A landmark agreement between Canada’s second-largest pension fund and a tiny aboriginal band not only topped Business in Vancouver’s list of the biggest real estate deals for 2014 in B.C. but is also the biggest non-resource agreement ever inked by a First Nation in British Columbia.
And it did not involve a land sale.
“I think it is the biggest single deal for any First Nations in the province, certainly in the Lower Mainland,” said Chris Hartman, CEO of the Tsawwassen First Nation (TFN) Economic Development Corp.
In January 2014, the 450-member TFN leased 108 acres of its land for 99 years to Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of giant Quebec pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
The former farmland is part of a 2009 treaty agreement with the province that removed 511.5 acres from the Agricultural Land Reserve and transferred it to the TFN.
Ivanhoé Cambridge is spending $600 million to build the biggest enclosed shopping mall under construction in Canada, along with a 76-acre parking lot for 6,000 cars.
“This is one of the largest retail projects in British Columbia history,” said Jeff Brown, director of development for Ivanhoé Cambridge, as he took a BIV reporter on a tour of the sprawling site near the Tsawwassen ferry terminal in South Delta.
The roof alone will cover 32 acres of the first enclosed shopping mall built in B.C. since 1988. When it opens in mid-2016, an interior stroll through the mall’s five First Nation-themed shopping districts will cover nearly a mile and half.
Construction of the 1.4-million-square-foot centre will require 4,500 workers, and another 3,000 will work in the complex when it completes as B.C.’s second-biggest shopping mall.
Hartman, citing confidentiality agreements, refused to comment on reports that the lease agreement does not include a TFN share in the mall’s future income. However, he said he is proud of what the TFN has accomplished.
“The number of job opportunities exceeds the number of members we will ever have,” Hartman said, adding, “I think [the TFN] has become a major player in the economy of the Lower Mainland.”
Ivanhoé Cambridge owns 32 Canadian shopping centres, including the Metrotown mall in Burnaby – B.C.’s biggest shopping centre – and CrossIron Mills in Calgary, which is the template for Tsawwassen Mills.
U.S.-based Bass Pro Shops has committed to 145,000 square feet at Tsawwassen Mills, but Brown said a full list of the other 16 anchor tenants has not yet been released.
Walmart, Rona, Canadian Tire and PetSmart are among tenants booked into the adjacent $150 million Tsawwassen Commons, a 550,000-square-foot mall that is being simultaneously developed by Vancouver-based Property Development Group. •
