Office Market Discussion

[jollyburger]

TransLink expanding to Metrotown office tower
Before members of TransLink’s Mayors’ Council travelled to Ottawa to lobby for billions of additional federal dollars, the division that runs the SkyTrain and West Coast Express systems told staff that it was expanding to an office tower in Metrotown.

A May 9 B.C. Rapid Transit Co. (BCRTC) internal memo disclosed the move to an 18-storey building on Kingsway to accommodate the growth over the next decade.

“We're thrilled to announce that we've secured four floors at Central Park Place in Burnaby, which will significantly increase our available office space,” the memo said. “This new space is located at 4555 Kingsway, and it's just five kilometres from OMC1 [Operations and Maintenance Centre 1] and a quick seven-minute walk from the Metrotown SkyTrain station.”

The memo said BCRTC, which is based in the Edmonds area at OMC1, anticipates the first departments will move to Central Park Place beginning in the latter part of the third quarter.

“The relocation of departments will occur in phases. A larger renovation will then be done on the remaining two floors. Relocation onto these floors will not happen until completion of the capital project (timing is TBD),” the memo said.

TransLink spokesperson Dan Mountain said the Kingsway space was leased in 2019 and will be used at no additional leasing costs. He said employees will move onto the ninth and 11th to 13th floors.

“BCRTC will need additional space to accommodate staff that are necessary for SkyTrain expansions such as the Broadway Subway and the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain lines,” Mountain said.

Mountain was unable to say how much space TransLink actually used after the pandemic began in 2020.

The building’s registered owner is Central Park Developments Inc, whose directors are Robert and Colin Bosa. Entries in the TransLink statements of financial information from 2019 to 2021 (the most-recent year available) show a company called Central Park Partnership LP was paid $34,154 in 2019, $1,529,547 in 2020 and $2,024,762 in 2021.

TransLink’s statutory annual report for 2019 mentioned the business technology support (BTS) department’s $1.8 million move to Metrotown in a list of capital program changes.

“In order to meet capacity and project coordination challenges at Sapperton office and 307 Columbia locations, this project was to secure additional lease space at a Metrotown office building to house BTS project team members,” the March 20 report said.

Seven floors in the same building, each more than 11,000 square feet, are currently listed for lease by commercial real estate agency Avison Young, with estimated operating costs and taxes of $18.35 per square foot. The lease cost is not included, but a real estate industry source familiar with the building said the rate is around $32 per square foot, with a market tenant improvement allowance.

A decade ago, TransLink, Transit Police and Coast Mountain Bus Co. moved from a tower in Metrotown to new headquarters at the Brewery District in New Westminster’s Sapperton community. At the time, the lease was worth $1.7 million a year and TransLink said the arrangement saved $2.6 million a year. For 2021, the most-recent year available, TransLink paid $10.3 million to The Brewery District Developments LP, a company related to developer Wesgroup.

TransLink expects to spend more than $2.18 billion to run the region’s transit system in 2023, including $137 million for corporate operations. Of that, it earmarked $15.7 million for rentals, leases and property tax.

Representatives of a dozen municipalities, led by Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, were on Parliament Hill Monday to promote their “Access to Everyone” plan for the major expansion of rapid transit, bus, SeaBus and road infrastructure and service.

“Access for Everyone requires a total investment of $21 billion over the next decade, and the region can’t afford to do it alone,” said the Mayors’ Council website.

https://biv.com/article/2023/05/translink-expanding-metrotown-office-tower

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

https://biv.com/article/2023/05/translink-expanding-metrotown-office-tower

Expanding office space in an era of hybrid workplaces? Amazing what you can do when billions of taxpayer money gets shovelled your way!

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Expanding office space in an era of hybrid workplaces? Amazing what you can do when billions of taxpayer money gets shovelled your way!

Well they said they will end up with less space once they move CMBC from Surrey to New West.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Expanding office space in an era of hybrid workplaces? Amazing what you can do when billions of taxpayer money gets shovelled your way!

Based on the article less than 1% of Translink's operating budget will be spent on office space in 2023...

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

Based on the article less than 1% of Translink's operating budget will be spent on office space in 2023...

When you're losing millions a month you should look at cutting costs wherever possible.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by whatnext

When you're losing millions a month you should look at cutting costs wherever possible.

Office consolidation is textbook cost cutting. Move along.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by whatnext

losing millions a month

What do you mean losing? Transit is a public service. Do you expect police to cover their operations with traffic tickets? Should the fire department start demanding payments from residents of burning buildings?

[mcj]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

What do you mean losing? Transit is a public service. Do you expect police to cover their operations with traffic tickets? Should the fire department start demanding payments from residents of burning buildings?

The military should be profitable too, pillaging whoever they can /s

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

... Should the fire department start demanding payments from residents of burning buildings?

