A construction boom around SkyTrain stations is providing opportunities for business owners to reduce carbon footprints while boosting recruitment and retention.
Ready access to rapid transit encourages employees to leave cars at home, which makes it easier for businesses to become carbon neutral and reap the bottom-line benefits of advertising that fact.
Because it would be Vancouver’s tallest tower outside the downtown core, PCI Group’s Marine Landing project is the highest-profile development that has been proposed near a SkyTrain station.
PCI executives envision building two towers (one 24 storeys and one 33 storeys for a combined total of 825,000 square feet) near the Marine Drive SkyTrain station.
The project, which would create an estimated 2,000 jobs, overshadows other ambitious proposed developments along the decade-old Millennium Line, including:
- Wesgroup’s plan to build up to 750 homes while providing office space and a 30,000-square-foot Thrifty Foods grocery store on a nine-acre “Brewery District” site near New Westminster’s Sapperton station;
- Bentall Kennedy LP’s plan to develop two 200,000-square-foot office buildings on part of its 38-acre site surrounding the Braid station; and
- Bentall Kennedy’s plan to build five towers that contain 900,000 square feet of space east of Broadway Tech Centre by the Renfrew station. The technology complex has seven buildings that Bentall Kennedy has already completed.
“We’re the most prolific office developer in Vancouver and the most prolific developer along the SkyTrain line,” said Tony Astles, Bentall Kennedy executive vice-president.
He pointed to decades-old construction of the Bentall Centre and its access directly to Burrard Station as proof that his company has long been a leader in providing workplaces and commercial space accessible to SkyTrain.
Astles’ company manages 15.9 million square feet of real estate on behalf of pension funds and other clients. It’s B.C.’s largest property manager.
Bentall Kennedy’s most recent incarnation took shape in December, when Bentall LP and Kennedy Associates Real Estate Counsel LP merged.
Current Bentall Kennedy construction includes a 180,000-square-foot HSBC Bank Canada building ready for delivery in 2012 near the Broadway Tech Centre by Renfew station.
“Placing job space near rapid transit stations is not only a more sustainable approach to development,” Astles said.
“Employers are looking to locate their office space near rapid transit because it’s more attractive to future employees, it helps retain current employees and it reduces costs while being a sustainable measure that reduces hassle and time.”
A recent land swap has Bentall Kennedy poised to build a landmark building, which could be one of Vancouver’s tallest structures, a couple of blocks from the Burrard station.
Bentall Kennedy secured ownership of a 0.73-acre site at the corner of West Pender and Thurlow streets after it agreed to a transaction with West Pender Property Group.
Bentall bought the corner building at 1090 West Pender Street on behalf of client Westpen Funds in exchange for $19.5 million and a 50% stake in the mid-block 1050 West Pender Street structure, which Bentall Kennedy’s client previously fully owned.
“We now control from 1050 West Pender Street all the way to the corner,” Astles said.
He added that Bentall aims to rezone the property for a potential new office building but, because of the leases in the building that the company acquired, the plan could take some time to realize.
Instead of developing its usual industrial or commercial projects, Beedie Group is gearing up to build condominium towers on land it owns near Main Street station, said Houtan Rafii, vice-president of residential development.
Beedie’s first project is slated to be on East Second Avenue, between Main and Quebec streets, where the Vancouver Playhouse’s corporate office sits.
Rafii plans to start pre-sales for that site in early 2012.
By 2014, Rafii said Beedie Group should be ready to market presales for a residential tower between Main and Quebec streets on a site where a Burger King has been serving fast food for decades.
Next door, Onni plans to build its Central residential and office development that will have two 10-storey towers and an eight-storey skybridge.
Bentall Kennedy’s even more ambitious development plans involve partnering with Anthem Properties Group Ltd. to build five towers at Station Square near Metrotown Station.