By Diane Strandberg
The Tri-City News
Apr 30 2005

Spring Street in Port Moody is set to become the city's newest hot spot.
Three new developments that back onto the nondescript lane between commercial properties on Clarke and St. Johns streets are expected to bring younger people to the city who are more likely to take light rail or West Coast Express than drive an SUV.
They are expected to buy into new apartments and work/live studios, which are being built on Clarke and St. Johns, as part of a long-awaited redevelopment of the Moody Centre area..
"St. Johns will always be a major route but if there are enclaves of shops, artist galleries and studios, people will want to stop and shop and even live here," said Colleen Rohde, PoMo's director of economic and strategic development.
The Brickyards, a five-storey building with 94 units and 34,000 feet of ground-floor commercial space, is expected to go before the city's land use committee May 3 and could be the cornerstone of a rejuvenated Spring Street, home now to light-industry and dance and fitness studios.
It is a short walk across the Moody Street overpass to Rocky Point Park and steps away from the West Coast Express station. Developers Georgia Lane have purchased properties on both sides of Spring Street, that extend to Clarke Street in the north and St. Johns in the south.
Architect Gair Williamson said the project is being designed with a Gastown or Yaletown-like feel. "The question we asked is, 'What if the railway had stopped in Port Moody?'" Gair said. Free land lured CP Rail to Vancouver but, for about two years, the end of the line was in Port Moody. Williamson, whose office is in Gastown, said The Brickyards is being designed in the fashion of more durable, historical edifices that were built in Vancouver. The buildings will be clad in brick recreated from bricks that were made in Port Moody at one time.
"The biggest thing is the animation of Spring Street," said Williamson, because people will move into the area and create the need for shops and services.
Next to The Brickyards on Clarke is The Lighthouse, which has been approved for 48 apartment units and 11,000 square feet of commercial space, and is now selling to young, urban buyers. Further west on Kyle Street between St. Johns and Spring, Louis Winkler has built an office building with heritage details, with room for a restaurant and a patio facing Spring Street.
Rohde said other restaurateurs and pub owners in the area are also building patios that look onto Spring Street and will create a pedestrian thoroughfare from the city's new Queen Street plaza to Moody Street and Rocky Point Park. The city hopes to attract shops, artists and artisans along the street, as well.
The St. Johns corridor is also poised for redevelopment from a car-oriented thoroughfare to an urban neighbourhood. Several pieces of property are either up for sale, in the planning stages or awaiting approval as the city transforms itself to becoming a hub served by the new light rail transit system, set to run through the city by 2010, and West Coast Express. They are:
* 2025 St. Johns St. - Barnet Hotel property, slated for 19,000 square feet of commercial space;
* corner of Barnet and St. Johns, property sold, plans for a 26-room hotel;
* 2114/22120 St. Johns St. - property sold, plans for townhouses;
* 2801 St. Johns St. - building torn down, potential for two residential units with 3,581 commercial space;
* 3250 St. Johns St. - just approved, now selling The Square, 114 apartment units, 3,500 square feet of commercial space;
* property at the corner of St. Johns and Ioco is under consideration for a residential tower and the former Toyota site at Moray and St. Johns is for sale for high development mixed use.
Realtor Wayne Tullis said St. Johns Street and Port Moody are becoming hot commodities. He said the successful NewPort Village set the trend and now everybody wants in.
"Anything we have on St. Johns is really taking off," he said.