Pemberton, North Vancouver: Homes for Sale, Prices, Schools and Daily Life

Real estate listings use the name Pemberton for the low ground north of Marine Drive, from the Capilano River east to Pemberton Avenue. Pemberton Heights, on the hill above, is a separate MLS® area. A reader who is looking for the village of Pemberton, north of Whistler, wants a different place with the same name.

The ground here is flat. Natural Resources Canada's elevation data gives 18 metres above sea level for Marine Drive at Capilano Road, 19 metres for Hope Road at Garden Avenue and 20 metres for Glenaire Drive at Fullerton Avenue. Up the hill, Philip Avenue at West Keith Road is at 57 metres.

The west half is new. The District calls the blocks around Capilano Road and Marine Drive Lions Gate Village and has planned them as one of its village centres, with a public plaza, a community recreation centre, shops, apartments and townhouses. The District describes a busy commercial area along Marine Drive. East of Garden Avenue, where the village ends, Tatlow, Bowser, MacGowan, Philip and Bridgman avenues cross Marine Drive and meet Hope Road at the foot of the hill.

In our view, Pemberton suits a buyer who wants a townhouse finished in the last few years, shops and a recreation centre within a walk, and a bus that the schedule gives 20 minutes or less to reach downtown. The trade-offs are traffic at the bridge, building sites on nearby blocks and small private yards. A buyer who wants a detached house on a wide lot should also look at Pemberton Heights and Norgate.

The District describes this community as bounded on the south by the Squamish Nation. Its map shows reserve land, labelled IR5, on the south side of Marine Drive from the Capilano River to McGuire Avenue.

The name Pemberton comes from an English family of landowners. The North Shore Heritage Preservation Society writes that Arthur Pemberton Heywood-Lonsdale, who was born in Shropshire in 1835, set up the Lonsdale Estates company in 1882 and put money into land here without ever visiting it. The company bought large areas of North Vancouver, and the Society names Pemberton Avenue and Pemberton Heights among the places that carry the family's names.

A second article from the Society says that, before a bridge existed, people came from Vancouver by ferry to see the Capilano River. In the 1920s, it says, a homeowner named Napoleon St. Pierre kept a garden of clipped shrubs at MacGowan Avenue and Marine Drive and told fortunes for a fee, and on Sundays so many people came that the road was blocked. Motels came later. The Society dates the Ranch Motel at Marine Drive and Capilano Road to around 1960 and says it was taken down for condos, shops and a community centre.

The village that stands there now is recent. In 2014 the District wrote a housing policy for the streets around the centre that supports townhouses and rowhouses of up to three storeys. Work on a number of townhouse complexes around Belle Isle Park began in early 2019, the community centre opened in 2022, and the rebuilt park opened on May 30, 2025. TransLink's R2 RapidBus, which stops on Marine Drive, has run through to Metrotown since September 7, 2026.

The Lions Gate Community Recreation Centre is the closest public building to the middle of the area on this page's map. It stands on the village plaza, which the District says has room for sitting outdoors, a playground and a water park.

Food stores are close to the middle of the area. The map shows Bulk Barn and Sungiven Foods as the two nearest food stores, with Save-On-Foods third. The nearest cafe on the map is Abadan, and Tim Hortons and Starbucks come next. Park Royal in West Vancouver is one R2 stop west, and TransLink's schedule allows 3 to 5 minutes for that ride.

Building work is part of daily life here for now. The District's record for 1634 and 1748 Capilano Road describes a plan for 475 rental homes and a hotel with 171 rooms, in two buildings of 12 to 37 storeys, and gives October 20, 2025 as the date council adopted the bylaw that allows it. In our experience, the side of a complex that faces Glenaire Drive or the park is quieter than the side that faces Capilano Road. Visit at 5 p.m. on a weekday before you decide.

Belle Isle Park is the neighbourhood's own park. The District built it between June 2024 and May 2025 beside the community centre. Its playground has a rubber surface, a tower with a ramp and a slide, swings and climbing frames, and the park also has fitness equipment for adults, a table tennis table, a lawn for picnics and a fenced dog park.

The Capilano River forms the west edge of Pemberton, behind Glenaire Drive. The District's creek data marks it as a river with fish, and its trail data shows the Capilano Pacific Trail, a shared path for walking and cycling, within 50 metres of the north end of Fullerton Avenue. Farther upstream, Metro Vancouver runs Capilano River Regional Park, where the same trail continues to a point near Cleveland Dam. The photo at the top of this page was taken in that park.

For field sports, the District's park data lists Pemberton Park on West 15th Street and Norgate Park at West 15th Street and Tatlow Avenue as community sports parks. Both are south of Marine Drive. The same data describes Bowser Trail as a neighbourhood trail from Capilano Road to Pemberton Avenue, and the trail data shows the Spirit Trail running through Norgate.