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REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE Filipino cultural centre takes shape in Vancouver
by Carlito Pablo
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Macario “Tobi” Reyes, the CEO and founder of the PortLiving development company, says it has long been his “dream” to help establish a Filipino community and cultural centre in Vancouver.
Macario “Tobi” Reyes and his family came to Canada when he was young boy. e Vancouver-based emceed by journalist Ria Renouf, a Canadian of Filipino and Irish roots. e creation of a cultural centre enjoys deep support among Filipino community property developer says that even though he grew up and identi es as Canadian, there was always a part of him that remained Filipino.
“ ere was certainly an emotion in me that wanted to connect with my Philippine heritage,” Reyes told the Straight in a phone interview. at’s why it feels very natural for the founder and CEO of the PortLiving development company to be involved in the e ort to build a Filipino cultural centre in Vancouver.
“ e idea of a cultural centre came to me over a dozen years ago, and it was really organic for me, having been born in Manila and then migrating here at a young age,” Reyes said. e delivery of this centre would represent for him a “culmination of the journey of immigration” that he and his family made.
“ is is de nitely one of my dreams,” he said.
In 2021, Reyes joined the board of the Mabuhay House Society, a communitybased organization.
“Mabuhay House is a nonpro t that I helped cofound with other business leaders, community organizers, and volunteers, to help me become part of a bigger group of Filipino Canadians and create a steering committee for this e ort,” he said. (Mabuhay is a Tagalog word that means “live long”. It is commonly used as an expression like “cheers” and “best wishes”.)
On June 12, Mabuhay House hosted an event at the Helena Gutteridge Plaza on the grounds of Vancouver City Hall to mark the 124th anniversary of Philippine independence. Reyes spoke at that event, which was organizations. One of these is the National Pilipino Canadian Cultural Centre. In a 2020 paper titled “Keeping the Roots Alive”, NPC3 explained the importance of developing a community centre. e organization noted that the Filipino community in Canada has already “reached a second and third migration cycle”. “Second and third generation Filipinos yearn to understand their roots, their heritage. e community needs a home where they can learn their native language, their history, traditions, values, arts, and culture,” the NPC3 report states. “Filipino Canadian artists and culture practitioners need a home to perform and display their works,” it continued. “Canadians surrounded by a growing Filipino community, need to understand Filipinos better through their arts and culture. “Filipino Canadians have no cultural centre that could seed their soul, be a window to Canada. It is time.” Reyes wants to see two things happen with the community centre project. One is for its development to be a “cause for uni cation and call to action”. “ at, to me, would be a great step forward by the community, to work with its members and also those outside the community to bring the project forward,” Reyes said. e second is that it becomes more than a place for people to congregate. “I really think of it as a living structure,” Reyes said. “I really hope that we have the ability here to design not just something that’s architecturally contextual and relevant to the goals of the centre but something that can continue to evolve as well with the needs of the community.” e Straight asked if the centre is likely to be developed in the South Vancouver area of Marpole.
“I can con rm that that’s the neighbourhood that we’re looking at in great detail,” Reyes said.
It would also likely be part of a multiuse development that would include housing and commercial components.
“I believe that because land is so scarce, we have to take an opportunity to see how we could use scale and diverse services to our bene t,” Reyes said.
He revealed that he and Mabuhay House are “working very hard to immediately get con rmation with the City [of Vancouver] for the next steps”.
“God willing, and if the timing is right, bringing to life a Filipino community centre would be one of the most important as pects of my life,” Reyes said. g -
– NPC3 report
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