18 A u b i n C o n s ul t i n g
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 24
Ian Gillespie's Westbank
emerged as the high-profile
partner to develop the
Squamish Nation's Sen̓ áḵw in
Kitsilano.
And Polygon has been
working with the Musqueam
Capital Corp. to develop its
housing projects at UBC.
These partnerships all
make a point of placing the
Indigenous Nations in the lead,
and working assiduously to
incorporate whatever designs,
planning approaches or hous-
ing goals they envision, for
obvious reasons.
What you don't hear much
about is developers who
are fostering a strong pro-
Indigenous approach in their
companies without any kind of
financial partnership to spur
them on.
The one outfit I've found
doing that (a.k.a. I stumbled
Developers working with
Indigenous groups is nothing
new to Vancouver.
The Aquilinis partnered
with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation,
through their Takaya Devel-
opments arm, a decade ago,
building out subdivisions on
their land along Deep Cove
Road on Metro Vancouver's
North Shore.
The Aquilini family is now in
line to do much of the construc-
tion for Vancouver projects that
are connected to the MST Devel-
opment Corporation, the entity
created by the Musqueam,
Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh
Nations to work together on
building out their jointly held
land. That includes the massive
development of the Jericho
Lands on the west side of Van-
couver, the Heather Lands in
central Vancouver, and the new
Kʷasən development about to
start at Willingdon and Canada
Way in Burnaby.
CULTURE SHIFT
Real estate developers have been collaborating
with Indigenous nations for many years.
The difference today is the companies that
are embedding Indigenous knowledge and
approaches into what they do
L A N D V A L U E S
by Frances Bula
Frances Bula is a long-time
Vancouver journalist and
the 2023 recipient of the
Bruce Hutchison Lifetime
Achievement Award from the
Jack Webster Foundation.
SETTING THE TABLE
PCI Developments president Tim Grant (first
from left) moderates a panel on how urban
land development can be done differently
