Brentwood Station

New Brentwood Food Court area to open tomorrow

2021-05-30T19:06:00.003-07:00

According to The Amazing Brentwood's Instagram post, the Food Court area will be opening tomorrow. The opening of the Food Court space is welcome news as the Covid pandemic was the latest cause for the delayed opening. Whether any of the food outlets will be opening tomorrow remains to be seen as no official announcement has been made. Meanwhile, the outdoor area of Brentwood is beginning to see many future store signs appear.

With the pandemic soon to be in the rearview mirror, hopefully the scene around Brentwood will be more lively and filled with people by this Fall as we head towards Christmas.

Nike Store Brentwood now open

2020-11-21T21:47:00.004-08:00

The Nike Store opened yesterday at the Amazing Brentwood. Christmas lights have also brightened up the Brentwood Plaza.

Brentwood Station from Willingdon Ave

2020-11-09T06:12:00.004-08:00

Soon Coffee opening at Amazing Brentwood

2020-11-05T18:00:00.006-08:00

Calgary based Soon Coffee will be opening up in the Amazing Brentwood Food Court as an island coffee bar. There is a hint in the related story below that the food court will be opening this month.

Soon Coffee slated to open in The Amazing Brentwood

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/soon-coffee-the-amazing-brentwood#.X6SiCtglskk.link

View from Douglas Overpass

2020-11-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

Brentwood Station

2020-10-29T20:19:00.006-07:00

Brentwood Entertainment Plaza at night

2020-10-20T19:12:00.005-07:00

Before and After: Sears Rooftop

2020-10-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

September 2011

September 2020

October 13, 2020: Brentwood Entertainment Plaza

2020-10-14T06:03:00.006-07:00

OEB Brentwood 2021

2020-10-13T17:38:00.009-07:00

Before & After: eastward from Brentwood Station

2020-10-12T07:19:00.004-07:00

May 2010

September 2020

First post in 10 months

2020-10-11T18:19:00.006-07:00

My last post was in January of this strangest of years. Instead of talking about the opening of The Amazing Brentwood in the Fall of 2020, we will likely see it's full opening sometime in 2021. It's been very nice to see people hanging out in the Entertainment Plaza during summers days and evenings. I hope to resume posting regularly as we move towards winter.

New Food Court to open by March

2020-01-15T19:52:00.001-08:00

According to a retailer at Brentwood Mall, the new food court will open in March 2020. However, knowing that delays are almost a given, we shall believe it when we see it. This may mean that the bridge connecting the old mall to Brentwood Station will be open.

Opening Soon 2020

2019-11-09T08:09:00.001-08:00

Entertainment Plaza Fountain

Sporting Life open at Amazing Brentwood

2019-11-07T21:02:00.000-08:00

Amid various delays at the Amazing Brentwood, Sporting Life quietly opened for business yesterday. I took the opportunity to go check it out yesterday evening and to walk around the opened portion of the Entertainment Plaza connecting to the station. Starbucks will open soon as we await other openings over the next few months. As for Sporting Life, it's a pleasant arrival to a mall that has been lacking the presence of a big time retailer for a long while.

Popular Japanese dessert place coming to Brentwood

2019-10-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

Originating in Osaka, Gram Cafe has announced that it will be arriving in Brentwood in 2020.

OEB and Chatime coming to Brentwood

2019-08-15T21:55:00.001-07:00

Retail tenants revealed for Brentwood

2019-07-30T21:56:00.001-07:00

It has been about 2 months since my last post. During that time, the Willingdon Linear Park has won an award while cycling advocates complain about not having a dedicated bike path along the length of the park. If we are having discussions and debates about separating pedestrian from bicycle paths, it's a good thing as we move towards designing our city to be more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly

As the pedestrian areas in and around Brentwood's Entertainment Plaza begin to take shape with nicely lit steps, benches and beautiful greenery in the form of trees and shrubs, it appears that a full opening of Phase 1 of the Brentwood development has been delayed. However some retail names have been revealed for the development as it inches closer to a gradual opening that will unfold between this fall and 2020. According to the Daily Hive article below, the Cactus Club and McDonald's, will join Starbucks in the Entertainment Plaza. H&M, Wilfred, Nike and Adidas have joined Sporting Life among the retailers announced. More retail names should be revealed beginning this fall.

First look inside: The Amazing Brentwood shopping mall will live up to its name (PHOTOS)

Kenneth Chan

Jul 26 2019, 9:59 am

It is safe to say The Amazing Brentwood (TAB) will live up to its name.

The first phase of the expansive redevelopment of what was previously known as Brentwood Town Centre shopping mall is now racing towards completion, with project team crews now well into the process of incrementally handing over completed shell commercial spaces to the construction contractors hired by the many retailers.

