Chilliwack rural open and agricultural Mecca home to the infamous, second largest bookstore in the province and of course, who can forget the annual corn and Sheila Festival, Chilliwack cleaner and cleaner living. But just remember though, if you do want,

Hello Christina. Yeah you know we're here yet. Oh

The other the other Chilliwack.

Yeah. Yep. See you soon? Cool.

It's not only the cow. Thanks Ray. No problem.

It is time to get back to our roots and I ain't talking about, no potatoes. Today, we are going to meet the one, the only Christina Lugo, who is taking us on a wild ride around Chilliwack, where we'll be going from the newly developed 1881 to the old Garrison Village, Christina promises, show us that there is more to Chilliwack than just fast cornfields and cascading mountains, a more refined Chilliwack. So get your champagne flutes ready. Stick that pinky

Because we are about to take a dive into the wac.

Christina, thank you so much for for doing all this. This is so exciting. I've never been in jail like before. Well, then you are in for a treat. Yeah, okay, yes. Well, we'll see what as I was driving in. I was kind of like, it is kind of oldest friend. That's right. That's what I thought. Well, I think and that's the thing is a lot of people perception is that, it's completely Farmland. So, I grew up in Richmond and lived in Vancouver and a lot of other places, but when you think of Chilliwack, I think all of us kind.

And of have that same feeling that it's farmland and not too much going on. You you glossed over something there though that you were in. So you're in Richmond, and you're in. Thank you very much, but you were also in quite a few other places, I remember correctly. So moody, okay, okay. So buttery Langley Cloverdale. Wow, okay, so how is Chilliwack separated? Its place is massive. How do you segregate it? So as you're going through Highway 1, if you go on to the north side, that's the Chilliwack side. If you go into the South

I'd that's the Sardis side which is also close to Cultus Lake. What is the difference between north and south Asia? Like how does people Rivals is like West Side Story where we going with this whole thing? Well it's really just the two parts of town. One being older, one being newer is really kind of have used some it up on the North side. You'll see all those really great old character houses on the south side, which is what is actually referred to, as the Sardis side. It's a lot.

More residential. I really think we should go over to a district 1881 was like being in Europe. So you're gonna feel right at home. Love it, sounds great. Let's go. So, welcome down to District 1881. This is amazing, isn't it? It's like it's probably your feeling like you're at home. Yeah, exactly. This is the closest thing I've seen to Europe since Landing here. This is so cool. So District 1881 which used to be known as

Five Corners, they redevelop the whole area, they've taken some of the existing buildings and they've refurbished them. And then, of course, they built all these new ones, but it really goes with in that style of being old school, which is really nice. So it's nice to have some architecture it. Well, it's kind of kept up a little bit of the old Vibe, the whole place you know. You feel like you are actually walking through a little bit of History. Absolutely. And then you have all of these meet Boutique

type stores and restaurants, and you can go get ice cream and a coffee. And the we shot. We shot amazing. That's so cool. Do we think that something like this? This development is to be expected. Should we see more of this stuff or is this a kind of a one and done? It's kind of a little bit of a one-and-done and more. So in the style of how it's being done, I don't think you're really going to see something like this. There are some other developments that are, you know, big huge residential projects and you have

Marshall and you have some shopping but this is really a destination for people within the city to come and meet their friends and do some shopping and have something to eat. So, I'm one of the best copies I have had since moving to Canada like that place down there, at sucking gun from the nominal, and lovely people. What is it? They say District. They did anyone doing for Investments for this area for Chilliwack? It's bringing a lot of people back into the area and also shopping locally. So you have you know, single-family shops or

Somebody who is always maybe wanted to have a shoe store. So they're opened up a shoe store and you have somewhere for the residents to come down and actually do shopping instead of me ordering online and you're also putting money back into your community. Your office is here. Yes. What's the value you see in District than where you think it's going well? So what I ended up doing was basically opening up the satellite office of Century, 21 and we've curated a specific type of agent and the way I base, my business is community. It's focused on

