Our story

Brothers Bernie and Eric Van Maren started the Van Maren Group of Companies, in 1973. During the initial years the company acted as a framing and concrete subcontractor on a variety of projects.

By 1976 the company expanded into real estate development and general contracting, completing projects all over British Columbia.

In 1985 the company opened an office in Seattle and, over the next 10 years completed approximately 1,000 housing units, as well as a variety of commercial and industrial projects. During the late 80’s and early 90’s the company also completed two large projects in California.
In 1994 the company decided to concentrate its construction and development activities in British Columbia. The largest project developed was a 500 unit multi-family project in Abbotsford.

From 1985 to 2002 the company specialized in the design and construction of affordable housing all over British Columbia. The company has also completed design-build projects for other government clients such as the Cities of Vancouver, Merritt, Chilliwack and Langford; ICBC; Ministry of Defense; Ministry of the Attorney General; and BC Buildings Corporation.

In 2002 it completed an award-winning public private partnership project involving the City of Chilliwack and the Province of British Columbia. Also in 2002, it completed BC’s largest ever non-market housing project; C-Side, a 284-unit, 30-story apartment in Vancouver.

In total the company was involved in the design, development and construction of over 15,000 housing units as well as a wide variety of commercial, retail and industrial projects.

In 1994 the company started a real-estate finance and investment division, which is managed by Bernie Van Maren. This division specializes in providing short-term bridge financing to real-estate developers all over Canada and the US, as well as investing in real estate projects in Ontario, Alberta, BC, California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Hawaii.

At the end of 2002 the company discontinued the design-build and construction parts of their business and now concentrates on developing, financing and investing in real-estate projects all over North America.