Two new buildings are testing users’ desire to own or lease downtown Vancouver office space.
The acquisition of 60,000 square feet at the Offices at Hotel Georgia by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. has broker Avison Young suggesting that strata space is as much in vogue downtown as elsewhere in the Lower Mainland.
“The transaction may signal a trend for downtown office users to acquire their own space,” said Michael Keenan, managing director of the Vancouver office and senior vice-president of Avison Young.
Historically low interest rates and rising lease rates (compounded by the HST, which applies to commercial rents) are factors prompting users to consider buying space.
Susan Prins, communications director for the college, said the college has been hoping to buy space since 2002, when it recognized that it was outgrowing its former premises at 1807 West 10th Avenue. It has been leasing space at 858 Beatty Street, but the introduction of the HST lent extra impetus to its quest. The college doesn’t charge HST on licensing fees, its main source of income, and so is unable to offset the HST it pays on rent.
The college considered 24 buildings in Vancouver and Burnaby before settling on the Offices at the Hotel Georgia. The premises will house offices and the college’s library, and ownership will help keep licensing fees lower rather than have them rise to cover rent and taxes.
Terms of the deal, which closed June 3, weren’t disclosed. The college is now the majority owner in the project’s office component, which totals 71,500 square feet.
Bosa Properties Inc. isn’t being swayed by the factors in favour of strata sales, however.
Strata space at Jameson House on West Hastings that was formerly offered for sale is now listed for lease with Cushman & Wakefield Ltd. The property has 58,000 square feet of office space, of which approximately 43,800 square feet is available for lease. Bosa will be moving its offices to the remainder.
Bosa president Greg Tylee and Daryl Simpson, the company’s vice-president, sales and marketing, were both unavailable last week for comment on Bosa’s reasons for leasing rather than selling the space.
Word of the historic Hollywood Theatre’s sale and probable closure has been circulating for months. Now, the West Broadway landmark has indeed closed with the conclusion of the property’s sale to Dino Bonnis, whose Bonnis Properties Inc. is an active investor on the West Side. RealNet Canada data indicates the deal closed May 30 for $2.9 million.
The theatre was built in 1935. Last fall, founding owners the Fairleigh family hosted a 75th birthday party at the Hollywood that included a rousing rendition of “God Save the King” – for George V, of course, the man whose bearded visage adorned Canada’s coinage at the time the theatre opened.
There are no concrete plans for the property at this time.
May became June, and this columnist took the opportunity between other endeavours to slip in at the back of a couple of presentations discussing Vancouver’s urban fabric.
SFU’s City Program welcomed Elizabeth Macdonald, professor of Urban Design at the University of California-Berkeley on May 30 as part of an evening the city co-hosted to discuss the potential for Broadway to become a “Really Good” street and even a “Great Street” (yes, the capitalization was in the original announcement).
Macdonald’s philosophy was that streets must be flexible and open to a variety of traffic types. Pedestrians should be comfortable using all streets, but other uses should be mixed such that thoroughfares are places to drive through and places to be.
She expounded a vision of streets where, “nobody gets everything they want, but everybody gets a lot.”
No surprise, then that she was happy with “the wonderful experiment” the city has been conducting with separated bike lanes on Hornby and Dunsmuir streets.
“We know it’s been controversial in the city, but we would really applaud it,” she said. “We understand there’s a lot of more who feel comfortable getting on their bikes.”
Bikes were also the pride of presentations to the local Urban Land Institute chapter on June 2 exploring land-use scenarios through 2050.
Ken Greenberg, principal of Toronto’s Greenberg Consultants, acknowledged the debate in Vancouver around bike lanes while hoping that kids might one day ride bicycles to school again. “We’ll still have real vehicles, but they will occupy a very different place in the hierarchy,” he said of cities in 2050.
Vancouver planning director Brent Toderian rounded out the presentations to ULI by noting that bike lanes are key to transportation into Vancouver’s downtown. Toderian said lanes for bicycling, which is second to walking in the downtown transportation plan, are “an incredibly strategic choice” for moving people quickly and greenly through the city.