A Delta aboriginal band backed with Ontario pension funds is forging ahead with a giant warehouse project despite a glut of industrial space in the area.
Tsawwassen First Nation (TFN) will develop the first 57 acres at its Tsawwassen Gateway Logistics Centre, beginning with a 1.2 million square foot warehouse. TFN Economic Development Corporation (TEDC), working with Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Realty and GWL Realty Advisors, plans to have the new space complete by mid-2106.
The warehouse is the first of three projects that mark the start of TFN’s industrial development of 330 acres of former farmland the band acquired in an agreement with the federal and provincial governments in 2009. Port Metro Vancouver will build a new marine container examination facility on 11.4 acres, which will be manned by the Canada Border Services Agency and open in late 2016. The third project is a Chevron commercial truck fuelling station on a one-acre site. The facility will service trucks en route to the Roberts Bank port terminals.
The projects begin as Delta’s industrial vacancy rate has spiked to 8.6%, the highest in Metro Vancouver, after a rush of speculative development. In the past year, 1.1. million square feet of new Delta industrial space has been built and another 265,000 square feet is expected to complete by year-end.
Delta buildings larger than 100,000 square feet now make up 20% of all the vacant industrial space in the Lower Mainland, according to a survey by Colliers International. “Delta landlords are struggling to fill vacant space in a slow leasing environment,” Colliers notes.
TEDC, however, appears confident.
“These first three developments in our 330-acre Tsawwassen Gateway Logistics Centre are key to delivering on our mandate to create developments and partnerships that will generate revenues, and provide skills, training and employment opportunities for our [band] members,” said Chris Hartman, CEO of TEDC.