The client on the person, what their needs are where they need to move, what's going to go within their lifestyle and being down here, we get to be part of a new part of the city and we get to meet people, which is, I think, one of the biggest reasons you would move out to somewhere, like sure that you get that, get that back, that bit of humanity, exactly. You're not just kind of wanting to see if people, you're actually part of something, is there value around this area? Is it going up? What to doing to people who are looking to buy in China Center of Chilliwack? It's definitely starting to

Bring up property values, and it's also, you know, you can live two blocks away and you can just walk down here, so it's great, you know? You walk down to the brewery Friday night, you have some pizza, you have some beer and you can walk out H + 81 the heart of Chilliwack, and somewhere that you can actually embed yourself into the community sounds, so amazing. But I'm really excited to see what else should work has to offer. Do you want to go to Garrison? Let's go guys. Let's go District. 1881 really surprised me. I had

That Chilliwack was going to be all farmland and rolling Fields. But seeing people living above their shops reminded me so much of the town that I grew up in back in Ireland. The five corners, where District 1881 now, sits has always been the heart of Chilliwack and with the focus on revitalization Happening Here, I think it's safe to say it's a title, that it won't be giving up any time soon.

Like when I'm going to Chilliwack and I see all these fans have been coming in for what else is around for the resin to chill. Like, what do people do here for fun? A lot of hiking you see people on their bikes, sometimes we even still have a horse coming through our neighborhood with a person right here, riding their horses and their neighbors, not just a ransom doors in Ireland that would have happened. You see random Wars is in the cities all the time. Yeah, these ones have people. Okay, that makes sense. We're safe.

A revitalization seems to be a large part of Chilliwack to overall growth plan. And Christina wanted to take me further south to the neighborhood of Sardis. So we could see how this is being done in the little community of Garrison.

This is Garrison. This is Garrison. This is beautiful. It kind of seems more like New Hampshire, kind of Vibes. I wasn't expecting this. You weren't no know what speak a little gem. So it's like it's such a great neighborhood and I think it's one of the reasons why it's my favorite in Sardis, because they've kept all this old growth trees. They didn't mow everything down. When they did the neighborhood and you actually have architecture and style, and like you said the brick, and again, it's kind of a bit of a European Flair.

It and just lots of really nice points throughout the neighborhood.

So back kind of in the day, it was officer housing. So this was all just land trees and they had officer housing kind of more towards the back. They would do all their training at the facility across the street from here and then they refurbished all of those houses and probably about 2,000 or so. They started building through here and then they really turned it into just a gorgeous neighborhood. All of this Stan has been since the year 2000. We've kind of seen this growth in Garrison in terms of investment property, is

This the place you want to be in Chilliwack, in my opinion. It is definitely one of the top places to be in Chilliwack. Not only do you have this beautiful surrounding so it really appeals to your senses, we all do better. When something is well kept, you have green space around you, it just makes you feel better. Plus you have this amazing walkability, you can get around everywhere quite easily within, you know, five to 10 minutes everything, the way you can actually walk to shopping and you can walk to the restaurant, you can walk to the grocery store, you can watch the Leisure Center.

And the best part is you go across the street 10 minutes and you're at The Rotary Trail and the better River the rotary Trail? Yes. What's the rotary Trail? So the rotary Trail is kilometers of trails for people to walk. They bike you see everyone out with their family, their dogs, even see the occasional horse again through there. And of course, there's world-class fishing all through there in the river. There really is something for everyone, which makes it so appealing. And even for a see folks like yourself safe, o comes City Slicker for this like it

Yeah, I want to live here. So how often our place is coming available in this community? We kind of see it come and go in waves a little bit. So while there's quite a few homes in here, they're really still is a low amount of turnover because it is such a desirable place. Apparently they don't really want to leave. No, they might not come up that often but when they do it actually is a good investment to get is a great investment. You cannot go wrong living or buying in Garrison, good to know. So you want to go check

Check out one of my other favorite neighborhoods in Sardis. It sounds amazing. Let's go, let's go.

