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Metro Vancouver's largest spec development has officially opened its doors, despite the fact that leasing action was “eerily quiet” during the winter months. (In its defense, we ignore a lot of things that happen in the winter, like us promising to never live in Vancouver again.)  That quiet is changing, CBRE's Chris MacCauley tells us. Boundary Bay Building One just opened its doors to Apps Cargo, the logistics company that took 110k SF of the 450k SF of available space. Construction on Building Two—also 450k SF—is slated to start this summer. “Leasing activity really picked up over the last two weeks,” Chris says. “Several groups are looking but nothing firm yet.”  The project, located in South Delta, close to the new South Fraser Perimeter Road (four-lane trucking transportation route that opened in December), is the first spec project with 36-feet ceiling heights. (Will this convince the Grizzlies to come back?) Building One has 78 dock-height loading positions. The project is also in close to Deltaport, Canada's largest container terminal. |
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Battle Of The Landlords Landlords in existing prime office towers have had to get creative to combat rising vacancy as new product comes along, according to Colliers. During the first quarter, the region's vacancy reached 8.7%—1.5% higher than last year. Landlords are looking to incentivize tenants to get them to renew more quickly, Colliers Alexander Changfoot tells us, snapped with colleague Owen Louis. (Our librarian gets us to renew with guilt-inducing stares when she sees our bookmark is only on page 5.)  Here is the common tactics for landlords, according to Alexander: free rent (either net, with the tenant paying operating costs and taxes, or gross); TI allowances (allowing the tenant to build out their space). Renovations to the lobby, upgrading elevators, and creating more communal space are also typical methods. Upcoming new supply in the core includes the MNP Tower on W Hastings St (270k SF), Telus Garden on W Georgia St (450k SF), 745 Thurlow St (365k SF), Manulife Building on Howe St (image, 250k F), The Exchange on Howe St (400k SF), and 725 Granville St (280k SF). |
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Mixed Opinion On The Market |
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 Cushman & Wakefield SVP Mark Chambers remains upbeat about where the office market is heading, despite mixed opinions during a panel where he was one of the presenters at last week's NAIOP Breakfast Meeting at the Fairmont Waterfront. “A lot of people simplistically look at it and say there's a bunch of product coming along, so there will be tons of supply out there. I don't think you will see nearly as much supply.” |
 Also at the event, we snapped Counterpoint Interiors' Lori Therres and Valentina Crobu, and Dorma Canada's Julie Ireton. Mark tells us about a trip he took to San Francisco last summer where he got an education on creative renovations to older, stale, low-A, high-B buildings. “The inside of some of these buildings look completely different,” he says. “They tore the T-Bar ceiling out of the buildings, the lobbies look almost like slick, W Hotel-style.” Lots of the technology companies are gravitating to that type of product. “You never would have pictured some of these tech guys in these old 1970s buildings, but they look great.” As office product comes on board, this is a solution for the older buildings, to stay competitive, Mark says. |
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Calling All ReportersWe're looking for the Bisnow face of Canada (and it doesn't have to be as beautiful as Ryan Gosling's or Rachel McAdams'). We're in need of a Vancouver/Toronto commercial real estate reporter, with a strong journalism background and a passion for writing. You have the gift for delivering groundbreaking real estate news in our breezy but super-informative manner. You live to break stories, work a beat, travel, uncover market trends, and rub elbows with the most powerful people in the industry. Send your journalism-oriented resume to: matt.black@bisnow.com. |
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