TWO SITES SET TO BOOM
Hungerford has large south Van properties with the right stuff
Local developer Hungerford Properties has purchased two south Vancouver sites, including what the company says is the largest industrial acquisition in the city in the last decade.
The developer recently announced it had purchased a 12.5acre site at 86 Southeast Marine Dr. ( just west of the Real Canadian Superstore), and called it Vancouver’s largest industrial deal in the last 10 years in terms of square footage.
The site, formerly owned by Walmart, was previously a Dueck car dealership and is the largest developable parcel of industrial land in south Vancouver, the company said. The property has been vacant for the past 15 years.
Hungerford Properties also bought a three-acre site at nearby 396 Southwest Marine Dr., which is home to a Kia car dealership.
“It is not easy to find redevelopment sites of this size and exposure to transit in Vancouver,” said Michael Hungerford, a partner with the company. “We will be working hard to transform the sites from single-use to large-scale, mixeduse commercial developments in the coming years.”
Hungerford declined to specify what they plan to do with both sites, but he said they hope it will be part of a significant revitalization of that area of south Vancouver.
The larger site is not expected to require a rezoning, he said.
“For the (smaller site) that’s next to the (Marine Drive SkyTrain) station, I believe a rezoning is going to be required, but the area plan around the station calls for mixed employment uses and we will be making an application with that use in mind,” he told Postmedia in an interview.
Hungerford Properties invests, manages and develops real estate across Western Canada in residential, multi-family, industrial, office and retail.
“At this point, we’re in discussions with users around demand (for those two sites) and we’ll be evaluating various scenarios, talking to the city, and we’ll be probably releasing to the market a plan in due course,” he said.
Hungerford said the feedback process will help them to determine what to build. “It’s hard to put a time frame on it.”
The neighbourhood’s population grew by 20 per cent in the last five years and is projected to see additional population growth of about 12 per cent by 2021, and 28 per cent by 2026, according to the developer.
Hungerford said the area attracted them because it’s among the fastest-growing parts of the city, bolstered by the Marine Gateway development and many new condo towers.
“It is exciting to be part of this rapidly changing area of the city,” he said.
The larger site, 86 Southeast Marine Dr., was assessed at $46.4 million in July 2017, according to B.C. Assessment. The smaller site at 396 Southwest Marine Dr. was valued at $24.3 million last year. Cushman and Wakefield served as the listing agency for the seller at that site.
That deal would boost the neighbourhood as an emerging mixed-use hub and speed up the transition from its long-standing automotive and light-industrial uses, said Alexander Cairns, a senior associate with Cushman and Wakefield in Vancouver.
The City’s Official Community Plan allows for pure office and retail uses, which are encouraged over traditional light industrial uses under the I-2 zoning in the area, he told Postmedia in an email.
“A complement of technology, educational and digital media businesses and institutions will thrive in this area given the close proximity to the Canada Line, high-density residential development, and synergistic light industrial uses to the east,” he said.
He said the scale of the site would provide large-block users the opportunity to secure long-term workspaces on a lease or strata purchase basis.
“On the lease side, record low vacancy rates have created an environment where tenants requiring more than 15,000 square feet have limited to no options depending on their timing requirements,” Cairns said. “Bringing upwards of 300,000 square feet of efficient, large floorplate office space to south Vancouver will provide alternative options for users looking outside of the downtown core.”
He said there would also be an opportunity to develop larger scale strata units in the neighbourhood, given that most strata units being sold closer to downtown are in the 2,000-5,000-square-foot range.
“Our team sees this node as the next creative hub in Vancouver, much like the transition Mount Pleasant and the Great Northern Way Campus have gone through over the past 10 years,” Cairns said.
“The full spectrum of uses in this neighbourhood make it a prime example of intelligent densification that all municipalities in Greater Vancouver should look to emulate,” said Matt MacLean, Cushman and Wakefield’s senior vice-president and co-listing agent on the deal.
Bringing upwards of 300,000 square feet of efficient, large floorplate office space to south Vancouver will provide alternative options.