Qualico’s move west from Manitoba to Alberta to British Columbia was decades long. While the company’s growth in Winnipeg and Alberta was based on the single-family construction model, the company’s introduction to Vancouver in the early 1970’s was new territory. A tax incentive program launched by the Government of Canada encouraged the construction of Multiple Unit Residential Buildings, or MURBS, which shifted Qualico’s focus in Vancouver to apartment buildings.

Qualico built a number of apartment buildings under this program, and then, over the 1980’s and early 1990’s, sold them off. It was at that point that the company transitioned into single-family construction under the Foxridge Homes name. And now, StreetSide, another Qualico company, once again brings a focus to multi-family projects in the Lower Mainland. Since 2013, we have launched Chroma, Hycroft, South Point Walk, Maple Heights, Hycroft 2, and Everly Green, and we look forward to introducing more.

Lougheed Towers in Burnaby is an example of one of the MURBS, along with many other high-rise apartment buildings found across several communities in the Lower Mainland. Below is an artist’s rendering of the Lougheed project from the late 70s or early 80s.