Darren Kwiatkowski, the executive vice-president of acquisitions and development for Shape Properties, provided Daily Hive this week with an exclusive first glimpse of the project nearing its final stage.

“We’re really excited that after many years of planning, design, and construction, we are close to being finished,” said Kwiatkowski.

“This place is coming alive… We think the public will be very excited and really embrace the project, and we’re looking forward to many years of success here.”

To say the least, it is certainly a highly impressive application and scale of a mixed-use, transit-oriented redevelopment concept; much attention to detail has been provided to this $1.5-billion phase of the new indoor and outdoor shopping mall with a wide range of retail and dining, residential and office spaces, and an immersive public realm.

The new shopping mall’s selection of retail, restaurants, and entertainment, with a greater-than-normal emphasis on the latter two, is intended to bring people to TAB. It speaks to how the next generation of malls in the rising retail age of e-commerce are increasingly focusing on creating experiential activations that supplement traditional retail.

To achieve an optimal mix of global luxury, mid-market, and local-serving retail, the developer partnered with global firm L Catterton Real Estate to turn TAB into a mall with high-calibre architecture, public art, and world-renowned and luxury retail brands.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS

37-storey office tower proposed for Burnaby's Brentwood district

2019-05-27T10:32:00.001-07:00

Gilmore Place is already on its way to building the tallest residential tower. It will also be able to boast the largest office tower in Burnaby. Daily Hive news story below.

37-storey office tower proposed for Burnaby's Brentwood district: Burnaby's largest office tower has been proposed for the new Gilmore Place redevelopment in the Brentwood Town Centre area.

Starbucks increasing presence at Brentwood

2019-05-27T10:08:00.001-07:00

The first corporate logo has appeared at the station entrance level of the Entertainment Plaza of the Amazing Brentwood development. With the retail portion of Brentwood scheduled to open in 2019, we can expect more revelations regarding store and restaurant locations. The Starbucks logo can now be seen from the street. Starbucks already has a location at the rear of the mall near London Drugs. Other locations in the area include Solo District and across the street from there on Lougheed Hwy, along with one on the corner of Dawson and Gilmore.

While we wait for for new retailers to reveal themselves at Brentwood, two pizza shops have quietly arrived in the area along with a Poke shop.. A Domino's pizza has opened on Dawson St and Willingdon Ave. A Pizza Pizza and Pacific Poke have opened in the old plaza which already houses Starbucks, FatBurger and Buffalo's World Famous Wings.

Brentwood Two topped off

2019-03-09T08:26:00.001-08:00

The Brentwood Two tower has reached full height and has become one of the two tallest buildings in Burnaby. Brentwood One is the other one. Both buildings will be occupied by the end of this year with residents beginning to occupy Brentwood One by this summer. Despite having some media present to commemorate the topping off of Brentwood Two, no mention was made of any new retailers or restaurants.

Burnaby Now article below

Burnaby’s tallest building ‘topped off’ as Brentwood megaproject grows: Steven Cirotto stood at the microphone Friday and talked about growing up in the Heights. The operations manager for the construction company Axiom said he still remembers how special Christmas . . .

Gilmore Place ready for excavation

2019-01-04T22:20:00.001-08:00

As the Amazing Brentwood approaches Phase One completion this year, the other major station centered development of the area is preparing to get digging. Onni's massive Gilmore Place development will include the tallest tower in the region and will be a gateway to the Brentwood area of Burnaby on the Millenium SkyTrain Line.

Burnaby Lake Arena should be twinned

2018-12-16T08:46:00.001-08:00

The City of Burnaby has recently approved its Proposed Priority Community Amenity Projects. In my opinion, it is welcome news for city residents as community centre capacity will significantly increase for the Brentwood area with the replacement of the Willingdon Community Centre and the expansion of amenity space at Confederation Park replacing the previously torn down Willingdon Heights Community Centre and the North Burnaby Gym.

Also among the priorities is the replacement of Burnaby Lake Arena and CG Brown Memorial Pool. Anyone familiar with arena scheduling will tell you that there is an extremely greater demand for arena ice and floor time than the capacity that currently exists between Burnaby Lake, Bill Copeland and Kensington arenas. Between Burnaby Minor Hockey, Burnaby New West Ringette, skating groups, Burnaby Minor Lacrosse, and Metro Minor Ball Hockey Association, not to mention public skating programs and events, there is not enough time to fully meet the demand that currently exists for arena space. Burnaby Minor Hockey Association is one of the largest minor hockey associations in the region with kids ending up on a waitlist to play. The association is also required to rent private ice from Burnaby 8 Rinks to meet practice and game requirements for the players that are able to play. Metro Minor Ball Hockey Association turns away a larger number of kids every year as there is not enough floor time for ball hockey in the spring and summer.

