On the move, Part 1
Landa Global Properties Ltd.’s purchase of 3594 Main Street in September 2015 for $11.4 million is helping reconfigure the retail landscape of the city.
Construction of 45 apartments will begin at the site this summer. While coffee continues to flow at Bean Around the World on the corner, Burritt Bros. relocated its flooring business in August to the south foot of Fraser Street and Wesgroup Properties’ River District development. (Bean Around the World plans to close for construction and reopen when Landa completes construction.)
Burritt’s move heralds the expansion of the city core – not unlike its last move, in 1967, when many suppliers had showrooms on West Georgia.
“In 1967, [Main Street] felt far away from people who were downtown,” said Keith Donegani, Burritt vice-president.
But the new 8,000-square-foot location proved ideal, and, as the city grew, industrial suppliers left the core for cheaper digs – not unlike Burritt today.
“It was getting expensive, and of course they tax you on what your max build could be and not just what’s there,” Donegani said. “So for us in that little one-storey low-rise flat building, it was a bit of a burden.”
Burritt’s acquisition of Railtown carpet vendor Colin Campbell & Sons clinched the decision: together, the companies occupied approximately 16,000 square feet, and with leases both ending in 2016, consolidating premises made sense.
Cantu Bathrooms and Hardware Ltd., another inner-city refugee (its distinctive store was razed for Rize Alliance’s tower at Kingsway and Broadway), encouraged Burritt to consider River District.
“It ticked our boxes of staying in the city of Vancouver – that was very important to us and the brands – and the parking,” Donegani said.
Burritt’s lease of 25,500 square feet in a new 140,000-square-foot building from Glassman Group also suggests that redevelopment isn’t entirely displacing industrial activities in the River District.
“I think it’s kind of a struggle for the city as they try and retain this kind of industrial feel, but we took such a huge footprint so that we could do all of our warehousing there,” Donegani said.
On the move, Part 2
It’s not just businesses on the move. Research firm Insights West recently undertook a survey that suggests as many as half of B.C. residents expect to move in the next five years. The findings, for the local branding agency Resonance Consultancy, indicate that renters are most likely to move (seven in 10), while more than four in 10 homeowners are considering pulling up stakes.
But where to move to?
Homeowners who cash out will find buying pricey, as the latest RBC Economics housing affordability study indicates, while renters trying to get into the market will have to be well heeled to compete with those possessing equity. On an aggregate basis, RBC reports that a Vancouver home purchase now demands 92% of a household’s monthly income.
Nevertheless, Insights West found that three-quarters of those likely to move would do so within the same municipality or region. Of the others, three-quarters would move within B.C. Just 3.4% of survey respondents expect to leave B.C. altogether.
Commentary within Insights West’s survey hailed the desirability of B.C. as a place to live as the reason people remain where they are (rather than, say, inertia), but the authors of RBC’s affordability report see the bright prospects for multi-family units in Metro Vancouver as the chief attraction.
Housing unaffordability “entirely reflects sky-high prices for detached homes,” the RBC report states.
Housing might be expensive, but for those who want to change houses rather than municipalities, they’re willing to settle for location over space. •
