Surrey City Centre | Photos

[Westcoast604]

Surrey, BC
2006 Estimated Population: 411,000

Despite being one of Canada's fastest growing cities, Surrey hasn't seen much high-rise construction over the past decade, with the exception of the landmark Central City Tower: a 26 storey office building built ontop of an existing shopping centre. Since completion of this catalyst project in 2003, there has been a surge in development proposals for high-rise residential towers throughout Surrey's City Centre. This thread is to give an overview of these projects, their progress, and hopefully will continue to be updated with new projects and photos as this regional center blossoms over the next 10 years.

Surrey City Centre - February 2007

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/2359/dsc01551kw8.jpg

Will add comprehensive list of projects soon :)

[Clay_Rock]

Cool picture!

[spongeg]

surrey centre mall has turned around so much in the last year - it used to be so dead now its quite busy and getting better stores and filling up again

good to see

its such in a good position having the skytrain station so close - it should really be more important than guildford

[Rhino]

Good Idea for a thread , Id like to see individual threads for Cities in the GVR . I know it would be a lot of work , but it would be really COOL .

http://www.surreymyhome.com/images/Surrey_Crest_Small.jpg

[thryve]

GREAT picture! And cool thread! Please more photos... I love Vancouver and its surrounding cities, great to see their city centres developing :D

[Westcoast604]

High-Rise Towers Currently Under Construction:

Infinity Phase 1
(36 Storey Residential)

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/3358/surreyoverallsmalljj8.jpg

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/8605/dsc01554em4.jpg

High-Rise Proposals:

West Whalley Ring Rd & 108th Avenue
(21 Storey & 25 Storey Residential)

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/4338/towers070223zk2.jpg

Quattro
(Four 28+ Storey Residential)

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/4086/img44e9e6fe5fc5adf3.jpg

"Jung Ventures" Towers
(Two 37 Storey Residential)

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/4365/twotowerselevationdb6.jpg

Gateway
(34 Storey & 39 Storey Residential)

Gateway 2
(33 Storey Residential)

D'Cor Tower
(21 Storey Residential)

Optima On Hold/Cancelled?
(21 Storey & Two 18 Storey Residential)

Odyssey Tower 2
(26 Storey Residential)

Urban Village Phase 3
(40 Storey Residential)

SFU Surrey Residences
(11 Storey & 21 Storey Residential)

[mr.x]

great compilation!

[spongeg]

infinity is really visible from the coquitlam side

its looking a lot better

[in'sauga]

its great to see the future developments in Surrey. I was there this past October, can't wait to see how much it will have changed when i come back.

[G-roy]

ahh good to see the city I was raised in finally growing up.

Surrey place mall was awesome back about 12 years ago, but seemed to fizzle out as the years went by.

[spongeg]

yeah once the big dept stores pulled out and moved to guilford it really died and has never recovered properly

but the last year things have turned around - the new SFU campus has brought a whole lot of people in and the expansion and tower are amazing - just sitting in the new area is cool

the food court is awesome

T&T really revived it - it has brought in a ton of customers, future shop has moved in, shoppers has moved to a new location, and i believe winners is moving in

they still need to do something about the old extra foods location - i would love to see Daiso there

slowly the smaller stores are filling up and more chain types are moving back in

[Rhino]

Is it possable for someone to do a " furure " pic of Surrey with all these buildings complete in the Sky line ? I myself dont know how .

[Booyashako]

Surrey sure has changed soooo much from when I used to live there!
If my family were to move back west (hopefully!), we'd likely end up back there...it's the only place we could probably afford a good sized home for a large family like mine.

[spongeg]

if you can afford $500,000+ than yes

houses are very pricey in surrey now

[Booyashako]

^^ yup...we've checked...a nice 5br home is within our limit in surrey :)

[spongeg]

someone i knew just sold his place in surrey and moved to Tswassen (delta) - he said the crime in surrey was getting too much for him

[Westcoast604]

Crime in Surrey is not that bad.

Infinity earlier this week:

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7638/dsc01577jm5.jpg

[thryve]

^^ Awesome pic!

Why would crime be any worse in Surrey than elsewhere in British Columbia, or Canada for that matter?

[spongeg]

crackheads?

who knows

but petty theft is pretty rampant

a coworkers son used to visit his friend who lived in "downtown" port coquitlam - she said in a few months his car was broken into about 10 times - he eventually just left it unlocked with nothing in it when visiting his friend

its pretty common - our secured parkade in our building has been broken into a few times over teh years - its a pain to have to rest all the garage door openers - as inevitablely one is stolen

and their isn't much the police can do - and the peopel who do these small things know that and its just never ending

like in our building we have surveliance cameras but the police said that won't be able to convict anyone even though the people are visible on the cam

[ssiguy2]

I went to Burnaby the other day from my place in South Surrey. I had the distinct unpleasurable experience of having to take the King George bus down to White Rock.
Surrey Central SkyTrain station was truly dreadful, crime ridden, and generally unpleasant. Taking the KG bus was like going thru the world's longest trailor park. I know know what it is to live in rural Alabama.

