Developer Wesgroup has received $349 million in low-cost loans from the federal government to construct rental housing, as part of CMHC’s Rental Construction Financing initiative (RCFi).
The funding will allow for the construction of 836 new rental units, targeted at middle-income families at the following locations:
- 100 Braid Street, New Westminster (Sapperton)
- 268 Nelson’s Court, New Westminster (Brewery District)
- 8690 Jack Uppal Street, Vancouver (River District)
Wesgroup recently sought additional height for the tower at 100 Braid Street, in exchange for converting previous planned strata condos into rentals. The tower will be 35 storeys as opposed to 21 storeys.
The development is across the street from QuadReal’s massive Sapperton Green proposal, that will add 4.4 million square feet of new housing once completed, over the next 20-30 years.
Beau Jarvis, president of Wesgroup, says the CMHC program, RCFi, aligns with their core values.
“Through our partnership together we have successfully converted three projects that would have otherwise been condominiums into affordable, accessible and sustainable rental homes. These developments provide quality housing accessible to a wide demographic, with great access to transit, amenities, services and jobs. This partnership demonstrates the successful implementation of a targeted government strategy and helps to address the challenges of delivering quality housing in dense urban areas.”
RCFi was created by the federal government to encourage the construction of 71,000 new rental units, offering billions in low-cost loans to interested housing developers.
