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Waterfront Gateway developer selected, project moving forward in Vancouver

Part of the downtown, ripe for development, will transform over the next few years to include more residential, work and retail space.

VANCOUVER, Wash. — More downtown development is coming to Vancouver with a project that will bring another destination district to the city right by the already bustling waterfront.

The city's Economic Development team selected developer LPC West to move forward with the Waterfront Gateway Project on an underdeveloped area nestled between the Columbia River waterfront and historic downtown core. 

The developer is now tasked with taking about 6.5 square acres downtown and transforming the area. Newly released renderings showcase that vision.

"Even though they are conceptual, when you look at it, what's being filled — it's like, wow. That's amazing to think that that area could look that way," said John Collum, economic development principal planner for the city. 

"The Waterfront Gateway area would be the next destination that you would want to come to in downtown Vancouver," he said, "Now that everybody knows about the waterfront, Waterfront Gateway would be the next big thing about three or four or five years out."

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The renderings aren't the final plans, which will come later. But Collum told KGW they do have a pretty good idea about what the city wants out of the project: a walkable, sustainable district with mixed-use development people can live, work and enjoy at this location. 

"It's probably more of a European style of development, where you kind of walk down and you've got a retail street with retail and restaurants on both sides," he said. "If we can create an environment like that, we're going to have an active district all the time because it's going to be designed like that from the very beginning."

There's still time for the public to weigh in with ideas in the first part of 2022. Collum said the first buildings ready to be occupied should be open in the middle of 2025. 

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