Developers struck gold selling east side condos with a west side feel; Kingsway’s the hills takes the stakes a little farther and a little higher.

Vancouver's reigning condo king, Bob Rennie, likes to joke that he was raised in the posh area of East Vancouver. "I grew up at 5th and Nanaimo," he said. "We always used to think that because the lots were 42 feet instead of 33 feet that we lived in a privileged area."

Rennie's mother worked for a while at the Eldorado Hotel, which is up the street at the corner of Nanaimo and Kingsway. Now, his company, Rennie Marketing Systems, is overseeing the marketing of a major mixed-use development that will be built on that site. The Holborn Group, headed by Simon Lim, is developing the project, which still awaits final approval from the City.

It's called The Hills, which refers to its position on the east side of the ridge going up Kingsway toward Renfrew Heights. The development will include a 22-storey high-rise, along with low-rise and townhome units. "We wanted to reinforce that there was a view," Rennie said.

Back in the old days, Rennie said, East Vancouver was almost like a suburb of Vancouver, and even if he felt he was living the high life on Nanaimo Street, most residents of the city's West Side probably didn't agree.

Today, however, high real-estate prices are wiping out that east-west divide. As Rennie likes to say, the city is moving east because there's nowhere else to go. He said this trend began in the 1970s when Daon Development Corporation, cofounded by Olympic boss Jack Poole, built the upscale Langara Estates on the east side of Cambie Street at 49th Avenue. Rennie said that at the time, people in the real-estate industry thought it was "insane", because it was an East Side address in most people's minds. But it worked.

"Cambie became the new Oak [Street]," Rennie said. "And Oak became the new Granville. And now Main Street is the new Cambie."

What this has meant is that a development such as King Edward Village, which offered a West Side feel, was able to succeed at the corner of Knight and Kingsway because units were so much less expensive than similar projects downtown or on the West Side, where land prices are astronomical. He said that condominiums at King Edward Village were sold for $100 less per square foot than similar units in other areas of the city.

"Now, we're probably saying $250 a foot less than downtown," he said, referring to The Hills. "They're really valid projects, and there's a reason why they work."

After a public hearing in January 2006, Vancouver city council unanimously approved a rezoning application to allow for approximately 350 units in a townhouse, low-rise, and high-rise project with commercial and live-work units. Plans call for a daycare facility, a food store, and a drugstore, which will transform this area of Kingsway into a lively destination.

"I would think that 40 to 50 percent of our buyers will come from within a three-mile radius," Rennie said. "That was proven out at King Edward Village. Not everybody wants to live downtown."

He cited the project's appeal for younger families, who will find the price range of $500 to $600 per square foot to be more affordable than what units are selling for in other areas of the city. The suites should appeal to younger buyers with a hankering for rich wenge woods, and colourful patterns featuring grass greens, whites, and chocolates.

Rennie said the key to high-rise living is ensuring there is sufficient access to good food outlets and drugstores. And a Starbucks, he quipped.

"It's no different than Concord Pacific's site," Rennie said, referring to the neighbourhood created on the north shore of False Creek in the 1990s. "It really didn't work until Urban Fare went in."