Solving the Metro Vancouver Industrial Land Shortage?

[jollyburger]

Wesbild sells 27.5 acres of waterfront N. Vancouver industrial land

Vancouver-based real estate developer Wesbild has thrown in the towel and sold a prime North Vancouver industrial property after eight years of attempting to get approval for redevelopment and intensification of the site.

The 27.5-acre waterfront property at 1371 McKeen Ave. was sold to an unidentified "Canadian institutional investor" the company states in the announcement. It cannot identify the buyer, nor the purchase price due to confidentiality restrictions, a spokesperson told RENX.

Wesbild acquired the site in the Norgate/Lower Capilano neighbourhood, which was valued at $115 million, in 2017 according to previously published reports.

This property represents one of the last remaining privately-held waterfront sites of magnitude in the area. It has 730 feet of water frontage, and dock access.

Under the sale agreement, Wesbild will lease-back a portion of the property and continue to operate two businesses remaining on the site, the Lion’s Gate Marine Centre and Lion’s Gate Mini Storage.

https://renx.ca/wesbild-sells-275-ac...ndustrial-land

[kja384]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

https://renx.ca/wesbild-sells-275-ac...ndustrial-land

Sold to the founder of Future Shop

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by kja384

Sold to the founder of Future Shop

He was the owner (Wesbild). Got sold to a REIT/sovereign wealth fund

Earlier this week, Wesbild announced that it had sold the property. It did not disclose the sale price and the purchaser, but the buyer was Toronto-based Dream Industrial REIT (TSX: DIR.UN) and the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, STOREYS has learned, and the price was approximately $143 million.

https://storeys.com/wesbild-1371-mck...ancouver-sold/

[jollyburger]

Amazon expands footprint in Metro Vancouver with warehouse the size of nine football fields

Online retail giant Amazon has made a gigantic bet — the size of 9½ Canadian Football League fields — on its B.C. logistics chain with a new warehouse in Pitt Meadows that will serve as a hub for distribution operations in the Lower Mainland.

In Amazon parlance, the 825,000-square-foot facility on Airport Way and Harris Road, is a storage and distribution fulfilment centre, which fits in at the front end of its logistics chain, receiving and holding shipments of inventory from sellers that is then moved out to one of its four customer fulfilment centres within Metro Vancouver.

It’s staffed at the outset by a crew of 100, mostly associates, who are receiving truckloads of new inventory and stacking it on the rows of tightly spaced shelving that stretch half the length of the building.

Aruchamy said about half the space is being used now, but is slowly filling up. On a visit Friday morning, the quiet within the cavernous space was sporadically punctuated by horn honks on the battery-powered self pickers — stacking forklifts that lift up cage platforms for workers to put inventory on shelves.

The new warehouse, identified as YXX1 in Amazon’s system, is the first storage and distribution centre in B.C. in a location picked, in part, based on the company’s objective to “be closer to customers,” Aruchamy said.

Narrowing down the specific location is a formula that involves finding a site that is close enough to the customer fulfilment centres in Tsawwassen, Delta, Richmond and New Westminster that is also big enough to hold the inventory it needs to, Aruchamy said.

“There are multiple factors which goes into deciding how big a facility needs to be,” Aruchamy said. “We call it working backwards.”

Storage and distribution fulfilment

YXX1, 825,000 square feet, Pitt Meadows

Customer fulfilment centres

YXX2, 440,000 square feet, Richmond

YVR2, 190,000 square feet, Delta

YVR3, 580,000 square feet, New Westminster

YVR 4, 450,000 square feet, Tsawwassen

Sorting centres

Langley

AMXL Delivery stations

Langley

Delivery stations

Burnaby (2), Delta, Langley, Pitt Meadows

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...ootball-fields

[madog222]

Strange that their Richmond Blundell Rd location has a YXX designation.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by madog222

Strange that their Richmond Blundell Rd location has a YXX designation.

I think they were going to run out of YVR codes (1-9) and wanted to leave 8-9 in case they open any new locations closer to "Vancouver"?

There seem to be a bunch of other YVR not listed below?

YVR6 Burnaby North Fraser Way

https://tkad.ca/tkad-projects-honore...08532714843750

YVR7 Langley
https://www.grahambuilds.com/amazon-...llment-centre/

[jollyburger]

Washroom Dispute Brews At Marine Landing As Buyers Raise Concerns

According to an industry source familiar with the situation, after construction completed in April, strata unit purchasers were informed by the City that each unit is required to have its own washroom. Washrooms were not constructed for individual units and some buyers are now upset that they have to cover the additional cost. (The building does have large shared washrooms.)

