RAILTOWN ON TRACK
Redevelopment moving ahead
Boe Iravani strolls up Railway Street and points out no fewer than 11 buildings he says either can or will be redeveloped in the old industrial heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Development application signs are visible on many of the old commercial buildings in a four-block stretch north of Alexander Street, between Heatley and Gore avenues, which butts up against the rail lines of Vancouver Harbour.
Iravani, a vice-president with Cushman and Wakefield, says there is an estimated 832,000 square feet of developable workspace in the 16-acre district if all of those 11 projects get built.
In May of 2017, the city changed its zoning for the Railtown area, eliminating permission for heavier M-2 industries and introducing I-4 zoning, permitting an array of creative uses that would blend office space with light industrial and design uses.
That means one of the city’s original industrial districts next to the port will now house an increasing number of design firms, showrooms, studios and light manufacturing companies, accelerating the transformation that is already taking hold in the area that houses the likes of Aritzia’s head office, Herschel Supply Co., Endeavor Snowboards and Simon Fraser University ’s school for contemporary arts.
Sales activity and development applications in the neighbourhood started “immediately” after the zoning was changed last year, Iravani said. “The value of the land changed, so now you could have more users.”
He said the area now just needs its next high-profile tenant to accelerate the transformation.
Iravani hopes that tenant will be at the Maker Exchange. At 488 Railway St., the seven-storey, 152,000-sq.-ft building will include 25,000-sq.-ft floor plates with two underground levels of parking.
The building, being co-developed by Omicron and Rendition Developments, will add between 1,400 and 1,500 workers to the area, Iravani said, as a steady stream of workers leave nearby buildings headed for three food trucks parked on Railway Street. Most of the workers are women, and all of them are under 40.
The new building, expected to be completed in the third or fourth quarter of 2020, will replace an empty showroom building and JJ Bean’s former production site.
“We’re going to go after the clothing manufacturers,” said Iravani, who is marketing the project for lease.
“You’re going to see studio rehearsal spaces, movie production studios and the digital animation guys. You’re going to see gaming companies.”
A block west, at 405 Railway, furniture maker and owner of Inform Interiors, Niels Bendtsen, is planning a six-storey, 112,000-sq.-ft building with office and industrial uses that will replace two commercial buildings.
Other projects like that are on the way, Iravani said.
He said more, larger workspaces are needed here so that new companies can stay in the neighbourhood when they outgrow their startup spaces. Hootsuite got its start here, he said. So, too, did Article. The ecommerce furniture seller has since moved into a 115,000-sq.-ft space on Raymur Avenue next to Strathcona Park as its staff expanded six-fold.
Urban manufacturing is changing, said Joji Kumagai, the executive director with the Strathcona Business Improvement Association.
Most design and making is now done digitally or with 3D printers and software, he said.
There are about 90 tenants occupying leased spaces in 33 commercial buildings in the area, according to Cushman and Wakefield.
Of those, about 24 per cent are clothing, furniture or design firms. About 10 per cent are consultants and about nine per cent are digital media.
Showrooms, architects, software developers and other businesses make up the rest.
Kumagai said change was already happening in Railtown, but
the new zoning will quicken that transformation.
“I don’t think necessarily the zoning or the developments have caused the change in the business makeup (in Railtown), but rather, they’re just a reflection of that change that’s already been inherent over the last decade plus,” he said. “We definitely see a lot of manufacturing and more traditional industrial uses east of Heatley and further south of Hastings as well.
“Those are obviously really important uses that we need to maintain. But I think that stretch of Railway, with the connection to the ports diminishing over the years, and the nature of the building stock itself, I think it just lends itself to that change of industrial land use.”