Almost fully leased Anvil Centre is reason for optimism in New West

The owners of the Anvil Centre office tower in New Westminster say the building is now almost fully leased.

Co-owner Suki Sekhon said recently that the 12-storey building is now 93 per cent leased, including a multi-floor deal with Douglas College.

Completed in 2014 without prelease agreements, the Anvil Centre Office Tower is a 137,000-squarefoot building at Columbia and Eighth streets originally developed by the city of New West. The office building sits atop the cityowned Anvil Conference Centre building.

The city eventually sold the office component to 777 Columbia for $36.5 million. Kingswood Capital and CRS Group of Companies jointly own 777 Columbia, which is also the address of the building.

Sekhon, president of CRS Group, said in 2014 that he expected the building to be fully leased by 2015.

“I don’t know if it was a delay or not,” he said in an interview, when asked about the slow lease-up. “We could have leased it up probably before that. We have had offers of like 4,000- or 5,000-, 8,000-, 9,000- square-foot tenants. But it’s hard . ... You kind of have to start with a large tenant and then build your way around it.”

He said they were always willing to be patient and are happy with the results.

Sekhon said B.C. Land Titles also took space in the building. Other notable tenants include B.C. Lottery, administration firm Aerotek, and the Century Group, a development company.

Cushman and Wakefield is the listing agency for the building.

The owners weren’t prepared to give the space away, said Roger Leggatt, president of office leasing for the agency. “They were being pretty patient and waiting for the right deal and more importantly, probably, the right tenants.”

He said Douglas College is the largest tenant. “They’ve got four floors. It’s an expansion of their campus just up the street.”

About 7,000 square feet of unleased space remains, Leggatt said.

He said the building is part of a concerted effort to commercialize New West’s downtown area.

“The demand for office space on transit is a growing trend and this (lease up) justifies that further,” he said. “I suspect that the development community will react and will look at opportunities along transit in New West to further develop office (space).”

Office vacancy in New West reached its highest level in more than a decade at the end of last year at 17.4 per cent.

Leggatt said New West’s office vacancy rate is 11.9 per cent and falling.

“That’s obviously going to decline more with the occupancy of (the Anvil Centre) and a few other spaces in the market that are now leased.”

The tenants will be moving into the building between now and September of next year, he said.

They were being pretty patient and waiting for the right deal and more importantly, probably, the right tenants.

Mayor Jonathan Cote said the city is pleased with Anvil Centre.

“Although the city sold the office tower several years ago, we always saw the benefit to downtown New Westminster seeing the office tower fully leased up and seeing the other spinoff benefits in downtown New West,” he told Postmedia.

“We really wanted to demonstrate that our downtown could be more than just a place where people live, but could be a true downtown where people live and work,” he said.

The lease-up would hopefully spark more interest in New West’s other existing office spaces, the mayor said.

Cote and Leggatt both said that no other similar office projects are currently being developed in the city.