Upon first glance, it may seem like the fault lies with the developer for not including washrooms, or with the City for approving the design despite washrooms not being part of the plan, but the greater story is more a lesson in due diligence and how buying commercial space works.

"Like most commercial buildings in Vancouver, 8232 Manitoba Street was constructed as 'shell' space under the Vancouver Building By-law, so that tenants can complete the interior construction to their own specifications," said the City of Vancouver in a statement provided to STOREYS. "As a result, a new tenant would need to apply for and obtain their own building permit to construct or finish the interior layout. The number and placement of washrooms are determined during the Tenant Improvement (TI) stage, based on how each strata lot is reconfigured. Because the final layout and occupancy of the space are unknown at the time of the base building construction, washroom requirements are assessed and addressed during the TI process."

The City added that the Vancouver Building By-law determines the amount of required washrooms based on the occupant load and not the size of the unit and that the developer "chose to defer installing washrooms within each unit to give tenants the flexibility to customize the shell space layout to suit their specific needs."

"I don't think it was ever contemplated that there would be 600-sq.-ft industrial units when they wrote the By-law," said Layden. "One piece of what we're doing is to spend some time with the City to see if we can get that modified a bit. But having said that, in all of our agreements, all of our communications, the purchase and sale agreement and the information sheet says that the buyer is supposed to do due diligence. And depending on the use, they would go to the City of Vancouver and confirm their use is available for what they're looking to do, so that's really on the purchaser, like with anything you buy. Our agreements say very clearly that we will deliver a shell unit to the purchaser, whether it's the industrial or office space."

https://storeys.com/marine-landing-w...ers-bathrooms/

[jollyburger]

Red Bull's new facility out in Chilliwack

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOtsyMpgZPP/?img_index=1

[jollyburger]

"There are two tracks to the market currently – it's the newer automation-ready, sustainable space, that's been delivered to the market over the last year, versus the older product," said Cameron Archer, director of sales and marketing with Orion Construction, a Langley-based industrial construction specialist.

Archer said they've seen new industrial spaces attracting users, while older space with lower ceiling heights, less adaptability and particularly – lower power capacity – is seeing less demand.

Orion is seeing most of its demand coming from clients seeking to design and build a tailored warehouse or factory or distribution centre for a tenant or themselves.

Over the past 10 years, those buildings could rely on TV and film production and basic storage to take space.

"A lot of studios were leasing pretty much any ... C-class building,” he said in an interview. “They thought they could put some type of studio in it, or use it for storage, for sets, et cetera, and with all the big streamers doing less production everywhere, including Metro Vancouver, a lot of those leases have rolled off and that space has come back to the market.”

Farrell agreed market conditions aren't giving developers and builders the confidence to build on spec: "There's a few here and there, but not really anything of scale, and they don't have the confidence."

As for the demand that remains, Archer said he is seeing manufacturers, food processors, pharma manufacturing and distribution companies that are port-related still snapping up space, especially the larger footprints.

There is currently 4.7 million square feet under construction across 40 projects and 50 per cent of that space is already spoken for, according to Avison Young. "That's off peak," Farrell said, noting that when the market "was full steam ahead," about 70 per cent of new builds were pre-leased or committed to.

Big picture, the industrial story in Vancouver is the same as it ever was, Farrell said: "There's a limited supply of industrial land in this market, so, even though it's down a little right now, there's a bright side to that for tenants."

Developers could start building again more quickly than some expect, he added. "I think this market will turn on a dime when conditions start to change," he said.

https://renx.ca/vancouver-industrial...ace-meet-needs

[officedweller]

Umm, ...?

City of Vancouver staff outline regional hurdles to new housing on protected industrial lands
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanc...anning-process


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanc...anning-process

[djmk]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Umm, ...?

City of Vancouver staff outline regional hurdles to new housing on protected industrial lands
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanc...anning-process


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanc...anning-process

On either side of that Marine Gateway, there are 3 golf courses that reside in the ALR. The two to the west are two private clubs (Point Grey and Marine) and to the east is Burnaby owned Riverway. Outside the ALR is Fraserview just to the east owned by Vancouver.