Garrison and District 1881 were both great examples of how Chilliwack is positioning itself in the Lower, Mainland reclaiming, their history and making it work for them. But Chilliwack is growing, and there's only so much you can renovate and remodel. So, I knew that if I wanted to get the full scope of this community, I have to see how this massive expansion was going to work when they ran out of old places to revitalize. You speak. So funny about this place. What what's your favorite part?

Rachel a co-op what stands out for you about living here? I think the best part about living in Chilliwack is just the sense of calm that it provides to your daily life. Because everything is so busy. There's a lot going on. People are moving in a million directions, these days. And it's just nice to live somewhere. You feel at ease and it's so beautiful. And people are friendly and you don't really have to. I feel like you don't have to worry about the same things that you normally do, even though you do.

But it gives you a sense of just being calm and relaxing which is really nice.

So, we just came from Garrison. And now, we are here in Webster and this neighborhood is also a beautiful area to be. And it offers something a little bit different than Garrison, and that's because it backed, right onto the rotary Trail, and of course, that better River. And what kind of square footage we talking for properties in this kind of community. This, you're really kind of looking more that larger square footage around 4,000 square feet. All of these homes really have to

Stories with a basement. So some people have basement Suite. A lot of people use that space just for their family. So it's a little bit different living. The lots are also a little bit larger than they were in Garrison, okay? So mortgage helper is kind of coming more into play in these kind of communities a little bit and you kind of see there's been a lot of people have been in this neighborhood again long-term. It's a very desired area, another premium area. So a lot of people have been here for a while. They were able to get in at a really good price point. See their appreciation grow and really just enjoy the air.

Ria amazing, which brings me to my next question. Are these new bills are people, buying lands tearing down building new. What's happening with these properties? So these ones really kind of started around 2000 and it developed up, there was some were all one Builder. A lot of them were just a builder, maybe bought three or four logs, and built a couple of houses. And then some, of course, they're just custom builds. So out of the three communities that we have visited today, what was your favorite? Ooh, all right, well

District 1881 amazing. I like you said, I'm a bit of a city slicker. So I love being in the heart of any kind of community and that just seems like such a vibrant place to be right now, Garrison, though has such charm like that place is beautiful the architecture the people how chill the whole place. One Sherlock, these plays Webster bigger, Lots, bigger, houses, and a well-established Community. I just wish I could check on these houses out. Well, we have a house that we can go see if you want to take a look. You want to go? Let's go.

This place is absolutely gorgeous. It's not bad. I don't do, is this like a typical type of house on this neighborhood. So, for Webster's where we are, and of course, being along the river, these homes range from about 4,500 square feet to 5,000 square feet, but they all really take in that view with the double height ceiling the large windows and it brings nature into your house which is

What makes the living so peaceful and of course, right behind there is the veteran, the road retail which is amazing. It brings nature in and keeps the Privacy it does. So you can do whatever you like in your house. You don't have to pull your blinds down and a lot of the homes, have the extra detailing with the molding and that's something else that you get in. Chilliwack kind of like a bit more attention to detail. Definitely like some more of those details and a little bit of a larger space when we were in Garrison, you said that properties. Do not come up very frequently.

Equally there is it a similar story in Webster? It is and especially through along the street that we're on where you're backing onto the river. People do not want to give up their homes, sometimes they go out and they're looking for a new home, they come home, they're like this. Neighborhood is great. We've got the river. We don't want to go kind of an epiphany while you're out searching and I like it. Here it is. It makes you love your home even more. This is such an amazing property and you can really kind of see yourself, be able to raise a family here and of course, that wonderful rotary trail that we keep coming back to

Which I personally would love to check out. If you would like to join me I have been talking about all day so we should go amazing. Let's do it when I came to Chilliwack I had some preconceived notions of what I was going to see. And do what I found though was a community focused on growing and expanding in a unique way from District 1881 to the banks of the better, chill whackers are rewriting their story and who better to advocate for the next chapter. Then Christina someone who has lived all over.

The Lower Mainland but still chose to settle in the wac. Overall, my day out in Chilliwack has been less. Well, he's and farmland and more perfectly pulled espressos and European architecture today. Really was a lesson in not judging a book by it's cover, or I guess it's chilly by, it's wack.