A restaurant chain focusing on craft beer and food may be setting up shop at a prime corner in downtown New Westminster.

First Capital Realty is planning to develop a three-storey building at 801 Columbia St. in collaboration with the CRAFT restaurant chain. The restaurant would connect to and become part of the Shops at New West.

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The plan includes large garage-door style windows that would be opened in nice weather and an all-weather rooftop patio. The 19,153 square foot (1,779.5 square metre) space would connect directly to the second plaza level of the Shops at New West but could accessed at all three levels by patrons.

“They are at the Salt Building in the Olympic Village in False Creek. They also have CRAFT breweries in Calgary and Edmonton,” said Ralph Huizinga, First Capital Realty’s vice president of acquisitions and development in Western Canada. “It’s a fairly successful brew pub concept in a large format that we are quite excited about.”

Huizinga said the plan is to connect CRAFT to the second level of the New Westminster SkyTrain station, where the Shops at New West mall is located.

“Part of the logic behind this is to create a better entrance to the Shops at New West on the second level,” he told the Record. “In addition to the CRAFT building, there will be a sort of grand staircase beside them that will take them up and connect Columbia to the shops. There’s always been a bit of an abrupt stop and an incomplete finish to that side of the Shops. This solves that problem, and gives us a great draw, which is the other thing we were looking for here – something to attract people beyond simply computers going to take the SkyTrain.”

The city has received an application for a special development permit that would allow the building to be constructed at 801 Columbia St.

Huizinga said First Capital Reality would like to begin construction this year. The company is hiring a consultant to lead the public consultation process.

“This is land that was owned by the city that we purchased under an agreement for sale. I think the city is keen to see this developed as well,” he said. “It lacks something there, it wants something substantial.”

On July 4, council directed staff to bring the development agreement bylaw forward for council’s consideration, once it is prepared.

“We are looking to move this one forward rather quickly,” said Jackie Teed, the city’s director of planning. “This applicant, First Capital, is working specifically with the proposed restaurant that would be in this location. They are designing it specifically to attract this business here. We are expecting to bring the application to design panel over the summer. Then we would be bringing it forward to council for consideration probably in August or early September.”

Coun. Patrick Johnstone said the corner of Eighth and Columbia streets is the entrance to the city for people arriving at the New Westminster SkyTrain station and downtown shops. He believes the building must be built in such a way that it provides access to SkyTrain and the Shops at New West.

“I want it to be a nice entrance into the city,” he said. “I want it to be an inviting place.”

The city bought property at 801 Columbia St. in 2008 with the idea of creating a public plaza or a civic centre. In January 2014, the city reported selling the site to First Capital Acquisition Corp. for $1.95 million.

“The property is under contract for sale to First Capital, however title does not transfer until after the building has been completed,” said Jim Lowrie, the city’s director of engineering. “First Capital has until Dec. 31, 2018 to complete the building. If the building is completed earlier, transfer of title will also occur earlier. This does not affect the purchase price.”