Sound familiar? Except this isn’t Vancouver’s Columbia River waterfront, where developers envision a dense cluster of apartments, condos, offices, retail, restaurants and parks. 

It’s in Victoria, B.C., and it’s a glimpse of what might be possible here. Called Dockside Green, this self-contained neighborhood is being built on 15 acres on the city’s Inner Harbor, and is hailed as one of the most environmentally advanced projects of its kind.

What makes Dockside so special? Highlights include:

• A biomass plant: A central plant will use waste wood biomass to produce a clean gas for heating and domestic hot water needs.
• Stormwater system: Stormwater will be treated through green roofs and flow through a series of connected creeks and waterways.
• Sewage system: The development will treat all of its sewage and use the treated water for flushing toilets, landscape irrigation and water features. It is estimated that more than 38 million gallons of potable water will be saved by treating and reusing the water.
•  Monitoring utilities: Utility meters in each condominium and apartment will measure domestic hot and cold water use, heating bills and electricity usage. Adjustments can be made — on-site or remotely, via a secure Web site, to save money.

The list goes on and, taken together, puts Dockside Green on track to be the first master-planned community to earn the highest level of green building certification, LEED Platinum. Dockside’s developers are so confident they’ll hit that mark that they’ve agreed to a $1 million penalty if they fail.

The emphasis on environmental standards, however, is not just a marketing tool. It’s a philosophy that developer Joe Van Belleghem says translates into profits.

“It makes economic sense,” Van Belleghem said. “At Dockside, marketing and sales are doing well compared to other projects.”

In the completed buildings, 70 percent of the residential units have been sold and there is no commercial or retail space left for lease.

Watching and learning

Executives with Gramor Development, the Tualatin, Ore.-based company spearheading the remake of the former Boise site in downtown Vancouver, are monitoring Dockside and similar developments. They intend to incorporate green principles in the build-out of the 32-acre site along the Columbia River that they call Columbia Waterfront. Gramor and the city of Vancouver have hired PWL Partnership, a landscape architect firm involved in Dockside Green, to work on the 10 acres of parks planned for the Boise site.

David Copenhaver, vice president of development at Gramor and a Ridgefield resident, said architects will consider a multitude of sustainable building practices including the treatment of water runoff, energy conservation and a biomass plant.

Copenhaver said they have an advantage because they’ll be able to see what works and what doesn’t at places such as Dockside.

Gramor hopes to start construction in spring 2010, tackling the infrastructure needs as well as the first six buildings. Copenhaver said the goal is to finish the 21 buildings on 22 blocks within the following eight to 10 years.

The former Boise site is one of 17 current Gramor projects, but is clearly the company’s “crème de la crème,” Copenhaver said.

To put it in context, Gramor has completed 50 retail and office complexes in its 23 years. The value of those buildings is estimated at $1.2 billion. The investment in Columbia Waterfront is expected to be between $1 billion and $2 billion.

The end product is expected to be a neighborhood to rival Portland’s Pearl District or South Waterfront.

Barry Cain, Gramor president, has said the project presents the firm with an “awesome responsibility.”

New green convert

Van Belleghem is a new convert to green idealism. Eight years ago he turned his back on the development industry after tiring of building a series of strip malls.

“I didn’t feel the type of development I was doing was adding any value to the community and life,” he said.

The same year he quit the business, he read “Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution,” by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins. The book is a manifesto for what Van Belleghem calls “triple bottom line,” the notion that you can make money on a project when you integrate the economics with social equality and environmental concerns.

He applied those principles in 2001 when he was hired to convert a former mental hospital into a high-tech park.

A partner in the development firm Windmill West, Van Belleghem joined with Vancity Credit Union to create Dockside Green. Construction is about 35 percent complete, and Van Belleghem expects the entire project to be finished in the next five to six years.

“There are lots of developers … looking at what we do,” he said.

Jonathan Nelson can be reached at 360-735-4543 or jonathan.nelson@columbian.com.