The Sey-To-Sky highway, which is the prettier name for Hwy-99 that runs through British Columbia to connect Vancouver to  Whistler (with Squamish, Britannia Beach, Porteau Cove, Lion’s Bay, Horseshoe Bay on the way) is becoming the next big strip of development. As many of you may be aware, the 2010 Winter Olympic games are being held in Whistler BC, and the transportation/accomodation infrastructure between Vancouver and Whistler is going through major developments.

The Sea-to-Sky Highway, which was considered a rather dangerous and difficult highway due to the fact that it’s too windy and has only 1 lane each way, is now becoming 2 lanes in most sectors (if not all), and the skytrain lines are being added within the city to resolve the traffic between Richmond and Vancouver, as well as in the Tri-Cities. The cheap accomodations which generally provided eyesores (the buildings and the people who occupied it both) are now being ripped apart and replaced with nicer buildings that suit the beauty of Vancouver. And no, I’m not sympathetic enough to worry about the drug-addicted near-homeless or employment-insurance milking losers who live in those “single occupancy hotels”.

Anyhow back on topic. The developments along the Sea-to-Sky Highway corridors are the next big thing for investors, as the real estate value as well as the community size of the regions are expected to grow even more.  There are already some projects that are confirmed which provide thousands of new homes, and I personally know of a plan that is underway to develop something really big. Can’t disclose the details here, but I’m just hinting - keep your eyes open. If you want to diversify your real estate investments and not concentrate too much on the city (although personally I would invest in the city still), this is a great chance to split your eggs into different baskets.

I call this the extension of the West Coast. LA and SF was the big thing at first. Now we have Seattle, and then there’s Vancouver which already has climbed its way up to being the 13th best city in the world to live in. The beautiful West Coast of North America continues to extend northbound towards Whistler and Squamish, and what used to be considered a rural tourist attraction with limited industry will soon become a diversified area with its own industrial infrastructure, enough permanent population (half of Whistler’s population are transient population at this point, but that will change), and the accessibility from Vancouver.

Exciting, isn’t it?

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Hot Issues, Marketing and Media, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.