February 16, 2026 – RJ Aquino, chair of Filipino BC, announced on Global News TV on February 9 that FBC is partnering with Hungerford Properties to build a Filipino Community and Cultural Center (FCCC) in South Vancouver.
South Vancouver was identified as a priority location due to its large and growing Filipino population. More than 60% of residents in the area identify as immigrants, with many families facing barriers to accessing culturally responsive services. Crucially, the site’s strategic proximity to the SkyTrain, Marine Drive, and Vancouver International Airport positions it as a gateway for the entire province. This connectivity transforms the project into a central destination, ensuring accessibility for Filipino communities across British Columbia.
The project would be built on the 3.12-acre site at 396 Southwest Marine Dr., replacing the existing Kia Vancouver car dealership at the southeast corner of the intersection of Yukon Drive and Southwest Marine Drive.
This effectively cancels Hungerford Properties’ previously planned major mixed-use office and industrial project for the site, which saw its rezoning application approved by Vancouver City Council in 2023. The developer has also removed that earlier concept from its website.
FBC’s plans for its FCCC
Instead, the partners are now pursuing a new mixed-use complex that would include a 100,000 sq. ft. Filipino Community and Cultural Centre along with affordable housing on the site.
Preliminary concepts for the FCCC at this South Vancouver site call for a facility that would include a museum and archives, an auditorium, seniors’ space, childcare, a multi-purpose sports court, an innovation and technology hub, and other cultural and community uses, including a new community food centre — in partnership with South Vancouver Neighbourhood House — to distribute food to individuals and families in need of assistance.
“Our partnership with Filipino BC spans nearly three years, and we have proudly supported their team and navigated the challenges and milestones of this shared journey together,” said Michael Hungerford, a partner at Hungerford Properties, in a statement today.
“Hungerford remains fully committed to this vision, anchoring a project from the ground up that is designed to be of lasting service to the community.”
FBC Chair RJ Aquino added that although it’s a Filipino Community and cultural Centre, it would serve the wider community at large.
According to Filipino BC, its proposal and location are supported by two years of community consultation. In February 2025, it released its What We Heard Report, informed by input from more than 2,000 Filipinos across British Columbia. Filipino BC views this report as a guiding document for the project’s development and long-term impact. Copies of this report are available at FBC on request.
“This project represents a generational investment in the community with the potential for transformative outcomes. We recognize that initiatives of this scale can shape lives for generations, which is why centring community voices at every step of the process has been essential,” said RJ Aquino. “This is just the beginning. It shows what’s possible when we come together and sets the path toward a future shaped by us, for us.”
The proponents note that they have “worked closely” with the City of Vancouver for more than two years and say their concept aligns with the provincial government’s transit-oriented development framework, Metro Vancouver Regional District’s Metro 2050 Regional Growth Strategy, and the City of Vancouver’s Vancouver Plan, which is expected to turn into the City’s Official Development Plan (ODP) later this year.
Currently, the site is zoned for industrial use and is part of Metro Vancouver Regional District’s regionally protected industrial lands. However, these industrial uses are immediately adjacent to a growing cluster of high-density, mixed-use residential towers anchored around Marine Drive Station and Marine Gateway.
In 2021, the City enacted the Marine Landing Policy Updates to open up more sites near the public transit hub for new high-density residential uses — particularly rental housing and social housing — and enable a wider range of employment uses for select industrial sites, such as office space and more adaptable industrial space.
Last week, City Council approved the rezoning application by Soroptimist International of Vancouver, Kiwanis Club of Vancouver, and Purpose Driven Development to redevelop the aging low-rise social housing buildings at 8080 Yukon St. — a site immediately north of the Kia dealership — into a new social housing complex with four towers up to 32 storeys tall. The project will contain over 900 units, making it Vancouver’s largest social housing development spearheaded by a non-profit organization.
