Inlet Centre

Inlet Centre is Port Moody's town centre — a compact, transit-oriented district built around the Inlet Centre SkyTrain station, two pedestrian-scale commercial villages, and a cluster of civic amenities along Ioco Road and Newport Drive. It sits in the heart of the city, with Burrard Inlet just to the north and the older Heritage neighbourhoods to the west.

The area's modern shape was set in motion when the Evergreen Line extension of the Millennium Line opened in December 2016. The arrival of rapid transit triggered a wave of high-rise residential construction, and today the blocks surrounding the station are anchored by several towers above 30 storeys, alongside mid-rise condos and townhomes. It's one of the most distinctly urban pockets in the Tri-Cities — denser and newer than almost anything around it.

The people who live here reflect that character. Inlet Centre draws transit-oriented professionals, downsizers, and households who want walkable day-to-day living without the price of being in Vancouver proper. A short walk from any tower puts you at a grocery store, a coffee shop, a restaurant patio, the public library, the recreation complex, or a SkyTrain platform — which is unusual outside the City of Vancouver itself.

What makes Inlet Centre distinctive isn't just the density or the transit. It's the way two pedestrian-first commercial villages — Suter Brook Village and Newport Village — give the neighbourhood its texture. Both are courtyard-style developments where the streets are scaled for walking rather than driving, with restaurants spilling onto patios and small shops tucked along internal lanes. Combined with the civic cluster around City Hall, the Inlet Theatre, and the recreation complex, the area functions as a genuine town centre rather than a collection of towers around a station — a planning outcome that's still relatively rare in the region.

Inlet Centre earns a Walk Score of around 80, placing it among the most walkable pockets in Port Moody according to Walk Score. Most daily errands — groceries, coffee, the library, the pool, a restaurant — are within a five- to ten-minute walk of the towers clustered around the station. Sidewalks are wide, crossings are frequent, and the two commercial villages are designed as pedestrian-first environments rather than parking-lot retail.

The transit anchor is Inlet Centre Station on the Evergreen Line extension of the Millennium Line, which opened in December 2016. From the platform, SkyTrain runs west through Moody Centre and Burquitlam toward Lougheed, where riders can transfer for downtown Vancouver, or east to Coquitlam Central. Trip times to downtown Vancouver typically run around 45 minutes with a single transfer. Local TransLink bus service connects through the station and along Newport Drive and Ioco Road, including the 184/185 routes serving the Ioco and Heritage neighbourhoods and connections toward Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam. The 160 bus along nearby corridors offers an alternate one-seat ride toward downtown Vancouver and east to Port Coquitlam.

Cycling is reasonable but constrained by topography — the Transit Score sits around 65 and the Bike Score around 55. The Shoreline Trail along Burrard Inlet is a short ride or walk north and links into the broader Port Moody waterfront network, which connects Rocky Point Park and the trail system around the inlet. Local streets like Murray Street and Newport Drive have varying degrees of cycling infrastructure, and riders heading west toward Burnaby or east toward Coquitlam can connect into regional routes.

For drivers, the Barnet Highway runs along the southern edge of the area and provides the main east-west connection — west toward Burnaby and Highway 1, east toward Coquitlam Centre and Port Coquitlam. Driving to downtown Vancouver typically takes 35–50 minutes depending on time of day, while Coquitlam Centre is roughly a 10-minute drive.

Families in Inlet Centre fall within School District 43 (Coquitlam), which serves Port Moody along with Coquitlam, Anmore, and Belcarra. The catchment elementary school for the area is Moody Elementary, and the catchment secondary is Port Moody Secondary — both established schools serving the broader central Port Moody area rather than being located directly inside the town centre footprint.

Port Moody Secondary is one of the larger high schools in the district and offers a range of academic programming, including the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, which draws students from across the city and beyond. The school's location west of Inlet Centre means most secondary students travel a short distance by bus, bike, or car to attend.

For younger children, the district also runs French Immersion and other choice programs at sites elsewhere in Port Moody and Coquitlam, with transportation considerations that vary by program. Independent and faith-based school options exist throughout the Tri-Cities region, and post-secondary access is straightforward via SkyTrain — Simon Fraser University is reachable via the Evergreen Line and a connecting bus up Burnaby Mountain, and the broader UBC and downtown Vancouver campuses are accessible with a transfer.

Family-friendliness in Inlet Centre is shaped less by the schools themselves and more by what surrounds them. The Port Moody Recreation Complex on Ioco Road houses a pool, fitness centre, ice rinks, and the Galleria art gallery in a single civic facility, and runs a full slate of children's and youth programs — swimming lessons, skating, summer camps, and drop-in activities. The Port Moody Public Library, located on the upper level at Newport Village, runs children's storytimes and family programming. The combination of walkable streets, nearby parks, the rec complex, and library access makes day-to-day life with children manageable without relying heavily on driving — a meaningful consideration for many of the households who choose the area.

Day-to-day life in Inlet Centre is anchored by two pedestrian-scale commercial villages that together function as the neighbourhood's main street.

