Concert Properties Ltd. is close to closing a deal with TransLink for a three-acre site on Quebec Street at East 1st Avenue in Vancouver.
Adjacent to the Olympic Village on False Creek, the site was released to the market last year as part of the sale of several surplus properties TransLink is selling to garner funds for a revolving land account that the transit authority will use to acquire properties for development.
Concert was unable to say more regarding the pending acquisition. The deal would give it a prime piece of property in an area where Wall Financial Corp., Pinnacle International and Onni, among other developers, are active.
The deal, and one for three acres adjacent to Brighouse Station in Richmond, will likely close by year’s end, said Phil Christie, vice-president, real estate, for TransLink. A site released at King Edward Station in Vancouver is also on the market, but Christie said bids are under review and no offers have gone firm.
Christie said that proceeds from the sales will fund the development of a 300-bus transit centre located on Tree Island in Richmond, a site TransLink acquired last year for more than $20 million.
The deal on Quebec Street will also enable TransLink to acquire a site in Vancouver for its new small-fleet centre, part of which operates at the old Oakridge bus barns.
“We’ve got a great deal on that, and that frees up a lot of money to pay for the new facility,” Christie said of the pending Quebec Street transaction.
Relocation of its community shuttle fleet and other small vehicles at a new location will in turn allow TransLink to sell the old Oakridge site.
Safeway Canada Ltd. is selling 42 acres adjacent to its milk plant in Burnaby to a residential developer. The grocer launched a calculated bid to sell the property on June 1 by circulating 40 to 50 information packages to interested parties. Safeway is also soliciting interest through a broad web-marketing initiative.
The property consists of four parcels on 11th Avenue and 18th Street with 580,000 square feet of warehouse space. It was Safeway’s former distribution centre for refrigerated goods across B.C. Portions of the site also hosted an ice cream plant and preserves line.
The warehouses have been vacant since February 2011 when Cold Logic Corp. succeeded Summit Logistics Inc. as Safeway’s refrigerated goods distributor. Cold Logic won the distribution contract last year and will handle the service from its warehouses on 200 Street in Langley. While some will decry the loss of yet another industrial property, residential development has been closing in. Burnaby has long intended the property for multifamily development, with all that’s required for it to happen now being the purchase and rezoning by a willing developer. Safeway has even drafted concept plans for how a redeveloped site might look.
“While they could be used, it’s fairly clear from the official community plan in Burnaby, which has been around since 1994 and has consistently called for multifamily on these lands, that they really are better suited to multifamily residential use,” explained Trevor Lee, senior real estate manager for Canada Safeway.
There is no closing date for bids or timeline for the transaction. Safeway will see what the market presents and govern itself accordingly. Lee, however, is optimistic.
“We’re in touch with the general development community, so we know the majority of those qualified,” he said, without naming names. “We’ve got a fairly substantial list.”
With all the acquisition activity by residential developers, the latest forecast of housing starts from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) is worth bearing in mind. The latest figures revise upward the last numbers issued by CMHC, with 16,000 housing starts forecast for Metro Vancouver in 2011.
The previous call was for 15,000 starts this year, but demand fuelled by low interest rates prompted the more bullish outlook.
The outlook for 2012 is even more rosy, with 17,500 starts expected in the Vancouver metropolitan area – a 9% rise over this year’s forecast.