Plans to put a mall on the east side of Maple Ridge on the Lougheed Highway are still underway, even though the initial announcement was two years ago.
“It’s moving slowly at the moment, slower than we’d like, but it’s not dead,” said Lawrence Rank, with Property Development Group in Vancouver.
“We’re still working on it,” and hopefully progress will be made soon, he added.
PDG in partnership with Kwantlen First Nation, wanted construction to start on the band’s reserve land on Lougheed Highway near 250th Street in 2012. Plans were to have a 275,000-sq.-ft. mall with major retailers.
The shopping centre will be the first stage in a phased project that will include up to 450 homes on the north side of the highway and an eco-recreation area along the Fraser River on the band’s land, Indian Reserve No. 5.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has OK’d a traffic signal and full intersection for the site on the south side of the Lougheed Highway, which is about three kilometres east of 240th Street.
The developer said previously that there’s enough demand for a new shopping centre regardless of whether retail development happens in Albion flats.
The shopping centre will be the first stage in a phased project that will include up to 450 homes on the north side of the highway and an eco-recreation area along the Fraser River on the band’s land, Indian Reserve No. 5.
The site, named Schwnee-st, has been preloaded with soil for several years.