Neighbourhood

Brentwood is getting its biggest infrastructure upgrade in years, and it has nothing to do with a condo tower. Concord Pacific, together with the City of Burnaby and Mayor Mike Hurley, has officially broken ground on Dawson Park, a 10-acre community park spanning five city blocks along Dawson Street. It will be Burnaby’s first major new community park since Taylor Park opened in 2005.

For buyers and residents watching Brentwood evolve, this is significant. Large-scale green space has been one of the few things missing from what is otherwise one of Metro Vancouver’s most rapidly developing urban neighbourhoods.

The park is designed for everyday use, not just recreation. The main features include a natural grass field suitable for flexible play, a central plaza, and a network of walking and cycling paths. The longest trail will run approximately 1.5 kilometres through the park and surrounding development.

The restored creek and trail connections are particularly notable. Burnaby’s active transportation network has long had a gap in the Brentwood area. Dawson Park will help close it, linking residents north to Lougheed and eventually south to the Central Valley Greenway, a regional cycling route running from Burnaby through New Westminster and into Coquitlam.

Dawson Park is being built by Concord Pacific and will be gifted to the City of Burnaby upon completion, expected in summer 2028. The park sits directly across Dawson Street from Oasis, the latest phase of the Concord Brentwood master-planned community.

Concord Pacific President and CEO Terry Hui framed the project as an extension of the company’s history with the former Expo 86 lands in Vancouver, where public parkland made up half of the total development footprint.

That figure puts the scope in perspective. Queen Elizabeth Park covers roughly 130 acres. Seventy-plus acres of parkland contributed across multiple cities is a meaningful part of Concord Pacific’s legacy.

One detail that stands out for families considering Brentwood is the planned 30-classroom elementary school immediately adjacent to the park. With capacity for up to 900 students, it signals that the neighbourhood’s shift toward family-oriented urban living is being supported at the infrastructure level, not just in the real estate marketing.

For buyers with children, the combination of a large park and a new school within walking distance of SkyTrain is the kind of community investment that holds value over time.

Construction will proceed in two phases. The main section of the park, the bulk of the 10 acres, will open first. A smaller two-acre portion in the southwest corner will be completed later, once construction activity on surrounding buildings wraps up. The phased approach means residents won’t have to wait until 2028 for access to the entire site.

Brentwood has already seen substantial price appreciation as the neighbourhood has transformed around the SkyTrain station. New towers, improved retail, and better transit connections have all contributed. Dawson Park adds something that new construction alone cannot: lasting green space that doesn’t get built over.

Parks of this scale tend to anchor neighbourhoods long-term. They set a quality baseline for surrounding development and give residents a reason to stay. For anyone evaluating a purchase in the Brentwood area, the park’s arrival in 2028 is worth factoring into the long-term picture.

The question for buyers isn’t whether the park is a good thing. It clearly is. The question is whether now, before the park opens and before that value is fully priced into the market, is the right time to act in Brentwood.