That was a thing back in the 17th through 19th centuries when the firehalls were owned by private insurance companies: if you weren't on their list, they could literally just across the street and they'd sit and watch your house burn down.

Little wonder why every nation decided to socialize them instead.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

What do you mean losing? Transit is a public service. Do you expect police to cover their operations with traffic tickets? Should the fire department start demanding payments from residents of burning buildings?

Spoken like someone who contributes no gas taxes to this money pit. Whatever will they do if, as so many of you suggest, people don't need cars or when they switch to electric cars?

Meanwhile some recent Translink headlines:

B.C. pledges $479M to help TransLink avoid 'death spiral'

TransLink gets green light to borrow another $1.3 billion

Vaughn Palmer: Don’t be surprised if TransLink is back looking for another handout this time next year

TransLink still losing millions to fare evaders but it’s not tracking numbers

Seems like they should have all office staff work from home.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Thanks to those bailouts, TransLink currently has the best ridership recovery in all of North America and is avoiding the cost-cutting death spiral that many other transit agencies currently face - that's a source of pride, not shame.

Originally Posted by whatnext

... Whatever will they do if, as so many of you suggest, people don't need cars or when they switch to electric cars?

That's what congestion fees are for. Electric or not, traffic is still traffic.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

That's what congestion fees are for. Electric or not, traffic is still traffic.

IMO the fairest fee structure would be on insurance renewal tracking weight class + mileage and applying a fee based on that. On top of that, carbon should remain taxed.

Getting a bit off the point here, though.

I like transit because it makes my life easier both as a transit user and as a driver. As a driver, you should be happy that people choose to take transit instead of clogging the streets with cars and that the youth, seniors, and "fair weather" drivers often stick to transit instead of causing accidents.

Based on Google StreetView images of this building, they've been having trouble attracting tenants for some time. Hopefully Translink was able to get a lease on the cheap.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Spoken like someone who contributes no gas taxes to this money pit.

Gas taxes are not enough to cover roadway maintenance, let alone transit. If gas taxes were high enough to cover all roadway maintenance and the "free loaders" taking transit driving would be out of reach for all but the wealthiest Canadians.

Transit, just like most other municipal, provincial, and federal services, are primarily funded through a combination of property and income taxes. You should thank your lucky stars the residents and business owners who live and work near major transit lines and who uniformly pay more in property taxes because of proximity to these networks willingly fund the maintenance of local streets which could never break even from the nearby SFH property tax receipts alone.

[Changing City]

This thread diversion brought to you by whatnext, 'making dumb comments about transit since 2009'

[jollyburger]

Every thread on SSP is turning into this same garbage.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Every thread on SSP is turning into this same garbage.

Definitely, and it seems to originate from a few certain posters.

Not trying to complain but to me it seems the level of moderation has dropped off in the past few years. The vancouver mods used to be a lot more active on the forum and that kept most posting in check.

[Denscity]

Man I wish I was a mod. All that constant flow of Toronto content would be in the ghost town Toronto section where it belongs.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by madog222

Definitely, and it seems to originate from a few certain posters.

Not trying to complain but to me it seems the level of moderation has dropped off in the past few years. The vancouver mods used to be a lot more active on the forum and that kept most posting in check.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that in a thread entitled "Office Market Discussion" that "discussion" (the activity in which people talk about something and tell each other their ideas or opinions - Cambridge Dictionary) was frowned upon.

Since discussing whether the acquisition of new office space by a public entity that recently received a Half a Billion dollar bailout is a wise use of funds, could you please advise me of the Acceptable Thoughts and Opinions on this matter?

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that in a thread entitled "Office Market Discussion" that "discussion" (the activity in which people talk about something and tell each other their ideas or opinions - Cambridge Dictionary) was frowned upon.

Since discussing whether the acquisition of new office space by a public entity that recently received a Half a Billion dollar bailout is a wise use of funds, could you please advise me of the Acceptable Thoughts and Opinions on this matter?

But you didn't do that. You started talking about gas taxes, and dissing other posters who you assumed didn't pay them.

Occasionally you post something informative about a new development, or offer an opinion about another, but mostly your commentary on the forum seems to be negative about developers, developments, politicians, transit projects, and who is buying property.

The internet is known to encourage negativity, and we all know the few regular posters who seem to spend their life trolling the internet and media for 'bad things that happen' in order to share it with us all. It seems like a sad way to spend a life.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Thanks to those bailouts, TransLink currently has the best ridership recovery in all of North America and is avoiding the cost-cutting death spiral that many other transit agencies currently face - that's a source of pride, not shame.

I am really interested to see how the recent transit stab-athlon may have impacted transit numbers. Probably still early to have such recent numbers.