Cold 2009

But the clouds of the global economic crisis were already on the horizon.
Everything got frozen for almost two years ...

Hot Summer 2008

Through the summer we went to build the columns and walls.
Next stage was to build the suspended slab, which would separate the main level from wood-frame structure of residential units above.

Foundation

This is where Sunrise Centre will be.

We were building through spring and summer.
Sophisticated foundation with cantelivered edges was a challenge, soft soil was replaced with gravel for compactness, all underground services put in place, grade level concrete slab poored.

Breaking The Ground

We broke the ground on April 15, 2008 with
Community Futures Development, Mayor of the City, media present.
There was a lot of buzz in town and a lot of excitement. It would be
the first new development in may be 20 years or more, in downtown!
It would be the first professionally designed and engineered building !
It would be the first cafe with the built-in open air patio !
It would be the first residential complex with the covered secure gated
parking!
It would be the first development utilizing modern environmentally-
friendly and energy-efficient technologies (I am just trying to avoid
cliche and ambiguous word "green").
It would be the first development with retrofit capabilities for the
newest alternative energy sources !
It would be the first urban-style high-quality residential development
in town, catering to professionals and business people with active life
style, who does not want to deal with lawn mowing and other things,
associated with owning the house, filling the niche previously and still
non-existent in Merritt.
It would be the first new development fully matching the City Centre
facade guidelines and qualified for the municipal tax incentive !

The time seemed to be very good. Merritt was looking for new projects
to be realized in town and within its vicinity. We wanted to make Sunrise
Centre a focal point to future redevelopment of the entire block in downtown.
Sky was the limit. We went full steam ahead !

Design Team

I managed to gather an exceptional team to design the Sunrise Centre. I have mentioned Gerry Sportack from Array Architectural - he comes up with great ideas (the two storey units and a courtyard in between was his idea), but also very meticulous, and - what I especially like - he is very attentive to the owner's requests, the design with Gerry is a cooperative process, and although he would insist on his opinion, he would make it the way the owner is happy.

I was fortunate to have Fast & Epp Structural Engineers in my team
(accidentally, they were also involved in my Richmond house ten years
ago) . Now they are big and famous in Vancouver and in the world.
Among many other projects they designed several skytrain stations
in Burnaby and Vancouver, did design of the roof for the Olympic Oval in Richmond and were invited to conduct a study for the project in Dubai.

The Blair project

There was a nice solid house. It was on a way to the new construction. I felt it would be a shame just to demolish it. The City building inspector suggested a great idea (one of many) to move it to another location. I never even knew that it was possible. Apparently it was. Luckily, there was a vacant lot for sale, just a couple of blocks away. It was duplex-zoned, so I decided to build a first level suite with the same footprint and put the existing house on top of it. It worked very well at the end. We also moved a separate garage, added a carport and a driveway. We had a new duplex now, and by the way, we made a room for the Sunrise Centre!

Ascent

I needed a company to do the project - both for legal, accounting and business reasons. This was not a completely new endeavour for me - I did few smaller projects, like the Richmond house, mentioned before, Owl's Nest ski and golf chalet at Sun Peaks Resort, and Blair project, which I will be talking later about. But it was a completely bigger scale, the full impact of which I began to realize only later. Sunrise Centre was a good name for the project. The company, which would do it, and hopefully further redevelopment in downtown Merritt, as well as other new projects elsewhere, should have a name which would symbolize that unstoppable movement upwards. After some mental search, the name Ascent was chosen. It came from my previous experience as an aerospace engineer - from the time when I was working on the guidance and navigation system for the ascent trajectory of the Russian space shuttle Buran. It was also a good fit to how we wanted to be viewed .

Then I began to hate holidays.
In order to satisfy the City's Facade Guidelines and qualify for the 5-year municipal tax freeze, we went into endeavour of redesigning the face of the building to give it a required Western look. Few roof elements, wooden posts and beams did the trick, but it was December, and everybody was looking forward to Christmas. We got it approved by the City Centre Board only in the end of January. Still, we were so excited, and (even before the financing of the project was approved - lesson I will never forget), we moved ahead full steam.

