from the Millennial Generation is able to save that much on their own.

Q: Are you finding you’re getting more millennial first-time home buyers because of the new BC home down payment loan?

S: Not us personally. We have seen it but have not encountered it much personally.

Q: Are you seeing more millennial home buyers struggling because of the Canadian government’s federal mortgage stress test?

S: It’s certainly affected affordability and it changed what people can and cannot afford due to the requirements. There are clients that it has affected and they just work with what they can afford.

Q: What is the biggest piece of advice you can offer millennial home buyers?

M & S: Just entering the market is the most important part. Don’t expect to be purchasing your dream home up-front – you can enter at a lower price-point and work your way up. Work hard, save hard and don’t eat the avocado toast.