A large show home in Delta slated for demolition will get a new lease on life after embarking on a journey north, up the B.C. coast, for a new beginning in Alert Bay on the ‘Na̱mg̱is First Nation. “It’s an innovative approach that meets our urgent need while also eliminating many of the barriers that come with new construction,” said Samantha Webster, the nation’s director of lands and infrastructure. Those barriers include the cost of materials, as well as transporting those materials and needed tradespeople to the remote First Nation off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. The cost of relocating the house, which will make the journey by barge, is being covered by developer Bosa Properties. “We’re repurposing a building that currently doesn’t have a productive use. We’re eliminating waste from a landfill. And we’re providing a community need for the ‘Na̱mg̱is Nation,” said Dan Cupa, Bosa’s vice-president of residential properties. The First Nation plans to convert the 2,500-square-foot house for use as office space for its lands and infrastructure team. The project is a partnership with Renewal Development, which repurposes houses and other buildings that still have life in them, and helps co-ordinate transportation to remote communities. The company recently moved 10 houses slated for demolition in Port Moody to the Shíshálh Nation on the Sunshine Coast. Basements were added to some of the houses to provide the community with a total of 17 new homes. Renewal also helped transport the historic 111-year-old yellow schoolhouse from Kitsilano to the Capilano Reserve, where it now serves as a Language Nest offering immersive Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim lessons for the Squamish Nation’s youngest members. “Good things happen when good people come together to solve seemingly intractable problems,” said Glyn Lewis, Renewal’s CEO. “And I think the partnerships and the friendships and the allyship that exist in and around this group right here are helping to move us to find solutions to some seemingly complex problems.” Each year in Metro Vancouver, nearly 3,000 buildings are demolished. The collaborative team behind the latest move hopes to save many more of them to be repurposed as community amenities.
