Building Master-Planned Communities Around Farming & Food with Century Group’s Sean Hodgins

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President of Century Group, Sean Hodgins, stops by to discuss the future of master-planned communities in Metro Vancouver. What is happening in Surrey? What is agricultural urbanism? And how can you build a community around farming and food? Find out!

Who is Sean Hodgins? What is Century Group?

Century Group is not to be confused with Century 21, which happens often. Century Group was founded in 1957 by my father, who was an Irish immigrant living in Metro Vancouver. He saw the opportunity when the George Massey tunnel was being constructed and got involved in real estate investment out in Delta.

I have lived most of my years out in South Delta. In my 20s I lived in Vancouver and met my wife but we moved out to Tsawwassen 20 years ago and still live there.

How did you get started in the family business?

I remember my father had some really difficult times in real estate in the 70’s. He wasn’t a happy guy around business so I never thought I’d get involved. I started working in construction, went to school, joined the army reserve and only got involved in the family business when they were struggling with the computer system. I had dabbled in computers so went into the office to help. I became the computer administrator and it went from there. Now we have computer systems that I can’t even explain how they work!

In the early 90’s, I became more involved in the project related stuff at Century Group. We went from owning a small percentage of a project in Calgary to a third overnight. We went out to Calgary to have a look at the project and I was very struck by it. This was a project that had sidewalks, but nowhere to walk to. Every home had two car garages and you had to drive everywhere. It really hit me that this was wrong. That led me to a tough conversation with my father saying that we should be doing different projects than this.

Tell us about the role of community in real estate.

The concept of living and what it’s like to live in a community, connecting with people, is what drove me to real estate. We’re missing that sense of connection more and more these days.

Communities need communal space. That’s what defines community to me – the thoughtful introduction of communal space.

If we can find a community and tie into it, that’s even better for us. We’re working on Century City out in Surrey right now, which is somewhat vain branding. We want to contribute to the modern centre in Surrey that is transit-oriented. It’s a three acre site and the towers will be very thoughtfully planned to create a sense of community.

Century Group works mostly in the Lower Mainland but we also have a project in Nanaimo.

How’s the market? Has 2023 surprised you?

I haven’t been surprised by how the real estate market has responded to the interest rate increases. We’ve only felt about 40% of that impact in terms of mortgage renewals, so there’s still a big penny to drop as more mortgages come up for renewal.

There’s still a robust undercurrent in the market. People are always changing jobs, getting divorced, getting married, etc. There will always be a market of people who want to move. But the robustness of the market has dampened.

We’re in a lucky place in Metro Vancouver being on the Pacific Rim in the best country in the world. With our liberal democracy, natural beauty and everything else we have going for us, we’re an international city and that supports our real estate market.

Does this moment remind you of any other in real estate history?

No. I’m 56 so have seen the ups and downs of a few cycles in my life. But I’m much less concerned about where the market is going right now because Metro Vancouver is such a different city.

With immigration and our strong, diversified economy in Metro Vancouver, I’m not worried about the real estate market in the long run at all.

What areas in the Lower Mainland are you excited about? Where are you working?

We’re in the middle of planning a significant project in Coquitlam. It’s early days but I’m very excited about that. Our focuses are Surrey, Coquitlam, Delta and Nanaimo right now.

When you start to roll out a master-planned community, you need someone constantly working on it. We’re trying to do that in Nanaimo and ramp up there.

At Century Group, we like to be able to tie into a pattern that is already present in an area. We are a change agent and work in areas that are looking to change. Surrey City Centre is the second downtown core in Metro Vancouver and this will be our third transit-oriented project in Surrey.

What are your thoughts on the changing Surrey market?

We’ve seen a lot of good development companies come into Surrey and also a lot of upstart companies who can buy in at a certain land price. Development is a tricky business. I’m concerned about the staying power of certain companies. If you’re holding land and paying 7+% interest, that’s a difficult proposition.

But that aside, Surrey is going to be our second downtown. I believe very strongly that Surrey will succeed. We’re redesigning Century City right now and changing one of our towers from office to rental. Office is a dead end right now.

Can you tell us about your  Southlands project in Tsawwassen?

We owned the Southlands when it was over 750 acres of land. In 1995 when YVR expanded, the province acquired 220 acres from us. Modern day Southlands is about 530 acres.

The issue of preserving Southlands as an agricultural parcel and nothing else became a rallying cry for the community. We worked with the community to understand if agriculture really was important and some people were sincere. So we said, “If agriculture is important, what is its modern iteration in this community?”

