The potential that First Nations bands could one day have fee-simple rights – the ability to buy and sell real estate – is still working its way through the federal First Nations Property Ownership Initiative, but many British Columbia bands are already freeing themselves from the constraints of the Indian Act and traditional municipal planning.
A willingness to do business is driving much of the activity. While municipalities run out of zoned land, First Nations are entering partnerships that are serving the residents of communities that haven’t kept pace with land demand.
A tight market along Harvey Avenue, the key retail strip in Kelowna, for example, drove Vancouver’s Anthem Properties Group across Okanagan Lake to Westbank.
While the town of Westbank – now West Kelowna – was an option, Anthem was welcomed by the Westbank First Nation. Just outside the limits of West Kelowna, Westbank’s land sits close enough to the Coquihalla connector route to accommodate developments serving both the southern Okanagan and the Nicola Valley, a 90-minute drive south.
“Westbank First Nation is very progressive, they have their own self-government and are very business-friendly,” said Stuart Kerr, development director for Anthem.
Part of its million-square-foot Governor’s Landing retail development, Anthem expects to open Governor’s Market in April 2011 and is proceeding with Snyatán, a joint venture with Westbank First Nation anchored by Winners and Future Shop, with Peace Hills Trust and other retailers set to open in 2011.
While among the most developer-friendly of Okanagan bands, Westbank First Nation’s projects are driven by a self-government agreement that gives them the rights, powers, responsibilities and privileges of an owner.
While still subject to the Indian Act – title to the lands remains with the Crown – self-government effectively allows the Westbank First Nation to act independent of Ottawa. Additions to its real estate holdings, however, are subject to the act and are accounted as part of its reserve.
Still, Westbank’s flexibility has made it a key member of the Okanagan Nation Alliance, which also includes the Osoyoos Indian Band and four other bands in the southern Interior. Together, the alliance’s members have more than $3 billion in development planned.
Osoyoos Chief Clarence Louie has been the poster boy for entrepreneurship through deals with vintner Vincor Canada and Calgary-based Bellstar Hotels and Resorts Ltd., which manages the Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa. An eco-industrial park is also planned.
The Penticton Indian Band plans a mix of residential, commercial and light industrial uses on 550 acres of its land. The Okanagan Indian Band near Vernon is also investigating the potential for industrial development.
Similar development is on the go in the Lower Mainland, with a key player in many of the projects being Property Development Group (PDG). The Vancouver company is also working with Westbank First Nation to develop West Kelowna Landing. Construction on the 22-acre retail and entertainment centre is set to start in February and be completed in spring 2012.
Its projects include a partnership with Chilliwack’s Squiala First Nation and League Assets Corp. of Victoria that includes a 700,000-square-foot shopping centre on a 50-acre site adjacent to Highway 1. Anchor tenants in the Eagle Landing shopping centre include Cineplex Odeon and Wal-Mart.
In Vancouver, meanwhile, the Squamish Band has unveiled plans to build at least two residential towers on land it owns at the south end of the Burrard Bridge near downtown. The band said the towers could be a mix of band housing and market condominiums.
PDG is also working with the Tsawwassen First Nation to develop a million-square-foot retail complex on a portion of the lands the Tsawwassen received as part of its treaty settlement with the province.
The deals give PDG access to non-agricultural land in prime locations for development, a rarity in the lush Fraser Valley. The ease of doing business with development-oriented bands hasn’t been affected by the Tsawwassen’s governance model.
An integral municipal entity within Metro Vancouver, Tsawwassen First Nation has direct control over its land holdings, unlike self-governing bands in the province that are still governed by the Indian Act. But it’s the willingness to do business that makes the difference, said Keith McRae, a partner and director of acquisitions and development with PDG.
One of the key incentives for First Nations partnering with developers is the job opportunities. Retail is one good example. TFN Economic Development Corp. estimates the number of ongoing jobs at the PDG project at between 1,500 and 2,000 full- and part-time positions, many earmarked for natives.
Those jobs provide an incentive to get development started – a point on which TFN CEO Chris Hartman said a self-governing First Nation can be competitive against surrounding municipalities.
The prompt striking of the retail development deal in the first year after the TFN treaty’s effective date in April 2009 is an example, and swift progress toward development of the initial 100 acres of industrial property promises to be another. TFN received federal stimulus funding to service its industrial property to ensure developers could get started immediately on the approval of their development applications. Hartman said Tsawwassen has a short list of two developers queued for its industrial sites.
More recently, residential developers have begun to move in, and are working with First Nation members who, under the Indian Act, held certificates of possession for land.
While the opportunities may appear fresh, they’re the kind First Nations have awaited for years.
While bands have been land-rich, they’ve lacked the means to make use of the land reserved for them until recently.
And, with various forms of settlements, self-governance land codes and the potential for greater property rights under the First Nations Property Ownership Initiative (which would free registered First Nations members from many of the constraints of the Indian Act, but not the act itself), the opportunities promise to increase.