“The people who are moving into this area have a design aesthetic,” adds Royal Lepage realtor Sebastian Albrecht, who is now focusing on selling units from the new Woodward's tower at Abbott and Cordova. “They aren't going to be moving into the West End, for example.”
And that other edgy loft-lovers' mecca, Yaletown, has already renovated or built out its existing stock, notes Albrecht. Plus, Yaletown – for better or worse, depending on your perspective – is homogenizing into a polished enclave of well-groomed metrosexuals, much of its erstwhile industrial grime polished away.
Gastown, by contrast, is still overtly gritty – which appeals to both edge seekers and to those who figure they're getting in on the ground floor. “There are two camps,” notes Albrecht, “some who like the grit, and others who hope it's going to go away.”
“I don't think it's gentrification in the negative sense,” says Fung. “It's more about finding the balance.” Not only is the neighbourhood maintaining housing stock for a diversity of income groups, he notes, it's also maintaining a “homegrown” design initiative, driven by locally based designers such as shoe designer John Fluevog, who opened his new flagship store across the street from Inform; and renowned interior designer Shelley Penner, who recently opened a studio-cum-retail outlet – p + a furniture – on the area's southwestern periphery.
Earlier this year, Penner made the leap from a home office to a prominent setting in the restored Flack Block at Hastings and Cambie streets, prompted by the growing influx of other design outlets in the area. “Gastown has become a real furniture hub for the city,” notes Penner. “I opened p + a to offer not just furniture, but also home and personal accessories, with a sustainability theme.” Crucially, p + a addresses that lust for sustainable cool at all points of the price spectrum, offering everything from $3,000 eucalyptus king-size headboards to $31 aromatic soy-wax candles.
Inform Projects partner Harvey Rehal adds that Gastown is becoming a design epicentre far beyond the Lower Mainland. “We're not just talking local,” says Rehal. “We're talking about Alberta, Quebec, areas of the United States, all coming down here to see what's there.
Now that the A & D community is digging in its heels, says Rehal, it's enhancing the rest of the neighbourhood as well. “The real-estate value is increasing because people are coming out and opening up really good shops. … It's no longer just us, with a T-shirt shop and a bad coffee shop next door.”
Special to The Globe and Mail
