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������ion contracts to begin the development of the 90-acre Jericho Lands development could appear as early as 2027, according to developers behind the new Vancouver Westside community which has a footprint triple that of the city’s Oakridge redevelopment. 

Brennan Cook, vice-president of MST Development, said the contracts for the first phase build out should go out a year before the work is started and the corporation is targeting 2028 as a construction start date on a first phase with 4,000 housing units. 

“We have to go through rezoning, but that is what the plan is right now,” said
Cook.

The project is looking to place 13,000 new homes and 24,000 residents on the old garrison site along with commercial, retail and light industry as well as recreation and school facilities. The four-phase development will occur over a 20 to 25 year period.

The project partners MST Development with Crown corporation Canada Lands Corporation. MST Development is a partnership of the Musqueam Indian Band, Squamish Nation and Tsleil-Waututh Nation.

“The landowners are currently advancing significant work to submit the first rezoning application for ʔəy̓alməxʷ/Iy̓álmexw/Jericho Lands by late 2025 or early 2026,” said a Vancouver city statement.  “Following a rezoning approval by council, development permit applications will be submitted for approval of the detailed design of the buildings and public realm. Building permit applications are then required for excavation and construction.”

On April 22, Vancouver council approved the Official Development Plan (ODP), a document that MST Development wanted approved in order to better secure project financing. The ODP is a more comprehensive document than the earlier 2024 developed policy statement, a city requirement for large neighbourhood-scale projects.

Neither document removed the rezoning requirements but serves as a guide as the various phases move through the zoning process.

The ODP, however, is subject to change and review. It outlines a sequential development of the site which is divided into four different areas spread over the 20 to 25 years.  In the ODP, the sequencing of development is outlined with Watchmen’s Hill as the first phase, Cedar Heart Plaza, Energy Oval and Cedar Walk as the second, Canoe Landing as the third and Canopy Oval as the final phase.

“The first phase is really not decided yet,” said Cook of the location, adding the numbering is more an effort to divide the parcels of land and the development placed within those areas.

Cook said where construction starts is still being examined as geo-technical work is ongoing and the company also wants more information on the proposed rapid transit University of B.C.  extension (UBCx) stations for the area and how it will connect to the first-phase development.

He said a clearer picture of where the first phase will emerge in the next six months. Several proposals have been made for UBCx routing and Cook said the development wants an affirmative decision on the chosen alignment from the province.

The seven-kilometre UBCx will carry forward from the Broadway Subway project finish at Arbutus in 2027. The UBCx continues to the university lands with four stations along the corridor. A station is proposed central to the Jericho Lands development while a second, off the land, is at the corner of Alma street. Jericho construction can begin before that of the UBCx station.

Cook said once the geo-technical site work, route alignment and station location is finalized, the development company will have a clearer idea of how many buildings, the height and what amenities might be sited in the first phase build-out.

The development is expected to be a significant boost to B.C.’s mass timber industry. MST Development CEO David Negrin has stated approximately 35 per cent of the buildings at the Jericho Lands will have wood-frame or mass-timber construction. Mass timber and timber frame construction on that scale has never been done in Vancouver before, he said.

Such construction would fall under new city building bylaws brought forward in 2024 which allows mass timber construction up to 18 storeys. Negrin noted 50 per cent of the buildings will have fewer than 18 storeys.

Canada Wood Council national sustainability manager Peter Moonen said the large-scale use of wood frame or mass timber in the Jericho project is unprecedented.

“I do not know any development like that in North America,” he said, adding only Stockholm’s City of Wood uses wood on that scale.

Transforming an industrial area Sickla within Stockholm, it was initiated by Atrium Ljungberg and is a mixed-use, all-wood community with 7,000 office spaces, 2,000 homes and retail and restaurants outlets.

Large-scale projects would not only be a boost to the local economy but further the expertise within the local industry, said Moonen.

When dealing with a critical mass capacity, new methods and practices will emerge, he said.

“It all becomes normalized and is not a problem. More contractors become involved and there is more acceptance of a system,” he said.

B.C. is training up more mass timber skilled labour, he said, pointing to the B.C. Institute of Technology’s new courses – one in mass timber construction and a second in mass timber management.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to light a fire under this sector,” he said.