Waterfront opening Saturday expected to attract 10,000 to 12,000 people

If you’re planning to attend Saturday’s grand opening of Vancouver Waterfront Park, you may want to plan your transportation strategy carefully.

City officials expect 10,000 to 12,000 people to attend the event, which starts at 11:30 a.m. with speeches and a ribbon cutting. The Facebook page for the Vancouver Waterfront Grand Opening lists 4,500 people “going” and 37,000 “interested.”

The official program at the city’s Waterfront Park and Grant Street Pier, set to end at 3 p.m., also features music by The Pearls and The Juleps, face painting, activities for children, giveaways, and food at the development’s first two restaurants (WildFin American Grill and Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar) that opened this week, food trucks and the Vancouver Farmers Market.

Getting there

But about that transportation plan. The waterfront development has three surface parking lots totaling 356 spaces, with one of the lots set aside Saturday for disabled parking and reserved spaces, as well as some on-street parking. There is not enough parking, safe to say, for 10,000 to 12,000 people. Here are the alternatives:

• Free shuttle: Service will be available starting at 9:30 a.m. and will continue to run every 15 minutes, with the last trip leaving the event at 4 p.m. From Hudson’s Bay High School, C-Tran will run shuttles from a temporary bus stop at the corner of East Mill Plain and East Reserve Street. From Clark College, shuttles will run to and from the Green and Yellow lots at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way.

• More parking: Free parking will be available throughout downtown. The Park ‘n Go lot at Fifth and Broadway will be free. The Park ‘n Go lot at Sixth and Columbia will charge $1.25 per hour or $3.50 a day. Visitors may also park at The Columbian’s east lot, Eighth and Grant streets, in return for a donation to the Boy Scouts.

• Transit: C-Tran’s The Vine will bring riders to the Turtle Place stop on Seventh Street, where free RYD shuttles will take people to the event.

Under construction

Besides the day’s activities, people will get an up-close look at ongoing construction at The Waterfront Vancouver, the name for the residential and commercial project guided by Gramor Development. Don’t expect to get too close to the projects, however. Representatives for each said city officials have urged them to make sure people keep a safe distance.

With that in mind, gaze from slightly afar at four buildings in various stages of construction between Grant and Esther streets:

• RiverWest, at the corner of Grant and Waterfront Way, is a seven-story apartment building with 21,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space. It will have 206 apartments including studios and one- to three-bedroom units, as well as 220 underground parking spaces. The estimated completion is next May. The owner is Block 8 Investment, an affiliate of Vancouver-based HSP Properties, the project developer.

• Rediviva, next door to and east of RiverWest, is a six-story apartment building with 63 units and first-floor retail. The apartments range from 579 to 1,141 square feet, with rents from $1,826 to $3,283. It is expected be completed in November. Gramor Development, the project developer, is the owner.

• The Murdock at the Waterfront, next to and east of Rediviva, is a seven-story, 70,000-square-foot office building. The tenants include M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Chicago Title, Fidelity National Title and the law firm McKean Smith. The building, also owned by Gramor Development, may be completed in November.

• Hotel Indigo / The Residences at Kirkland Tower: A six-story, 138-room hotel with three restaurants is under construction alongside an adjacent 10-story, 40-unit condo building. Completion is expected next year.

Across from Hotel Indigo on Columbia Way at Esther Street, an empty lot is expected to be the home of a 12-story, 251-apartment, mixed-used building called Timberhouse. Summit Development Group of Lake Oswego shared plans in late March with the city of Vancouver saying cross-laminated timber would be used in its construction. The project’s architect referred questions on Friday to Summit officials, who could not be reached.

Nearby, to the east, a Port of Vancouver $30 million plan would include a public market. The AC by Marriott, a proposed nine-story hotel with 160 rooms, is expected to break ground next year on port property.