Suter Brook Village is the smaller and newer of the two — a mixed-use development built around an internal pedestrian street, with a Thrifty Foods grocery store, a pub, restaurants, a fitness club, a Shoppers Drug Mart, and a range of small-format retail and services. It's the kind of place where residents from the surrounding towers walk down with reusable bags for groceries, meet friends for a coffee, or grab dinner on a patio without needing the car.

Newport Village, just across Ioco Road, is the larger commercial node and the older of the two. Built around a pedestrian courtyard, it includes a Save-On-Foods grocery store, a wider mix of restaurants and casual dining, professional services like dental and medical clinics, and various everyday retailers. The Port Moody Public Library occupies the upper level — an unusually civic anchor for a neighbourhood shopping centre — and the surrounding plaza often hosts seasonal events and outdoor seating.

Between the two villages, residents have access to two full-service grocery stores, multiple pharmacies, banks, dry cleaners, and a deep bench of casual restaurants — sushi, ramen, pizza, Mediterranean, Indian, brunch spots, and a few notable independents. Coffee culture is well established, with both chains and local cafés.

Healthcare access is solid for daily needs. Walk-in clinics, family practice offices, dental practices, optometry, and physiotherapy are distributed across both villages. Eagle Ridge Hospital, the Tri-Cities' primary hospital, is a short drive east in Port Moody and provides emergency and inpatient care.

The broader Port Moody food and drink scene — including the Brewers Row craft breweries along Murray Street and the restaurants of Moody Centre — is a short SkyTrain ride or bike to the west, extending the neighbourhood's effective amenity footprint well beyond Inlet Centre's own blocks.

Recreation in Inlet Centre is unusually well-served for a neighbourhood of its size, thanks to a concentration of civic facilities along Ioco Road and Newport Drive.

The Port Moody Recreation Complex is the centrepiece — a single civic-block facility that houses an aquatic centre with multiple pools and a waterslide, a fitness centre, two ice rinks, multipurpose studios for fitness and dance classes, and the Galleria, an exhibition space featuring local and regional artists. It's run by the City of Port Moody and offers everything from drop-in swims and public skates to registered programs and seasonal camps. For residents living in the surrounding towers, it functions almost like an extended amenity room — a five-minute walk and you're in the pool or on the ice.

The Inlet Theatre, located in the City Hall building on Newport Drive, is the cultural counterpart. It hosts live theatre, music performances, comedy, film screenings, and community events as part of Port Moody's 'City of the Arts' programming. The adjacent civic plaza is regularly used for outdoor events, markets, and seasonal celebrations.

The outdoor side of the neighbourhood is shaped by Burrard Inlet just to the north. The Shoreline Trail is a short walk or ride away and runs along the water from Rocky Point Park east toward Old Orchard Park, offering a continuous walking, running, and cycling route through forest and waterfront. Rocky Point Park itself — with its pier, spray park, boat launch, and connection to the broader Brewers Row strip on Murray Street — is one of the most-used parks in the Tri-Cities and is easily reached on foot, by bike, or by a one-stop SkyTrain ride to Moody Centre.

For longer outings, Buntzen Lake and the trail networks of Belcarra Regional Park are a short drive north via Ioco Road, providing hiking, swimming, and paddling. Closer in, smaller pocket parks and landscaped plazas are woven through the tower district, giving residents green space within a couple of blocks of any front door.

Inlet Centre is one of the newest residential communities in Port Moody, and its social fabric reflects that. The arrival of the Evergreen Line in December 2016 triggered the rapid build-out of high-rise residential towers around the station — several above 30 storeys — and the population that has moved in is largely made up of transit-oriented professionals, dual-income households, downsizers from elsewhere in the Tri-Cities, and a smaller share of families. Compared to Port Moody's older Heritage neighbourhoods, the demographic skews younger and more urban in its preferences, with a higher share of renters than the city as a whole.

The community character is shaped by the unusual combination of density and pedestrian-scale design. People know their local barista, their grocery cashier, and the neighbours they share an elevator with. The pedestrian streets of Newport Village and Suter Brook Village function as informal gathering places — patios fill up on summer evenings, families pass through on the way to the library or the rec complex, and weekend foot traffic gives the area a small-town feel that's rare in a high-rise district.

Port Moody's 'City of the Arts' identity is central to the community's social life. The Inlet Theatre, the Galleria art gallery inside the recreation complex, and the civic plaza outside City Hall host a steady calendar of performances, exhibitions, and events throughout the year. Seasonal events — outdoor movies, Canada Day celebrations, holiday markets, and the city's annual arts and culture programming — draw residents out of their buildings and into shared public space.

The broader Port Moody identity matters here too. The city has a population of roughly 33,000–35,000 and works hard to maintain a distinct character within Metro Vancouver — small-city civic life, a strong arts scene, and easy access to nature via Burrard Inlet, the Shoreline Trail, and Buntzen Lake. Inlet Centre is the most urban expression of that identity: a walkable, transit-connected town centre that still feels rooted in the slower, water-and-forest rhythm of Port Moody as a whole.