We thought of the project as something that would bring life back to downtown, which was dying, loosing business to the area adjacent to the highway and housing to outskirts, like The Bench.
The name Sunrise Centre seemed to be appropriate for the project envisioned as a focal point for future redevelopment of downtown. It also should have set the development plank higher up than Merritt, striving to re-invent itself, have ever seen before.

Giving it a birth

Gerry came with ingenious idea. On top of the main level, which would have commercial space facing street (cafe with the patio on one side and some boutique on the other) and secure covered parking at the back, there will two rows of two-storey residential units, separated by a private court yard on the second floor. The design made the best use of the space available (originally we were even looking at pre-assembled units delivered and installed in place!) Sloped roof allowed for elevated ceilings and large windows overlooking surrounding hills. It is also suitable for installing solar panels - something which would work perfectly in sunny Merritt. We made some variations in the suites layout to give more choice for potential clients. Alternating heights made for attractive roofline. Spacious suites, with open living, dining and kitchen on one level, and 2 large bedrooms plus office or en suite on another, with balconies, sun decks and secure storage are actually town homes raised above the ground. Covered gated parking with the individual stall for each resident, is the first and the only feature of this kind in town.
Everybody loved the design - the City of Merritt, Community Futures, local businesses and neighbours. One young entrepreneurial couple even told me that if they knew it's coming, they wouldn't go into trouble of buying a house. Indeed, this is an urban living at it's best - no lawn mowing, all amenities at the site, modern design and everything - shopping, banking, entertainment etc. - is in a walking distance.

Conceiving the idea

Did you notice a gap between the Navarino building and the next one-storey commercial building on the previous photo? Hidden inside it is the single-family residential house in the middle of commercial stretch on Quilchena Ave looking odd (and standing on a big size lot). The place was begging for better use. Being adjacent to the Navarino restaurant, the good use seemed to be an open air patio and / or a customer parking. I made an offer on the house and it was promptly accepted. What to do with the house? Convert into a souvenir shop (after all, it is along the famous Walk Of Stars, popular with tourists) or into a coffee shop. I must confess - I am a big coffee lover, so that was a natural thought :)
City wants to see the street in a Western theme - why not put a fake facade ? I talked to the Architect whom I worked with before on my Richmond house (see photo), and I loved his work. He suggested to utilize the space more efficiently by building a two-storey building with commercial space on the street level and residential units above it. The City and Community Futures loved the idea. The concept was presented at the Annual Merritt Investor's Symposium in July 2007 and received very enthusiastic reception from the investors and local business community. The news spread, and it didn't take long for the owner of the small commercial building (housing a computer shop at that time), to come to me with the offer to sell it to me. Consulting with the Architect resulted in a new vision of a now bigger three-storey building. Sunrise Centre was conceived.

Navarino

Town of splendid size and perfectly located on intersection of major highways, having unique dry climate niche, Merritt holds huge potential for growth. That's what I know now. In 2006 I saw an opportunity in the building housing Greek restaurant called Navarino in downtown Merritt. The old owner got tired of cooking and running the business and was looking to get out of it. I was not in the restaurant business, but I saw two vacant spaces on the 2nd floor of the building and realized that they could be converted into residential units, which Merritt needs badly, and I would hire someone to run the restaurant. Moreover, the idea was nicely matching the City's vision of downtown revitalization - commercial street level, and residential above. So I did.

Merritt

For a long time Merritt was just a dot on a map, and a sign on the Coquihalla Highway, which we were passing every time when were going for our traditional Christmas vacation with children to Fairmont Hot Springs. Later, when we were passing it through on a way to Sun Peaks, where we bought a ski chalet, Owl's Nest. At that I became a interested in real estate. Richmond, where we lived then, did not promise any positive return on investment. Neither did Lower Mainland, or Abbotsford, or Mission. That's how I came to the Interior, just to discover that Kamloops or other big cities in the Interior would not fit into my investment criteria either. The price of real estate was too high comparing to the rental income, which could be obtained from the property. Then one day we decided to stop in Merritt and check it out. It did not take us a day to find a property which would perfectly fit into my investment criteria. It was a triplex on Pine Street. We made an offer, and after a short negotiation, quickly bought it. That's how our Merritt saga began.

Welcome

Welcome to the Sunrise Centre blog !

Sunrise Centre, Merritt, British Columbia, Canada

www.sunrisecentre.ca