Before the end of the decade, the Brentwood Town Centre district of Burnaby will be served by a new major community and recreation centre.
This week, Burnaby City Council provided the approval to build the new Brentwood Community Centre, with detailed design work now underway toward a construction start in Winter 2026 for Summer 2029.
Brentwood Community Centre will be located within very close proximity to SkyTrain’s Brentwood Town Centre — just southeast of the public transit hub, integrated with the Brentwood Block mixed-use residential and commercial development by Grosvenor.
Grosvenor will oversee the community centre’s construction as part of the overall Brentwood Block project. Upon completion, the facility will be owned and operated by the municipal government.
Within the eight-acre development site at 4612 Lougheed Highway and 2040-2150 Alpha Avenue, the community centre will be built on a parcel on the south side of the property — fronting Dawson Street.
2024 artistic rendering of Brentwood Block’s towers (background) and Brentwood Community Centre (foreground) in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
“The Brentwood Community Centre represents an important piece in the evolution of one of the fastest-growing neighbourhoods in Burnaby,” said Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley. “This is a fantastic opportunity to create a gathering place for neighbours to connect and be active right in the heart of Brentwood.”
Carrying a total project cost of $146.3 million, Brentwood Community Centre will be a multi-level stacked complex spanning 106,000 sq ft of total building floor area, featuring a fitness gym, gymnasium, running track, multi-purpose rooms, and indoor play areas.
Most of the project will be funded by the municipal government’s Community Benefit Bonus Reserve, which is collected from developers in exchange for additional market density.
2024 artistic rendering of Brentwood Community Centre at Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
2024 artistic rendering of Brentwood Community Centre at Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
2024 artistic rendering of Brentwood Community Centre at Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
2024 artistic rendering of Brentwood Community Centre at Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
Architectural firm Perkins&Will is behind the design of both the community centre and Grosvenor’s overall development.
Brentwood Block will feature six towers up to 65 storeys, including a 60-storey tower that will be Western Canada’s tallest 100% secured purpose-built rental housing building.
There will be approximately 3,500 homes across all buildings, including 2,450 secured purpose-built rental homes, with 2,000 market rental units and 450 below-market rental units. The remaining 1,000 units will be market strata condominium homes; about 75% of the total unit count is secured purpose-built rental housing, and the remaining 25% is market strata condominium housing.
2024 artistic rendering of Brentwood Community Centre (left) and the towers of Brentwood Block (right) in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
2024 artistic rendering of the towers of Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
2024 artistic rendering of the towers of Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
Earlier this year, Grosvenor began pre-sales for the first condominium tower — a 41-storey tower with 451 homes. Over 100 homes sold in the first month.
Within the lower levels of the buildings, there will be roughly 250,000 sq ft of commercial office, retail, and restaurant uses, including a 44,000 sq ft grocery store. No internal roads for vehicles are planned, as the project will instead create a four-acre landscaped pedestrian-oriented public realm surrounding the buildings.
Underground parking will be accessed from the existing public streets on the perimeter of Brentwood Block. Furthermore, the vehicle parking supply found underground is 20% lower than what would otherwise be expected for a project of this size and its uses.
2024 artistic rendering of the towers of Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
2024 artistic rendering of the towers of Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
2024 artistic rendering of the towers of Brentwood Block in Burnaby. (Perkins&Will/Grosvenor)
With Brentwood’s trajectory of major population and employment growth due to the area’s immense densification, including tens of thousands of new homes that are in the development pipeline, the City has identified a need for such a community centre to serve the area.
This includes revised plans for the future phases of the redevelopment of the old Brentwood Town Centre indoor mall, now known as The Amazing Brentwood, with thousands of additional homes — going far beyond the original plans for the site.
In preparation for the area’s growth and resulting increase in public transit ridership, TransLink is in the process of completing a $32.6 million capacity expansion of Brentwood Town Centre Station.
Brentwood Town Centre is part of Burnaby’s current building boom of new additional and expansion community centre projects. Other projects include the $215 million Confederation Park Community Centre, the $280 million Cameron Community Centre, and the $253 million Burnaby Lake Recreation Centre, which saw its design significantly revised due to cost escalation. In April 2024, construction reached completion on the $54 million Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre.