Anyone who has visited Vancouver's Oakridge Centre recently can see that there's a whole lot of construction underway.

The same is true at Brentwood Centre in Burnaby, Park Royal in West Vancouver, and will soon be the case at Richmond Centre.

In fact, Statistics Canada cited the Oakridge project in a report today about the country's thriving construction sector.

The agency stated that this redevelopment "helped raise the total national value of building permits 6.2% to $8.1 billion in June, to a level comparable to pre-COVID levels".

The national value of residential permits jumped by 7 percent to reach $5.3 billion. The value of Multifamily-dwelling permits increased by 7.3 percent to $3.2 billion.

According to Statistics Canada, this was "largely due to major projects in the census metropolitan area of Vancouver", which are up a whopping 43.8 percent.

The agency pointed out that in B.C., the value of residential permits rose 20.4 percent in June to reach $1.3 billion.

That was "due to large projects such as the Oakridge Centre development".

This marked the third largest value on record. 

QuadReal Property Group bought the 11.5-hectare Oakridge site in 2017 from Ivanhoé Cambridge. 

QuadReal, which is owned by public-sector pension-fund manager bcIMC, has partnered with Westbank to create a masterplanned community. Henriquz Partners Architects is the lead designer.

The redeveloped shopping centre will eventually have 10 towers and about 2,000 condos. The plan also calls for 580 market and affordable rental homes.

In addition, the projecct will include a rooftop park, new library space, and a childcare facility.

QuadReal and Westbank are also building a civic centre at no cost to taxpayers (in return for the rezoning), which will include a community centre and seniors centre.