Tsawwassen Springs is proving popular.
The $400-million, 490-unit golf resort community being built on 55 hectares (137 acres) is now launching sales of its second phase after the first 55-unit condo building sold out.
A limited number of pre-construction sales of the first phase of the Tsawwassen Golf and Country Club redevelopment took place last year. Developer Ron Toigo wanted to launch sales on the rest of that first phase when the building was completed for a grand opening, which took place this spring.
Toigo, whose partners in the project include singer Michael Bublé, former Vancouver Canucks GM Pat Quinn and record producer Bruce Allen, told the Optimist the second phase is an attractive 93-unit concrete building. Forty-five units in that building will be available for pre-sale while the remainder will be offered when the building is completed. Toigo noted 16 units have already been sold.
He said the second phase of the development also includes 34 single-family homes. The 20 available for pre-sale have already sold out. Those homes go for around $800,000 to $1 million, so it's clear homebuyers are not waiting until the HST on new houses is axed in order to buy.
Noting the condo units are especially are ideal for downsizers, Toigo believes the success the project is experiencing is due to the quality lifestyle it offers.
"It's really got it all. Certainly the lifestyle (and) it's the location. A lot of people from outside Tsawwassen and the Lower Mainland are coming in and seeing for the first time it's part of a community," Toigo said.
"You're going to have a fairly significant clubhouse that everyone can walk to and you really don't have to leave the place. It's more of a lifestyle everyone would like to be in at some point."
A news release by Peak Communicators, which is helping market Tsawwassen Springs, stated when the second condo building is completed, "it will be the tallest building in Tsawwassen, offering unparalleled water, golf course and mountain views."
The development constructed by Talisman Homes, and designed by architect Wayne Fougere and interior designer Martie Knockaert, will comprise 490 homes: 296 condos ranging from 750 square feet to over 2,300 square feet, and 194 detached bare land strata houses from 1,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet.
The buildings will have an "Arts & Crafts style made famous at Torrey Pines Golf Club."
A focal point of Tsawwassen Springs will be an all-season, par 70, 18-hole golf course designed by Vancouver-based Ted Locke. Other amenities will include a 32,000-square-foot neighbourhood clubhouse, a fully equipped fitness centre and spa, restaurant, pub, banquet facility, outdoor skating rink, tennis court and neighbourhood store and café.
Real estate marketing firm Magnum Projects has partnered with Toigo's firm, Shato Holdings, on phase two.
"This master planned community is absolutely the one to watch in terms of the number of residents it will pull from other Lower Mainland areas as its unique lifestyle attractions become more and more widely recognized," said George Wong, founder of Magnum Projects.
Toigo agreed the major shopping malls planned for across the highway on Tsawwassen First Nation property would become an added bonus.
Talisman Homes will construct all five phases of the development. The entire project is expected to be completed by 2016.
