A new breed of industrial condo – tricked out with big windows, air conditioning and trendy interiors and selling for up to $1.5 million per unit – is emerging from Vancouver’s aging and shrinking industrial base.
Termed “yuppie industrial” by some, the first strata-industrial space being built in the city in five years allows technology and service companies to secure quality working space while riding Vancouver’s real estate boom, said Brent Sawchyn, a partner in PC Urban.
Sawchyn, who is currently retrofitting a derelict 20,000-square-foot south Vancouver warehouse into 170,000 square feet of trendy two-storey space, notes the city’s industrial real estate prices have increased by 90% in the past 10 years.
Vancouver’s industrial vacancy rate, meanwhile, has plunged to around 3%, its lowest level since 2008, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate agency.
PC Urban’s latest makeover project, the 4.5-acre IntraUrban Business Park, is in a seedy industrial enclave just south of the Southwest Marine Drive and Cambie Street Canada Line station, around which construction on 8,500 new homes is either underway or planned.
IntraUrban’s three buildings range between 44,000 and 69,000 square feet and include ground-floor industrial space with 22-foot-high ceilings and roll-up doors.
“This is the first project to revitalize industrial in the area in many years,” said Sawchyn. “The development community has been so focused on building condos [it has] led to the elimination of much needed industrial and commercial space, creating problems for small and medium businesses. [IntraUrban] will give those businesses the option to buy their own space within the city, rather than in the suburbs.”
Businesses and investors could be drawn to the project, according to CBRE commercial agent Chris MacCauley, because it’s currently the only new industrial strata in Vancouver or Richmond. He said it should appeal to high-tech, engineering, architecture, construction and wholesale businesses.
Investors might be drawn by the potential income: Vancouver industrial space leases for between $9 and $12 per square foot on an annual basis.
PC Urban is also refurbishing two old manufacturing sites in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant area into contemporary industrial and office space, which it is leasing to high-tech tenants.
IntraUrban is PC Urban’s first bid at selling rather than leasing industrial space, and the prices reflect the demand in a city with no other industrial construction underway.
IntraUrban ’s industrial condos will sell for between $299 and $314 per square foot, compared with a citywide average of $258 for older industrial space. Based on unit sizes, this translates to IntraUrban prices of $972,000 to $1.58 million per unit. •
