The Amazing Brentwood, a co-venture by Shape Properties, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and L Catterton Real Estate, continues to develop into a one-of-a-kind urban gathering place, reflecting the vibe of Metro Vancouver’s global community, creating a diverse and compelling retail tenant mix.
When the project is complete, it will comprise just over one million square feet of retail as well as several residential towers and thousands of new homes in Burnaby’s Brentwood neighbourhood. It is one of British Columbia’s largest, master-planned, mixed-used developments featuring world-class shops, restaurants, public plazas, entertainment.
“What was important for our retail mix was to make the offering unique,” said Maria Holly, Senior Vice President, Retail for Shape. “We do have a very large shopping centre five kilometres east of us, Metrotown, 1.7 million square feet.
“What we need to do here is curate something unique and also that would fit into our master plan with our residential development. We did some carefully curated mix of first-to-market retailers and those included Sporting Life. They opened in 2019. They’re 44,000 square feet. Still the only Sporting Life in BC. LL Bean opened at 12,000 square feet and still the only one in BC. Suitsupply out of Amsterdam is under construction fast and furious and they’re opening in August in about 6,000 square feet and it will be the only one in Metro Vancouver.
“We did a large H&M, 30,000 square feet. They put in an H&M Home component of 7,000 square feet. And it is also the only one in Metro Vancouver. We did the first Rec Room in BC. It is 44,000 square feet and right now the sales ranking for Rec Room amongst the other Rec Rooms across Canada this is the number two Rec Room, the first one being downtown Toronto.”
Holly said first-to-market concepts include Evolve Strength Fitness out of Alberta which is under construction and opening in the fall in 21,000 square feet.
“And then we did a very large food court. It’s beautiful. It’s called TABLES. The acronym of The Amazing Brentwood is TAB and we use that in a lot of our marketing materials. So TABLES is a play on words with TAB and The Amazing Brentwood and it’s 30,000 square feet, it’s got 19 food vendors and they’re all unique, chef-driven, first-to-market offerings.”
The project did a deal with Whitespot restaurant as part of TABLES where it launched its first-to-market R&D Kitchen in about 4,000 square feet.
Anchor tenants include a VIP Cineplex of 22,000 square feet (the top one in the chain) and a number of restaurants such as Earls, Neptune Seafood Palace, La Taqueria, and Jinya Ramen Bar.
Under construction is a three-level, 10,000-square-foot Tap & Barrel restaurant and bar as well as Bow & Stern, a seafood restaurant. Also under construction is Hello Nori, hand rolled Japanese sushi.
There are also a few coffee shops.
“It’s really become known in Metro Vancouver as an entertainment and food and beverage destination with kind of a dynamic public space,” said Holly, adding there’s a one-acre outdoor plaza and the Glass House, a two-level structure where pop-up retail exists.
“We just signed Rivian. It’s the Tesla of SUVs and pickup trucks, out of California. Super cool. They’re doing a longer pop-up than we normally do. They’re doing their renovation right now and they’re opening July 1 in 5,500 square feet.”
Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N also opened in 25,000 square feet as a pop-up until the end of September.
Athleisure does well in the market and The Amazing Brentwood offers well-known brands such as Nike and adidas.
“We only have about 8,000 square feet of vacancy but it’s the best CRU space in Neighbourhood One because it’s right along Brentwood Boulevard. And we’d like to do athleisure or unique branded fashion there,” said Holly.
The first phase of the project is now complete and the second phase is currently under construction.
“The next phase which is really the interior mall redevelopment in the development pipeline,” said Holly.
Shape purchased the existing shopping centre on the site along with HOOP in 2008.
“And the reason that they bought the Brentwood Town Centre site which was a 450,000-square-foot neighbourhood shopping centre originally anchored by Eaton’s and Loblaws way back in the day was connected to Sky Train and was identified by the City of Burnaby as a town centre,” said Holly.
“So it came along with a bunch of density. Up to 8.5 million square feet we could build on our 28-acre site. The former existing mall on two levels was surrounded by surface parking. Pretty standard for shopping centres built in the 60s.
“So what we have completed now is we’ve taken the surface parking in front of the existing mall and that’s where Neighbourhood One sits. And Neighbourhood One consists of, and is open, three very large residential towers. The tallest tower is 62 storeys so it rivals the height of some of the towers in downtown Vancouver. That’s a total of 1,700 units that are open and fully occupied.”
About 450,000 square feet of commercial/retail real estate was built with about 75,000 square feet of office that is leased. Holly said Neighbourhood One retail is about 95 per cent leased with about 90 retail tenants.
“But we are 61 per cent open. So we’re still in the opening phase,” she said.
The second phase which is Neighbourhood Two is in the ground right now. It will include two luxury residential towers. Tower Five sold out at $1,350 a square foot. Tower Six is even more than that and is almost sold out.
Holly said there will be an additional 60,000 square feet of retail as part of Neighbourhood Two. The phase will be completed in 2027.
“We are looking for retail that is unique. Retail that is also something that our residents will enjoy. At the end of our build out of our master plan we’ll have 11,000 people living just on our site,” she said. “It’s a lot of people.
“Through L Catterton, we have had a window into their brands and their relationships with some of the luxury players but at this point in time it would be a future phase. We don’t have that plan fully developed at this point in time. We’re focusing on the success of the residential demand and that’s why phase two or Neighbourhood Two is another two very big residential towers. Another 1,000 units.”
