Safeway Canada Ltd.’s former distribution centre for refrigerated goods is a step closer to being sold.
Safeway spokeswoman Betty Kelsey said the grocer stopped accepting bids for the 42-acre property on 11th Avenue and 18th Street in Burnaby in early July. She was unable to give additional information, pending a final decision regarding the property by Safeway.
The project was marketed to developers. Safeway’s vision is for the successful bidder to take the site through the rezoning process required to transform the property. The city wants multi-family development on the property, and Safeway has drafted concept plans for how the site might look.
Safeway, which continues to operate a milk plant adjacent to the site, is in the food business and didn’t want to pursue redevelopment itself. It had 40 to 50 packages ready to go when its sales effort began at the start of June, and by all accounts had a strong enough response that it was able to close bidding just a month later.
What the final sale price might be is hard to guess. Safeway isn’t giving hints, and RealNet Canada Inc. notes that appropriate comparables are difficult to obtain. Safeway’s site is large, and allowable density is also a factor in the equation. The best information to date suggests something in the range of $55 to $90 a buildable square foot in some parts of Burnaby this year, but the scale of the sites and the kind of development possible support the old caveat that past performance isn’t a guarantee of future results.
Whatever deal Safeway strikes for the site, it’s sure to be of interest to observers.
Speaking of density, its value is indeed worth haggling over – especially when it comes to offices.
Vancouver, no stranger to wrestling with the right balance between residential and non-residential development in its urban core – which the city defines as the area north of 16th Avenue between Clark Drive and Burrard Street, and including the downtown peninsula – has helped set the pace for calculations.
It’s come to favour higher office densities downtown to accommodate jobs for the area’s growing residential population. So, when Reliance Properties Ltd. and the Pattison Group unveiled plans for 190,000 square feet of office space as part of their Burrard Gateway project in the 1200-block of Burrard Street, Vancouver director of planning Brent Toderian was pleased as punch.
The commitment to build office space on the site was a sign that city policies were helping make office space an attractive option for developers.
“We’re quite pleased with the very strong interest we’re seeing in stand-alone office projects as well as mixed-use projects that include office,” Toderian said at the time. “Both ... are telling us that office construction is very viable right now.”
But developers still need a helping hand, if the recent experience of the Onni Group on the False Creek Flats is indicative. Its rezoning for Central in the 1500-block of Main Street saw density for the 90,000 square feet of office space in the project valued at zero by the city.
“The city was interested in having job space in that location,” said Beau Jarvis, vice-president, development, for Onni, “and we were interested in building it, but we weren’t interested in paying for the density.”
The give-away reduces the risk to Onni of having to carry the space until it’s leased while giving the city the job space it wants, Jarvis said. He added that Onni will likely take a similar approach in its dealings with North Vancouver, which would like to see office space as part of a mixed-use development Onni plans for the Safeway site at Lonsdale and 13th Street.
“The fact that we are willing to go and build office [space] should be considered the amenity or the bonus itself.”
A new branch for Coast Capital Savings Credit Union might not sound like big news, but it marks the first opening of a branch since the collapse of financial markets in 2008.
Three years ago, the Surrey-based credit union planned to expand its retail banking business at the rate of two branches a year. The recession nixed those plans, but it now expects to hang its shingle at 845 Marine Drive in North Vancouver by the end of this year.
Herb Jamieson, vice-president responsible for branch location and real estate with Coast Capital, said retail banking is undergoing a revival. While online services have grown, institutions are recognizing that some services are simply better delivered in person. Banks have invested in streetfront locations after years of paring back, and Coast Capital is now doing the same.
It’s also regularly invested in redesigns of its branches, with Omicron handling the implementation of the customer-friendly Aperio format at locations across the province. Coast Capital’s location at Victoria’s Bay Centre is the latest branch to be decked out in the style. Branch renovations cost approximately $1 million per location, but Jamieson said they’re worthwhile.
The new location in North Vancouver will be 3,400 square feet and sport the Aperio colours, as well as enjoying proximity to major retailer such as Thrifty Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond. Jamieson expects expansion to resume in full force in 2012.
“We are looking for additional locations,” he said. “The plan is to get back on our cycle of two or more [openings] a year.”