Cloverdale Mall Development

Development signs have popped up on both sides of the former Cloverdale Mall on 58th and 57th Avenues.

I saw them on Thursday and I thought that was a little odd. You'd think they'd have had all this approved prior to tearing down the old mall!

The signs say retail space and living accomodations for 102 units. The thing that surprised me was this is to be a 5 story building. For some reason I thought it was only going to be 3 stories, same height as other apartments and condos in Cloverdale.

I guess the thing with having a 5 story building approved is that soon other tall building will follow suit. The same thing happened in White Rock. They only allowed 3 story buildings and about 10 or 15 years ago a tower was built and now there are several condo towers around White Rock.

But where could 5 story condos follow this new one in Cloverdale? East of the Cloverdale Bypass, 176th Street have seen several condos built in the past 5 or 7 years. I don't think there are any old houses left on that side that could be torn down to make way for condo development. Well, there are a couple of older shabby apartment buildings on 176A and 177B Street that could very well be torn down to build new taller condos.

But nope I think the next targeted area for new construction will be the west side of the Cloverdale Bypass. Already on the northwest corner of the Bypass and Highway 10 construction crews are preparing the ground for a new mall to be built there. Not an indoor covered mall that seems to be bad luck in Cloverdale. It looks like something similar to the malls in Panorama or Clover Crossings. Between Highway 10 and 60th Avenue west to 172 Street are several streets full of houses built after World War 2 and through the 60's. Sure a couple of houses are newer than that and on the other side of 172 Street is the area we call Cowtown because all the streets are named after cow breeds. They sprung up in the late 70's early 80's if memory serves me.

But if you take a look at the houses in the quadrant between the Bypass and 172 Street and Highway 10 and 60th Avenue many houses are one story bungalows. Most of them are in very nice condition and the house and yards are neat and tidy. Its a nice quiet neighborhood built in the days when people actually had decent sized front and back yards. On the flip side some of them are very obviously rented out. A realtor friend of mine told me the houses on the south side of 58th Avenue between 175 and 173 Streets are owned by developers. Well, there's one bungalow I think the owner lives in because it is well looked after. On the other side of the street everyone in the houses are renters, whether the properties are owned by developers or not I don't know.

I think this will probably be the next area targeted for a high density condo development once the site of the old Cloverdale Mall is underway. Oddly enough there is one new house smack dab in the middle of all these old houses that are rented out and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Its up for sale. $799,000. Probably at least $400,000 more than the surrounding houses. And what do you get for this price? 9 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. Its a 2 story house. They had it up for sale a couple of years ago for $850,000 and it said it had 2 suites in the basement. I think that's one suite more than the City of Surrey allows. Also the house didn't pass final inspection because its water main has not been cut down to ground level. You know when you build a big honking house like that in an area full of run down smaller homes you better be sure you're building something you like and plan to live in for a very long time.

Anyway I think that builder just screwed up all the other home owners on that side of the street who rent their houses out and are hoping for the area to be developed.

I think if we come back in 10 years that section west of the Cloverdale Bypass will be full of new condos that are at least 5 stories high.