IMHO, these should be targeted for housing long before industrial lands especially the private courses on the underused ALR.

[officedweller]

Ultimately, the City is targeting industrial lands because it won't upset the NIMBYs because it's changing 'ugly' buildings to housing.

[logan5]

This part was interesting...

In South Vancouver’s Marine Gateway area, the situation is different. Portions of the district lie within 200 metres of SkyTrain stations, making them eligible for what White call the “Metro 200-metre clause” clause under the regional district’s Metro 2050 plan. This provision allows housing above job space on employment lands without full regional re-designation. The rezoning application for PCI Developments’ second phase of their Marine Gateway complex is already under this framework.

I had never seen this "Metro 200 meter clause" before. There's a few large industrial sites within 200 meters around VCC-Clark Station, and quite a bit of industrial around Rupert/Renfrew Stations, which is actually mostly big box retail stores, and not used for industrial purposes.

Around 50% of the large Rona site falls within 200 meters of Renfrew Station, and around 25% of the Canadian Superstore site falls within 200 meters of Rupert Station, so I wonder what the rule is regarding that.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by logan5

This part was interesting...



I had never seen this "Metro 200 meter clause" before. There's a few large industrial sites within 200 meters around VCC-Clark Station, and quite a bit of industrial around Rupert/Renfrew Stations, which is actually mostly big box retail stores, and not used for industrial purposes.

Around 50% of the large Rona site falls within 200 meters of Renfrew Station, and around 25% of the Canadian Superstore site falls within 200 meters of Rupert Station, so I wonder what the rule is regarding that.

Part of Metro 2050. If I remember it was most recently "used" by the City for the Rogers van lot by VCC when they allowed residential use in the Broadway Plan, as it's also within an "urban centre" (Metro Core, I think?).

For instance, I don't think the industrial by Production Way or Lake City would qualify, but I can't recall if it's in the frequent transit area (the other qualifier).

It allows a City to more easily request to Metro to get rid of employment only zones (my very basic recalling of this).

[madog222]

Originally Posted by logan5

This part was interesting...



I had never seen this "Metro 200 meter clause" before. There's a few large industrial sites within 200 meters around VCC-Clark Station, and quite a bit of industrial around Rupert/Renfrew Stations, which is actually mostly big box retail stores, and not used for industrial purposes.

Around 50% of the large Rona site falls within 200 meters of Renfrew Station, and around 25% of the Canadian Superstore site falls within 200 meters of Rupert Station, so I wonder what the rule is regarding that.

This applies to employment designated land, not industrial designated land. Both the Shaw site at VCC-Clark and Docksteader site at Marine Drive are designated employment, not industrial, under the Regional Growth Strategy.

[Migrant_Coconut]

So we're back to the Grand Bargain (at least until the election) now that we've run out of previous councils' projects to rubber-stamp? Bummer.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by madog222

This applies to employment designated land, not industrial designated land. Both the Shaw site at VCC-Clark and Docksteader site at Marine Drive are designated employment, not industrial, under the Regional Growth Strategy.

I thought "Industrial Lands" is a subset of Employment Lands, so industrial land is employment land?

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by logan5

I thought "Industrial Lands" is a subset of Employment Lands, so industrial land is employment land?

No, it's the other way round. If you look at Map 1 on page 10 of Vancouver’s Regional Context Statement Official Development Plan, , you can see that some of the industrial areas are designated 'industrial', and smaller parts (near transit, lighter blue), are designated as 'mixed employment'. Those are the areas where some residential might be contemplated, with commercial and industrial space also being provided. The 'industrial' parts don't have any basis for anything other than employment space, so something like Three-sixty on West 2nd where residential is proposed in the Mount Pleasant industrial area doesn't have any basis for approval by the City, unless Metro Vancouver's board agree that there's some reason to allow it.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by logan5

I thought "Industrial Lands" is a subset of Employment Lands, so industrial land is employment land?

They're separate under Metro Vancouver's designations, this is where this "200m rule" comes from, while CoV designates both as industrial under various different zoning schedules as shown in that map.

Here is Metro Vancouver's map: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewe...74902d7ce96297

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by logan5

I thought "Industrial Lands" is a subset of Employment Lands, so industrial land is employment land?

The graphic is really odd because about half of the blue area around Rupert-Renfrew are all CD-1 zones, and classified as Employment, not industrial at all