Past Projects

Nico Wynd Estates, conceived and developed by Ignition’s president in the early 80’s on a unique parcel of land surrounded by a near oxbow in South Surrey’s Nicomekl River. Nico Wynd’s single family homes, town homes and condos are situated amidst a beautiful landscape of tall evergreens overlooking its golf course and other amenities which included a community center with a large indoor pool, tennis courts and a small marina in the river. The development’s conceptual brilliance and success was proven when its homes were able to be built and sold out during the severe economic doldrums that beset BC in the early 80’s when interest rates topped 20%, and still the worst downtown the real estate development industry has weathered since the 2nd World War. Now, after 40 years Nico Wynd remains a highly sought after and very special place to live.

Steeped in history, New Westminster, once British Columbia’s Capital City and the hub around which Greater Vancouver’s lower mainland communities steadily expanded is a story is of boom, bust, and eventual revitalization that was ignited by the Westminster Quay development. This magnificent development was built along the city’s run-down Fraser River waterfront that consisted of derelict bulk loading docks, unusable old warehouses and a plethora of dilapidated structures that were slowly rotting away. The Ignition Group was one of the first developers to become involved in the visionary stages of the Quay and, in addition to land acquired and held for future high-rise residential development, the Ignition Group built the office building and hotel, all featured in the adjacent photo.

New Westminster was in need of a quality hotel and Westminster Quay provided the opportunity to build a unique and exciting waterfront hotel commanding outstanding views of the ‘Mighty Fraser River,’ yet located only a five minute walk from the Columbia Street SkyTrain station that connected New Westminster to Greater Vancouver and Surrey. The 126-room hotel boasts well equipped conference rooms and trend setting food and beverage facilities. Visually, its adventuresome architecture perches the hotel atop tall concrete pillars that rise from the Fraser River to support a base resembling the hull bottom of the venerable old paddle wheelers that used to steam up and down the river. The hotel is both a favorite base for business travelers and a city retreat within metro Vancouver, and its success is attested by its consistent #1 Trip Advisor ranking and industry beating occupancy rates.

Ignition’s president’s real estate activities included a hotel management company that he had founded and built up to simultaneously have as many 13 properties under management. In conjunction with these activities he was directing the final design and preconstruction stages to construct a 200-room luxury hotel in downtown Vancouver which he planned to call the ‘Stanley Court’. The hotel, which boasted a truly iconic architecture would be operated with reservation affiliation with the likes of “The Leading Hotels in the World” or “Relais & Chateau”. However, when the Mandarin Oriental Hotels, perhaps then the World’s foremost 5 star luxury hotel company, learned of the project they liked what they saw and offered to joint venture the project with the Dan’s company handling the development and construction of the hotel and Mandarin operating it. The hotel is considered by many knowledgeable in the industry to be one of Canada’s very finest small hotels.

The 4th St. Skytrain Station, one of the 53 stations comprising the system today, was a cornerstone project to the revitalization of the New Westminster core. Working with the city planners and TransLink’s accessibility policies and guidelines, our vision was to create a very attractive building that respected the period architecture of the adjacent classic brick buildings. Our design goal was to provide a bright and cheery corridor to take pedestrians to and from the 4th St. Skytrain’s platform and New Westminster’s Columbia Street, which back in the 1950’s was known as the ‘Miracle Mile’ for its retail activity, drawing shoppers from all over the region to shop and experience the ‘vib’ beneath the swag lights hanging overhead. The 4th St Station building’s architectural design, highlighted by its pink rose colored granite exterior cladding and arching central the skylight atrium soaring above the retail stores and offices, represents an important corner stone in the revitalization of the streetscape core of New Westminster.

When built the Guildford Health Center (originally opened as the Guildford Medical Dental Center) was a trend setting and innovative medical services building located in the Guildford area of Surrey. The building introduced several design features that have been emulated in the design and construction of the majority of high quality multi-tenant health service buildings that have been built ever sense. To eliminate odors to the extent possible, so common in medical buildings and hospitals, and to enable that a very high standard of cleanliness could be maintained, the building was built of concrete and finished with carefully selected wall and floor surfaces. To suppress noise transmission and achieve higher hygiene the building’s entire interior serviced by state of the art and highly specialized HVAC equipment. The building was also one of the very first medical dental buildings to configure its multi-tenant doctor and dentist offices around a common waiting room. In addition to doctor and dentists the building’s tenants included X-ray and bio medical labs, a pharmacy and physio therapists.

Over the years, usually in a growing community’s early stages, Ignition has developed a number of convenience orientated neighborhood retail buildings, often centering the residential developments that build up around them. A good example of this is the Walnut Grove Shopping Center located in North Langley BC. Here after assembling approximately 40 acres immediately across the street to the West of the new community center planning work focused on building a shopping center properly sized to the community with an initial complement of tenants anchored by a national grocery store and a national drug store. Construction standards were set high and highlighted by the colored steel and brick the buildings were finished in. In developments like this the remainder of the acreage was devoted to townhomes which Ignition could elect to take through the municipal approval process to build out or sell to other builders.