In the end, of the 530 acres we dedicated 430 acres to Delta, mostly as agricultural land, with $9 million for improvements. Some of it is designated to larger farming projects and others will be tied into our community market.

How have you been inspired by agricultural urbanism elsewhere?

Burlington, Vermont has a community project called Intervale which is a large agricultural area with different farm operations. The important thing for me was going into Burlington and seeing how local restaurants used produce from the Intervale project. I saw how the identity of Intervale formed the culture of food in Burlington. That’s a direction I’d like to take Southlands in.

There’s a community outside of Atlanta that was started by a restaurateur called Serenbe. The goal was to inform a community around food, agriculture and wellness. They have a community farm, restaurants, farmers market, etc.

In real estate and planning we look for things people have done and we try to learn from them. That’s what I’ve done with Intervale and Serenbe to inspire Southlands.

On integrating agriculture at Southlands:

It’s been challenging to get the agriculture aspect off the ground in Southlands. We’re now working with Snow Farms, an organic farm group in Delta. They’re growing some hops in anticipation of our brewery using those.

Southlands has three things: an agricultural plan, an open space plan and an architectural plan. All of those three things work together, which is the art of Southlands. The Market Square, which is the heart of our open space plan, opens up onto the agricultural land on one side to create that connection.

We didn’t want to isolate the agricultural land but bring it into the community. The farmers in those fields want a good cup of coffee as much as anyone, so we welcome them in. On the other side, the Market Square will be surrounded by the shops and homes that also define it.

What does someone living at Southlands get to experience?

They get a variety of cool homes with a modern take on traditional architecture. We’ve taken cues from Scandinavian architecture. There’s a lot of that influence in the area.

Every other week there’s a farmers’ market. A lot of the homes have shared gardens. We also have community allotment gardens within the Market Square. They’re rented out for a nominal fee and give people this sense of togetherness. I walk my dog over there at night and it’s really cool to see people wandering over with their glass of wine to water their plants.

Food is the commonality between people. It’s part of our corporate mission statement to placemake around food. Whether it’s growing food or sharing a meal together, food is one of the best ways to bring people together.

The retail piece is the next layer as we build out around the Market Square. We’re trying to curate food-based retail and we’re talking to a couple groups to get something going. We have Prado Cafe open now and Four Winds opening a brewery and restaurant in spring 2024.

We’re right next to Boundary Bay Regional Park with great paddle boarding and kayaking. We have a pop-up paddleboard shop that’s opened up for the summer. We see people coming out on their bikes. Certainly on our market days, Southlands is a destination.

Are there still homes at Southlands for sale? What is pricing like and who has been buying?

We have a couple of cottages left. You can think of them as detached, single-family homes but they’re a bit smaller and have a cottage feel. The Granary, which is 1-bed flats around 650 square feet on the bottom with stacked townhomes of 1,100 square feet 2-bed, 2 baths on top, is also currently selling. We have a number of other projects under construction right now like townhomes, row homes, more cottages, etc.

We have a project called the Courtyard Cottage which has a shared pizza oven, picking up on that communal food theme. We like to think about how people come together around cooking and enjoying food.

Cottages start at $1,750,000 and are 2,200 square feet. The flats are about $690,000 and the stacked townhomes are around $900,000-950,000.

We’ve had about an even mix of locals downsizing and Metro Vancouver residents moving out to the area. Many of the buyers coming from Vancouver or Richmond have connections to the community. They want to be closer to their parents or where they grew up in South Delta. We’ve also had buyers from Winnipeg and others who have bought sight unseen.

The 5 Wire: Getting to Know The President of Century Group, Sean Hodgins

What is one book you recommend?

I recently reread The Power Broker by Robert Caro. It’s a big book! It’s the story of Robert Moses’ influence on the development of New York. Robert Moses started out trying to do good by developing parks for the masses but then the power went to his head. It’s a cautionary tale and I strongly recommend the book if you have time to read it.

What new belief, behaviour or habit has most improved your life?

A recommitment to fitness and running. My wife has always been super fit so I’m trying to catch up to her.

What have you been binge watching lately?

The last thing I watched on Netflix was a documentary about the 2015 earthquake in Nepal called Aftershock. That was a very interesting watch. I had no idea how much devastation had happened.

Favourite band or type of music?

I’m going to take a pass on that one!

What is something you’ve purchased recently for under $1500 that has a positive impact on your life?

My iPhone comes to mind. There are very few tangible things for me. I wish I had a more interesting or creative answer!