The four-building phase one, now 100% LEED Platinum-ranked, has 200 residential units and nearly 800 sm2 [8,611 sf] of street-level retail space along Wharf Street. Certification for the all-residential phase two, adding 220 for-sale units to the 15-acre waterfront block is "on target" to claim its LEED Platinum coups post-construction as the developer did with the first, Robert Drew, associate principal of Busby Perkins+Will in Vancouver, tells GlobeSt.com.

Co-developers Windmill West of Victoria and Vancity Enterprises, Canada's largest credit union, began work on the city's largest development in its history in 2004. At build-out, Dockside Green will house 26 buildings with 1.3 million sf of residential, office, retail, hospitality and light industrial space.

Synergy

"The pace of this project is market-driven," Drew stresses. "There's a lot of building to do." He says the greatest challenge was designing off-grid infrastructure for a greenhouse-gas neutral community, with net-energy opportunities, while the first phase of construction was under way. Dockside Green has its own sewage treatment plant and biomass gasification plant, which will come on line in seven months.

Busby Perkins+Will is Dockside Green's master planner and designed the first two phases of buildings. Land is being excavated now for phase three, which will have more for-sale residential units and a 10,000-sf commercial building. The initial phases will add 50,000 sf of commercial space to the historic waterfront.