HAVAN Awards 2024 winners | Vancouver Sun

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The Homebuilders Association Vancouver (HAVAN) announced the winners of the HAVAN Awards for Housing Excellence at the JW Marriott Parq Hotel on May 4. The annual event recognizes excellence in new-home construction, renovation and design projects throughout Metro Vancouver. Forty-two winners were announced at the ceremony, with a record-breaking 455 entries from 154 builders and designers vying for the 60 awards.

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Zenterra Developments was one of the night’s big winners, taking home four trophies. The Surrey builder received awards for Best Townhouse/Rowhome Unit: 1,500 S.F. and Over; Best Multi-Family Condominium Unit; Best Multi-Family Production Development: Less Than 7-Storeys; and a Grand HAVAN for Multi-Family Home Builder of the Year.

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The Grand HAVAN nomination is nothing new to the builder. Zenterra has been nominated or won in the category 10 times out of the last 11 years, said development and project manager Derek Fenton.

So, what’s the builder’s secret sauce?

“Some of our core values are to pay attention to detail every single day, act with serious purpose and get things done,” Fenton said.

“We have a full in-house team, so we control every level of the process, whether it’s acquisitions, development, sales, marketing, construction, or home care. That allows us to deliver a top-quality product because we’re not subbing things out to a different company.”

Zenterra won for Newbury, a complex of 84 townhomes in Langley’s Willoughby Heights, and for Camden in Langley Township.

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“Newbury was definitely unique in the sense that they are two-storey townhomes,” Fenton said.

“This fills a void in the market in that there’s a tremendous amount of product out there with three-storey living. But, with the depths and dimensions of the home, Newbury gives you a single-family feel, with an entire entertaining level and, upstairs, a living and sleeping area that’s very private.”

Located in Langley’s new West Village neighbourhood, Camden is a 40-storey wood-frame residential building of 115 condominiums.

“We want to make sure that the community shows very well,” Fenton said. “It’s on one of the major throughways in Langley along 200 Street. Any time we’re developing a project or designing a community, we have to be proud of that community, and especially on such an important front.”

Alair Homes Vancouver won for Best Multiplex Unit, one of two new categories this year, along with Best Multiplex Development. The categories reflect the move to housing solutions in the region.

Ron Rapp, CEO of HAVAN, underscored the significance of the newly introduced categories.

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“They’re a response to some of the new provincial policies, as well as the impetus to provide more housing and effectively using an untapped resource in the single-family properties that constitute the vast majority of the land area in many of our urban areas.”

Darkness and Light, Alair’s winning project, is a multi-generational duplex with a family of four on one side and grandparents on the other.

“We’re seeing a lot of inter-multi-generational living,” said David Babakaiff, regional partner at Alair.

“It’s cost-effective because it’s sharing the cost of the land while also giving people the lifestyle of having the grandparents close by to help with grandkids. There’s a lot more interest in multi-generational housing now than there was 10 years ago.”

Each unit in the custom duplex is 1,900 square feet and has three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The outdoor space is shared and features a living wall and two garages. Features include a central staircase through all three storeys and a bright third-floor den leading to a patio with city views. The facade is a striking facade of black Hardie shakes with a black roof and seafoam doors.

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“Now that they’re living there, the owners report that almost every day they see people driving by who either stop or really slow down and take a moment to admire the house and point to different things,” Babakaiff said.

He expects to be seeing a lot more multi-generational builds.

“It’s inevitable. In the City of Vancouver alone, there are over 44,000 lots zoned for multiplex builds if the owners want to do that. What we’re seeing is people thinking of this as an opportunity for multi-generational living or as a method to create an income stream from renting the other units. It also opens up that category for investors to buy one of these 33-foot lots and build a fourplex. I believe over the next decade there’ll be a consistent stream of conversion of these old houses to multi-family units.”

Other winners at this year’s HAVAN Awards for Housing Excellence include Naikoon Contracting, with 11 nominations and four wins, including Grand HAVAN Custom Builder of the Year; Tavan Developments, with nine nominations and seven wins, including Grand HAVAN Residential Renovator of the Year; and SGDI Sarah Gallop Design Inc., with six nominations and four wins including Grand HAVAN Interior Designer of the Year.

“It was a great showcase for the best product that our members are producing,” Rapp said. “The awards represent a very broad and varied spectrum of homes and designs, from cutting-edge modern and sophisticated to traditional, that appeals to both consumers and the market as a whole.”

For a complete list of winners, visit havan.ca

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