Real estate roundup: Peter Mitham
Abbotsford International Airport development rapidly gaining altitude
Meanwhile, down on the farm: land continues to draw growing buyer interest
Airport overhaul
Development around the Abbotsford International Airport is taking off.
A new exit off Highway 1 and completion of improvements to Mount Lehman Road has paved the way for a variety of light industrial businesses to set up shop just north of Abbotsford airport.
An example is Airport North Business Park at Mount Lehman Road and South Fraser Way, which welcomed its first tenants last fall.
Its initial, 41,000-square-foot building is 75% leased, and a second building is fully occupied. A third building is set to complete within the next month, bringing the park’s finished space to 88,000 square feet.
A handful of inquiries Ken Neufeld, a broker with Royal LePage Fraser Valley Realty Ltd., is currently fielding could result in all three buildings being fully leased, setting the stage for additional construction.
Tenants include local, national and international companies, Neufeld said, with the project’s location in a popular light industrial area being a prime draw.
For example, Abbotsford’s Towne Millwork Ltd. leased 6,000 square feet in the park because it’s across the street from its existing facility and was a convenient option. West Coast Machinery Ltd., on the other hand, moved its truck retrofitting business from Langley’s Gloucester Industrial Estates because Airport North could raise its profile.
“I think what they liked was the exposure we’ve given them here, and they wanted the size,” Neufeld said. “They could get the size there, but they couldn’t get the exposure.”
West Coast has more than 16,000 square feet of office space in Airport North, a step up from the 7,000 square feet it had in Gloucester.
Meanwhile, Fraserway RV Limited Partnership is consolidating its three Abbotsford locations on an 11-acre site adjacent to Airport North.
The activity points to steady demand in the Abbotsford market. Vacancies for Abbotsford industrial properties sit at 1.7%, according to Cushman & Wakefield LePage. That’s up marginally from 1.6% a year ago, despite the addition of approximately 250,000 square feet in last year’s third quarter that brought Abbotsford’s total industrial inventory to 6.5 million square feet.
Developed by Mt. Lehman Holdings Ltd., Airport North Business Park will have 300,000 square feet of space when complete. Mt. Lehman also has plans for a 15-acre site located to the east of the airport. Its holdings in the area have attracted the attention of Toronto pension fund manager GPM Management Services, which holds a half interest in Airport North.
Blueberry crumble
Buzz among blueberry growers at the recent Pacific Agriculture Show in Abbotsford had a blue hue, as prospects for the province’s star crop were discussed.
With production poised to top 75 million pounds this year, Will van Baalen, executive director of the B.C. Blueberry Council, said there’s “quite a caution out regarding over-planting in blueberries.” There are upwards of 20,000 acres in blueberry production across the province, much of it in the Fraser Valley.
The caution has hit demand for acreages suitable for blueberries, which drove a surge in agricultural land values in the Fraser Valley during the first half of this decade. But recent appreciation in land values hasn’t been quite as strong.
The semi-annual survey of farm land values from Farm Credit Canada reports that B.C. saw an average 3.7% gain in the first half of 2007. That’s down from the double-digit increase reported in 2006, even as buyers continue to show interest in properties.
This spring is proving to be the busiest in five years for Gord Houweling, a broker with B.C. Farm and Ranch Realty Corp. in Abbotsford, but he doesn’t expect sellers to achieve the prices buyers were willing to pay in previous seasons.
“I don’t think we’re going to see values climb the way they climbed in the last three years,” he said. “We’re hitting the upper end on some of the land, not all of it, but some of it, where you wonder if it makes sense to buy it and plant blueberries.”
While berry acreages are selling for between $30,000 and $40,000 an acre in Mission, per-acre prices in Matsqui are closer to $75,000 and in some areas have hit upwards of $100,000.
“It starts not to make sense anymore when you start getting those high numbers,” Houweling said.
But he noted that it’s not just the agricultural potential of land buoying interest.
For example, the property that’s drawing offers of $100,000 an acre boasts views of Mount Baker, he said. That boosts the site’s residential potential and, in turn, the value of the acreage designated for crops.
“It’s not just the blueberries. It’s the location and this desire to live out in the country,” said Houweling of buyers’ motivations. “They’re prepared to pay the numbers because they have the wherewithal to do that. … There’s a lot of people who just want to get out to the country.”
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