‘Amazing’ progress one year after mall changed face of Tsawwassen
Nearly a year after the opening of Tsawwassen Mills mall, the Tsawwassen First Nation is continuing a rapid pace of economic development that extends to more retail shopping, housing and port-related industrial projects on formerly productive farmland.
“It’s amazing to see the progress that can be made in such a short time,” 28-year-old Chief Bryce Williams said. “We’re making the right investments, saving for future generations and investing in infrastructure. It’s starting to improve lives. It’s a game-changer.”
There are two retail components to the TFN lands — Tsawwassen Mills and Tsawwassen Commons — developed in an agreement with Ivanhoe Cambridge.
Tsawwassen Mills is a major indoor retail shopping centre anchored by Bass Pro Shops, a hunting, fishing and camping store — the only such outlet in B.C.
Tsawwassen Commons is an outdoor mall featuring major chains such as Walmart, Rona and Canadian Tire. So far 337,000 square feet have been built, with 80 per cent leased.
A second Tsawwassen Commons phase of 105,000 square feet is under construction and due for completion in early 2018 with stores like Kal Tire.
No date has been set for development of the third and final phase of 104,000 square feet.
When Tsawwassen Mills opened last October with 180 stores, customers intrigued by the novelty of a new mall faced lengthy lineups just to park.
The mall could not sustain such success, and business today is less than desired.
“I think they’re doing OK,” said Sandy Cruickshank, executive vice-president of Triovest, property manager of the Tsawwassen Commons development.
“It may not be as robust as they had hoped, but the reality is this is a growing residential area . ... I think the retail will do well, but it might take a year or two to get there.”
The mall provides a shuttle for employees from Richmond and Surrey as well as shoppers from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal.
Williams said the TFN negotiated a “99-year prepaid lease ... paid upfront” with the mall developer for an undisclosed sum, money that has largely funded overall community services, including a sewage-treatment plant.
The First Nation has also set up a trust.
Williams said most of the 477 members support the economic changes.
“People are open to the concept of change,” he said. “Of course, not everybody is happy, but I’d say the majority is.”
Current and future development is happening at the expense of once-productive Fraser delta farmland.
Williams countered that the TFN remains a regional leader in agriculture despite development, and has partnered with Kwantlen Polytechnic University to create a farm school on TFN land.
The TFN says it has 231 hectares of farmland, accounting for 32 per cent of its total 724-hectare land base. Of that farmland, 155 hectares, or 67 per cent, are under 25year leases. (The First Nation has also purchased three properties along River Road on Brunswick Point since 2009, totalling about one hectare.)
On the industrial front, major developments include the port’s container-inspection facility, under construction on a 4.5-hectare site with a 60-year lease.
“That will take a lot of trucks off the road,” Williams said, noting containers are now inspected in Burnaby. “They’ll be able to be inspected right there … at the port.”
The port says the facility will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 2,000 tonnes per year, while improving efficiency. The facility will be used by the Canada Border Services Agency for inspection of shipping containers imported through the Deltaport terminal and as a general purpose warehouse.
As well, Delta iPort is in the early stages of a port-related development — a distribution and logistics centre on a 23-hectare site, also with a 60-year lease. The first phase, 435,000 square feet, is under construction and should be ready for occupancy in June 2018.
Seventy per cent of TFN members agreed to a treaty agreement in 2007, later approved by the B.C. legislature and given royal assent by the federal government in 2008. The treaty took effect in 2009.
Longtime Richmond councillor and farmland advocate Harold Steves served as Metro Vancouver’s representative monitoring the land-claim negotiations with the TFN. He blamed the port for pushing changes that are eroding agriculture in the lower Fraser delta, including the South Fraser Perimeter Road, opened in 2013.
“Delta farmland is under extreme threat from the port,” Steves said. “It’s on the verge of a major change.”
Williams said that about 72 of the 120 hectares of First Nationowned industrial lands are being held back for later development.
“We’ll take our time,” he said. “We hear that industrial land will be scarce in the region over the next few years. We’re sitting on a lot of opportunity and potential.”
In addition, Williams said 2,800 residential housing units are in the works, attracting a projected 6,000 residents onto TFN lands over the next 15 to 20 years.
Already, there are about 275 leaseholder homes, including single-family residences and condos, on TFN lands compared with about 75 homes for TFN members, including those under construction.
The TFN says it has implemented a goods and services tax, harmonized with the GST, to provide a share of federal transaction taxes generated on Tsawwassen lands, including at the malls.
The TFN is negotiating with the province on a revenue-sharing agreement for provincial sales tax revenue.
In both cases, the TFN says, tax sharing is tied to the end of Tsawwassen members’ exemption from transaction taxes according to the treaty, which took effect May 1.