Even the upcoming addition of 2 more sheets of ice near Byrne Creek Secondary School will not meet demand for ice and floor time. Furthermore, population growth projections suggest that even a twinning of Burnaby Lake Arena will not be adequate. Building one rink versus 2 attached rinks may cost more in the short term, but the average building and maintenance cost per rink is significantly lower when considering that the arena cooling system is a major cost that is capable of freezing two or more ice sheets and would be a financial waste to install a system for merely one new sheet of ice.

Looking at the size of the property at Kensington Ave between Sprott Street and Joe Sakic Way, there is more than enough room to accommodate more than two new sheets of ice and provide the same or more amount of parking spaces.

With Burnaby 8 Rinks, Fortius Centre, the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex soccer fields and the proposed future Tennis Canada Training facility adjacent to the soccer fields, the area north of Hwy 1 on Kensington Ave is developing into a major sports destination. The City of Burnaby already has a Div 2 NCAA hockey team playing out of Bill Copeland Arena (SFU Hockey). The City is hosting an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship exhibition game between Russia and Switzerland this month and will host the World Ringette Championships in 2019. The addition of more arena capacity will give the City of Burnaby a greater profile as a potential host city for more events int the future and bringing spin-off tourism revenue. With a steadily increasing demand for arena ice and floor time not showing signs of abating, it would be a wise decision if the City of Burnaby studies the feasibility of twinning Burnaby Lake Arena instead of merely replacing it and looking to maximize the potential future economic benefits of such an expansion.

Community Centre and Tesla coming to Amazing Brentwood

2018-12-09T21:38:00.000-08:00

The two opposite ends of the Brentwood Mall site have recently been discussed at the December Burnaby Council meetings. As part of Phase 2 of the Amazing Brentwood Project, Shape Properties has forwarded its plan to construct a residential high-rise tower atop a commercial podium that will also include a new Brentwood community centre at the northwest corner of the Brentwood Mall site.

Shape Properties has also presented a letter seeking approval for the building of a Tesla showroom within the former Sears building at the eastern end of the Brentwood Mall site.

Complete network of barrier free sidewalks must be a priority

2018-10-15T09:21:00.003-07:00

It has been a while since I have talked about the importance of sidewalks in creating complete neighborhoods (sidewalks) and how the current system of sidewalk-building wrongfully places the burden of building those sidewalks on existing property owners. In a region where property values have unreasonably soared beyond the reach of new buyers, the property tax burden has accordingly increased for existing property owners, putting more tax dollars into government coffers. That revenue coupled with increased revenues from the density bonus funds collected by the City of Burnaby should allow the city to spare some funds for improving our network of sidewalks for people with disabilities. In 2018, we should not be allowing disabled people to struggle with getting around their neighborhoods like the poor fellow in the Bunaby Now article below.

BURNABY NOW

Scooter rider says Burnaby sidewalks are harrowing

A senior worries about safety along Smith Avenue in the Metrotown area

Maria Rantanen

/ Burnaby Now

OCTOBER 13, 2018 11:38 AM

Wayne McQueen navigates the bumps and broken sections of sidewalk along Smith Avenue in the Metrotown area in his motorized scooter

The 71-year-old manages to be mobile in his scooter despite having a condition called charcot foot, a result of his diabetes, which can cause the bones in his feet to break if he walks. But he doesn’t understand why a big city like Burnaby can’t get its sidewalks into shape for people like him in scooters or mothers pushing strollers.

“It’s very hard to manoeuvre with a mobility device,” McQueen said, adding that he’d like to see ramps on all corners along Smith Avenue. “It also would help young women with their strollers to have a ramp.”

At Smith and Sandell, the sidewalk, which is only on one side of the street, ends with no curb letdown, but a pathway going east with bark mulch allows McQueen to eventually cross the street. Father down at Hertford and Smith again there is no curb letdown and McQueen turns east and goes down half a block till he can access the road where there is a private driveway, then he rides along the street until he finds another driveway to get back onto the sidewalk.

In places, there are small, steep inclines on the sidewalk beside a driveway where he gathers speed in his scooter to make it up the hill, something that make him fearful for his safety.

“I could have tipped the thing over backward because it’s too steep,” he said of the sidewalk beside a driveway.

McQueen said he often feels very nervous riding his scooter in traffic as he goes down Smith Avenue to his doctor’s appointment with traffic.

“I think (city officials) need to take into consideration standards for making things mobility-safe – that doesn’t seem to be their priority, that’s just my opinion,” McQueen said, who has lived in Burnaby since 2008.