Why Is Kerrisdale So Hot Right Now?

Kerrisdale's rebirth rages on, with an entire block of the affluent area on sale for $28M. (The only downside of owning the whole block: when there's a block party, you have to bring everything. Chips and salsa.)

HQ Real Estate Services' Mark Goodman tells us the property—home to an aging collection of co-op apartments—is set for a redevelopment that could include a four-storey condo and grocery store. The buildings (seen below) line the 6300 block of West Boulevard between W. 48th Ave. and W. 47th Ave. Mark has put several “physical offers” for the site in front of his client, and he's optimistic a deal will be done imminently. There's been interest in the retail space from grocers like Loblaws and Safeway, which would be well-received in an area currently lacking such offerings.

Kerrisdale is a redevelopment hotbed, as old rental and co-op stock is replaced by mixed-use projects in line with the city's intensification goals. This summer, two aging buildings—Bel Aire Apartments (below) at 6356 East Blvd., and Maple Grove Apartments at 6344 East Blvd.—sold for $5M each. (Like the 6300 block, these sites are zoned C-2, allowing for demolition and immediate redevelopment.) Mark's firm recently assembled a property at 49th and West Blvd. for Cressey Development Group, which is planning a mixed-use condo. “The entire area is changing,” he says. “In five years you're not going to recognize the corridor.”

There have been concerns that the sale and redevelopment of the 6300 block of West Boulevard will mean the loss of valuable rental apartments. But these were never rentals to begin with, Mark stresses; they were individually owned co-op units (whose sellers got on average $150k more than market value by giving them up as part of the property assembly). What's more, the new condo complex will include a greater number of residential units, with many bound for the rental pool. “So we're actually adding rental stock that wasn't there before,” says Mark.

Chilliwack: The Low-Cost Industrial Option

Given the soaring cost of industrial development, Colliers International SVP Malcolm Earle predicts more builders will be heading out Chilliwack way. The cost to acquire land, design, and build a typical 30k SF warehouse there is $5.2M, the lowest in the Lower Mainland, according to a study by Malcolm and his team (it costs $7.6M to build the same facility in Vancouver; $6.9M in Richmond). The price tag includes development charges and levies, plus property taxes. Malcolm tells us the city has available raw land along Highway 1 that's serviced and zoned; and it's offering a five-year property tax incentive.

Across Metro Vancouver (of which Chilliwack isn't a part), Surrey was the lowest-cost municipality, largely due to its mammoth Campbell Heights Business Park (above). Land costs in Surrey are the region's lowest, as are development and construction costs, and property taxes. Richmond has the highest DCCs, nearly quadruple those in Chilliwack for the same development. Considering the region-wide cost to develop a 30k SF facility increased a whopping 33% in just two years, Malcolm expects more industrial occupiers to stay put and retrofit existing facilities to accommodate growth. “They'll have to do more with less.”

How Deltaport Improved Its Flow

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt was among the luminaries at Deltaport Container Terminal last Friday to mark the official opening of the new $44M Roberts Bank Causeway overpass, a two-lane roadway that provides grade separation between the rail tracks and the Roberts Bank Causeway road, which runs adjacent to Deltaport. Begun in 2013 (it's shown above under construction), the project is aimed at improving the flow of inbound and outbound cargo at Deltaport, where industrial properties are at a premium. Deltaport is Canada's largest container terminal, handling 50% of all the containerized cargo that moves through the West Coast.