This story was originally scheduled to appear in the Tri-City News
Dinner and a new home?
That unlikely combination for an afternoon or evening out will soon become possible as the developers of a major new project that will eventually comprise 9 towers, including a 27-storey office and hotel building, at the southeaster corner of the Lougheed and Barnet highways launch a new sales centre that includes a restaurant and coffee shop.
The TriCity Pavilion, at 2968 Christmas Way, will feature a sales gallery for Tri-City Central, a new mixed-use development project by Langley-based Marcon and QuadReal Property Group, along with Gigi’s by Ask For Luigi, a high-end Italian restaurant featuring fresh pasta, pizza, Italian wines and cocktails, as well as a new Nemesis coffee shop.
This is Marcon’s third multi-faceted pop-up sales centre and community hub.
In 2022 the developer opened Outpost at 3001 St. Johns St. In Port Moody. It’s sales centre in a strip mall’s parking lot has marketed several projects since, while the adjacent coffee shop offers offers a selection of hot and cold beverages, including craft beers, sandwiches and snacks, as well as showcase space for local products like olive oils from Olive the Best in NewPort Village.
In January, the new Surrey Pavilion featuring a Nemesis coffee shop, opened in the City Centre area.
Marcon’s executive vice-president, Nic Paolella, said the pavilion concept offers a taste of what’s to come in emerging neighbourhoods.
“It’s a living expression of the community we’re building,” he said in a news release.
Some of the baked goods that will be available at the Nemesis café in the new TriCity Pavilion in Coquitlam.
Nemesis’ 50-seat Coquitlam location will be its fifth since first opening in Vancouver’s Gastown in 2017.
Founder and CEO, Jess Reno, said it’s an opportunity for the company to bring its “coffee creating culture” to a new, growing city.
“The Tri-Cities is one of Metro Vancouver’s fastest growing regions, and we look forward to working with Marcon once again to bring a new community hub to life with TriCity Pavilion.”
Gigi’s by Ask For Luigi is the first venture in the Metro Vancouver area east of Boundary Road for the Kitchen Table hospitality group that also operates Italian restaurants like Bacaro, Carlino, Di Beppe, as well as Gionvanie Caffé with two locations in Vancouver and another in Toronto, two Mercato di Luigi Italian grocers, and Motoretta gelateria.
The interior of the new Gigi’s by Ask For Luigi Italian restaurant that will be part of the TriCity Pavilion and pop-up sales centre in the new TriCity Central project at the southeastern corner of Lougheed and Barnet highways.
Its menu will be designed by culinary director, Chanthy Yen, a former winner on the TV reality show Top Chef Canada, along with head chef Lloyd Taganahan.
“We’re bringing the same heart and hospitality that our Vancouver restaurants are known for to the Tri-Cities,” said Kitchen Table co-founder, Jennifer Rossi.
When Tri-City Central is completed in 10-15 years, it will feature more than 4,000 new condo and rental homes, a park, retail, office and cultural spaces, a childcare facility and possibly a 150-room hotel and conference centre. It will be linked to the nearby Coquitlam Central transit hub by a new pedestrian/cyclist overpass. The project was approved by Coquitlam council in September, 2022.
The TriCity Pavilion is expected to open later this spring, with the sales centre to follow at a later date.
MARIO BARTEL 