Developers, start your engines. District of North Vancouver council unanimously supported a 20-year plan to bring new housing, retail and office space to the Lower Lynn town centre at its May 27 meeting.

Lower Lynn Town Centre Concept Plan

The plan includes a mixture of mid-and low-rise apartments and townhouses.

The district’s vision includes a projected 120,000 square feet of new retail space, mostly on Mountain Highway, and 50,000 square feet of new office space.

The plan has sparked “tremendous excitement” in the development community, according to the district’s general manager of planning, properties and permits Brian Bydwell.

District staff have been taking weekly meetings with prospective developers, according to Bydwell, who said a lot of the major sites are “pretty much tied up.”

A 9-storey office building is proposed for the Southeast corner of West Pender and Seymour Streets in Downtown Vancouver. The building will contain approx. 77,000 SF of commercial space.

The property is currently for lease/sale with Colliers. Detail here.

Property Features for 538 West Pender Street

• Targeting LEED® Gold
• “A” Class building
• Latest technology in building systems
• Architect: Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership (MCM)
• Main floor retail
• Penthouse amenity area for use by tenants
• Efficient floor plates

First-quarter drop for Vancouver commercial real estate sales.

The value of commercial real estate sales in the Lower Mainland dropped 40 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 from the same time last year, and was the lowest seen since the first quarter of 2009, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported Thursday.

There were 384 commercial real estate sales worth $886 million conducted in the first quarter of this year. Last year’s first quarter, the highest in five years, saw 480 sales.

“Commercial real estate activity eased in the Lower Mainland in the first three months of the year. This comes on the heels of a strong post-recession commercial market over the past few years,” said Sandra Wyant, the real estate board’s president.

A breakdown of the sales shows that there were 91 commercial land sales valued at $322 million, 159 office and retail sales valued at $253 million, 109 industrial land sales valued at $211 million, and 25 multi-family sales valued at $99 million.

A year-over-year review of pricing for resales of concrete condos in Vancouver’s submarkets shows that most areas are showing flat prices amid stable sales levels during this period. The analysis used only condos built since 1998. Burnaby and Surrey both showed slight declines over this period, perhaps as a result of increased new highrise product in these town centre areas.

Source: MLS

A rezoning proposal has been put forward to develop a phased commercial development at 2020 Boundary Road, a site the Northeast corner of Lougheed and Boundary Road in Burnaby. Translink sold the site last year to the Open Road Auto Group for $19.2 Million.

The development will consist of:

• two or three high-end auto dealerships
• a 4-storey fully enclosed glass structured car parkade
• an 8-storey, 85,000 SF office building with underground parking and grade level retail uses
• a total density of 0.77 FAR

The auto dealerships are proposed to be the first phase of the development, with the commercial uses later.