It is good to see Surrey trying to improve Whalley but it will take a hell of a lot more than just a few condos. All those Surrey jokes don't come from nowhere.

The biggest insult you can give anyone in South Surrey is to say they live in Surrey. In all my travels across I have never come across a suburb like the Whalley area.........not even close. It makes Brampton look like Westmount.

Maybe in 20 years things will be much better in the Whalley area but it will take a long time after that for Surrey to shed its well deserved reputation as a crime ridden, drug and prostitute infested, pawn shop, used car lot utopia.

[Westcoast604]

This post was extremely exagerrated:


I went to Burnaby the other day from my place in South Surrey. I had the distinct unpleasurable experience of having to take the King George bus down to White Rock.
Surrey Central SkyTrain station was truly dreadful, crime ridden, and generally unpleasant. Taking the KG bus was like going thru the world's longest trailor park. I know know what it is to live in rural Alabama.

It is good to see Surrey trying to improve Whalley but it will take a hell of a lot more than just a few condos. All those Surrey jokes don't come from nowhere.

The biggest insult you can give anyone in South Surrey is to say they live in Surrey. In all my travels across I have never come across a suburb like the Whalley area.........not even close. It makes Brampton look like Westmount.

Maybe in 20 years things will be much better in the Whalley area but it will take a long time after that for Surrey to shed its well deserved reputation as a crime ridden, drug and prostitute infested, pawn shop, used car lot utopia.


Surrey Central represents any typical suburban transit exchange. Sure, like any suburban setting, it could use improvement; but overall it is actually a fairly pleasantly designed plaza, with quality landscaping, brick work, and pathways. Much nicer than alot of transit exchanges around subway stations. There is street-front pedestrian oriented retail, high foot traffic with commuters and pedestrians of which the majority are not prostitutes, drug dealers, or crack heads.

On a positive note, Surrey Central is adjacent to a large outdoor civic plaza at Central City. This has provided a space for gathering during the day, where professionals and SFU students congregate to eat lunch at the outdoor cafes, and mingle. Also next to the station is a newly renovated recreation centre which brings many families with young kids for sports to the area.

SSI guy, you must have only looked out the window once during your trip along KGH because the strip is occupied by only a small handfull of trailer parks, left over from the days when this highway was primarily rural on the very outskirts of the metropolitan area, leading the US border.

Today, KGH is primarily commercial oriented, with many large retail plazas along it. There is some multi-family, as well as Bear Creek Park which fronts a large portion of KGH. This park is a city jewel and one of the nicest parks in the region. Travelling north on KGH you see breathtaking views of the north shore mountains, and the rolling hills of Surrey; as well as its emerging city centre. I dont see how this relates to rural Alabama.


---

Some images of the "truly dreadful, crime ridden, and generally unpleasant", Surrey Central Station, and vicinity:

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6568/190587104ffb9fe34c3okf2.jpg

The parking lot in this photo is for the Rec Centre patrons. It used to be larger, but they reduced it to make way for a re-aligned 102nd avenue, when Central City was built. If you look at plans for the area, this lot, along with the bus-loop itself are slated for re-development in the form of an office tower, retail, and possibly residential. There is a nice network of brick pathways and stone features created through the parking lot, giving pedestrians the right-of-way and it has been clearly designed to cater to them.

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/7333/294725978ac11d37a8aozu3.jpg

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/1324/2947259840064bf3d61oec9.jpg


Some street-front retail at the base of the station platform:

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/5030/800px05310012ki9.jpg

[Wonderwall]

Surrey Central [has] high foot traffic with commuters and pedestrians of which the majority are not prostitutes, drug dealers, or crack heads.
That should be on the Surrey website.

Just because Surrey has one nice building doesn't negate the fact that it is, unfortunately, a heinously unattractive place.

[Westcoast604]

haha. yeah. seriously though most of the negative comments about surrey being passed around are from people that don't live there - and make assumptions based on what they have heard. Surrey is really only unattractive in comparison to the cities it is nearby - which happen to be above average.

[ssiguy2]

Much od Surrey is quite nice but the Whalley are and area all along KG is horrible.
The Surrey Central Station is horrible and at night down right dangerous.
I have never seen anything like it anywhere else in the country.

BTW....................I heard a great Surrey girl joke just a week ago.
........What's a Surrey girl's definition of a safe sex?.... a bus shelter.

[Westcoast604]

"D'corize" 21 Storeys
104th & West Whalley Ring Rd

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1718/dcoriv3.jpg

[spongeg]

apparently the transit village has been approved