Delta landowners and developers who stand to gain from better access to Richmond and Vancouver are applauding the British Columbia government's commitment to build a bridge to replace the 54-year-old George Massey Tunnel.
"The whole real estate picture south of the Fraser River for residential, industrial and commercial properties has been dramatically changed for the better with the announcement of the new bridge," said Century Group CEO Sean Hodgins.
Construction of the bridge is slated to start in 2017.
Century Group owns 538 acres of land in Delta's Southlands district that it wants to redevelop by building 950 homes on 105 acres and ceding the remaining 433 to the Corporation of Delta for agriculture or forest. Its rezoning proposal was set to go before council later in October.
Aside from landowners, the Delta and Tsawwassen First Nation municipal governments will benefit because their tax rates for services are often based on land values, said retail developer and Property Development Group (PDG) chairman Lawrence Rank.
PDG is building part of what is set to be B.C.'s largest shopping complex when it opens in 2015: the 1.2-million-square-foot Tsawwassen Mills mall by Ivanhoe Cambridge and PDG's 600,000-square-foot adjacent outdoor Tsawwassen Commons mall.
