Game for space
A wrangle with some particularly malevolent malware last week turned this columnist's mind to Vancouver's tech scene, where there's legitimate business being done in the software sector (and yeah, probably some of the illegitimate stuff, too).
Statistics out of Victoria peg the province’s “digital and screen-based media” sector at 16,000 employees across more than 600 companies with collective revenue of approximately $2.3 billion.
The numbers sound good, but layoffs at several companies this year have also prompted the return of tech space to the Vancouver market – good news for those companies seeking space.
Slant Six Games, which saw success with its Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City game for Japanese publisher Capcom, laid off a quarter of its 96-strong staff in June pending new work. Capcom itself laid off 20 staff just a week prior to Microsoft’s announcement two weeks ago that 35 of its programmers were being let go. Meanwhile, Rockstar Games is shutting its offices at 858 Beatty Street for Toronto and veteran game developer Radical Entertainment Inc. is shutting down altogether.
And let’s not forget Ubisoft Inc., which Avison Young notes in its latest report on the Metro Vancouver office market,
returned 18,590 square feet at 840 Cambie Street, one of
“several large-block opportunities” available in Yaletown.
So, in hard times, who’s taking space?
Big Park Inc., for one, which leased close to 36,000 square feet at 858 Beatty Street, cutting the availability factor for class-A space in Yaletown (as estimated by Avison Young) by approximately half. Also in Yaletown, Relic Entertainment leased 10,579 square feet at 1040 Hamilton Street. Overall, office vacancies now stand at 4.7%, up from 4.3% the end of 2011 but on track to decline to just 2.4% for the year.
Meanwhile, south of False Creek, Alea Software Inc. renewed on 11,300 square feet at 1401 West 8th Avenue.
Affordable ideas
Reviewing the jury selections from Vancouver's recent re:Think Housing competition, it was hard not to recall the Townshift competition Surrey hosted in 2009. Surrey, seeking ideas and visions for redefining elements of five of its neighbourhoods, hosted what co- organizer Trevor Boddy called "a consultation of images" where people could provide images of the future rather than verbal suggestions.
The competition in Vancouver took a more formal approach, requiring both visual and textual expressions of contributors’ ideas, but it nevertheless sought to open a public discussion of what affordable housing could look like in the city. While the Urban Development Institute launched its “More Homes for More People” dialogue last year, re:Think Housing garnered 70 entries from around the world and more than 8,000 votes for the various submissions over a two-week period in July.
The jury’s winners included Ian McDonald, who proposed regulatory reform “to allow a more nimble approach to property ownership”; Christina DeMarco, Ted Sebastian and Charles Dobson, who suggested converting underused streets into 10,000 residential building lots; and Andrew Neuman’s vision for “community-centred, performance-based lot patterns … organized around shared energy and resources.”
The jury did not name a winner in the category “Building Bold: Private,” leaving it to the people, who chose the vision of Theodore Lim and Stephanie Liou.
By suggesting a model that concentrates housing around even low-density transit nodes, Lim and Liou offer an organic model for the densification of existing neighbourhoods (without reducing street capacity). It may well be one of the most sensitive proposals for introducing affordable housing to Vancouver, echoing patterns of development found in many of the continent’s oldest cities.
The winning submissions from re:Think will be part of the final report the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability will present to Vancouver city council this fall.
Malone's for sale
A gritty landmark that seems out of place amid the glitzy downtown towers is up for sale.
Malone's at the corner of Pender and Seymour, operated since 1996 by Clarence Hotel Ltd., is listed with Corbel Commercial Inc. agents Robert Tham and Marc Saul for $8.5 million. The property includes the 40-room Cambie (Seymour) Hostel, as well as the 125-seat restaurant and 150-seat pub.
Tham said the property has attracted significant interest from owner-operators, who see good long-term potential in the downtown landmark, which was expanded six years ago.
The three-story property is also marketed as a redevelopment opportunity, but Tham said buyers are more keen on its operating potential than new construction.