The Metro 2050 plan permits some residential uses above industrial uses on employment lands within 200 metres of a SkyTrain station. This enables PCI Developments’ proposed second phase of Marine Gateway, which would include major industrial and rental housing uses at 8530 Cambie St., immediately south of the station and bus exchange. However, the City’s draft ODP does not identify 396 Southwest Marine Dr. the FCCC location, as an industrial site where some residential uses may be considered.
To enable any consideration of this proposal by Hungerford Properties and Filipino BC, significant industrial uses — similar to the original concept — would likely need to be incorporated into the concept alongside the FCCC and residential components. Filipino BC notes a new rezoning application outlining the new proposal for the site is expected to be submitted to the municipal government in the coming months.
Filipino BC will continue community engagement, refine programming priorities, and advance early design work for the Centre, with plans for additional community engagement events in the summer. It says that maintaining accountability to community voices will remain central as the project moves forward.
Competition to build the FCCC is on
The B.C. provincial government has already expressed support in principle for the creation of a new provincial Filipino Cultural Centre, with its previous community consultation efforts summarized in a report released in July 2025. However, it has not indicated which project proposal it will support and has not committed any specific funding, pending the submission of formal proposals and business cases by the various proponent teams.
In November 2025, the federal government’s 2025 budget specifically mentioned federal funding support for a new Filipino Community and Cultural Centre in Metro Vancouver, but the precise amount was not specified. Nor has the federal government designated a specific group to spearhead the building of this FCCC.
So far two other Filipino non-profits aside from FBC, are competing for this FCCC project. In December 2025, Vancouver City Council endorsed a member motion by Mayor Ken Sim to support local developer PortLiving and the non-profit organization Filipino Legacy Society’s proposal to redevelop the sites at 1940 Main St. and 143 East 3rd Ave. in Mount Pleasant — near SkyTrain’s future Mount Pleasant Station — into two 30-storey, mixed-use hotel towers. The Main Street tower would include a 60,000 sq. ft. Filipino community and cultural centre within its first six levels. The project would provide about 500 hotel rooms across both towers, with a portion of annual hotel revenues directed into an endowment fund to help support the centre’s ongoing operating, maintenance, and programming costs. (https://www.canadianfilipino.net/news/filipino-cultural-centre-in-vancouver-takes-first-step-towards-its-final-destination-at-1940-main-street)
On November 26, 2025, Paul Clemente, chair of the Pinoy Festival Alliance, informed BC Premier David Eby that his organization has submitted an “initial proposal” to the City of Burnaby to explore acquiring the Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre as a potential site for a provincial Filipino cultural and community centre.
Since the early 1970s, the rapidly growing Filipino community in B.C. has expressed a need for a cultural centre that celebrates their heritage and culture and provides a space for community, and brings people together. Now three Filipino nonprofit organizations have presented their plans to build such a centre. It’s up to the government now to decide which of them has the best well-laid plans and the capacity and competence to bring their plans to fruition. If I were to choose the best one, I would have no hesitation to choose the most obvious.
Editor of Canadian Filipino Net
Eleanor R. Laquian has written four bestselling books and co-authored four others with her husband, Prod Laquian. Over ten years, she served in various capacities at the University of British Columbia’s Institute of Asian Research: as manager of administration and programs, editor and chair of the publications committee, and primary researcher of its Asian Immigration to Canada project.
She did her BA degree in journalism at Maryknoll College in the Philippines, a master’s degree in public administration at the University of the Philippines, and postgraduate studies at the School of Public Communications at Boston University in the US.
Before immigrating to Canada, she worked with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, and the UN Information Center. She was a researcher and bureau manager of The New York Times in Beijing, China from 1984 to 1990. She was the first and only Filipino to conduct a nationwide survey of Filipinos in Canada, in 1972, for her master’s thesis at UP. It was published as A Study of Filipino Immigrants in Canada, 1952–1972.
She updated the survey in 2005 for a book, co-authored with her husband Prod: Seeking a Better Life Abroad: A Study of Filipinos in Canada, 1957–2007,published by Anvil Publishing in Manila. She and Prod have visited over a hundred countries for work and pleasure. They immigrated to Canada in 1969.
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