The site of the former Steveston secondary in Richmond sold to Polygon Homes for $41,125,000.

“The board is enthusiastic about what this means for our district,” said Donna Sargent, board chair at Richmond School District No. 38. “The sale of these lands provides us with funding that can be used for other capital projects and will ensure the legacy of Steveston will remain within the Richmond community.”

The 13-acre site will be split into eight acres sold to Polygon and five acres reserved for a park. There are no conditions on the sale and any rezoning will be done with the city.

12.58 acre Steveston Secondary Site

The secondary school closed in June, 2007 and was merged with the nearby London secondary to become Steveston London secondary in September, 2007.

Apartments to spring up around future Walmart – Richmond Review.

The road to Walmart is about to get more crowded.

Polygon is moving ahead with plans to build an apartment complex with 547 homes on Alexandra Road, across from the proposed SmartCentres retail mall. A development permit panel considered the application for Alexandra Court, from Polygon Development 269 Ltd. at Richmond City Hall.

“The proposal responds well to creating a strong, street-oriented building frontage character and the continued development of the pedestrian Alexandra Way corridor through the neighbourhood,” noted planned David Johnson in a report.

Four buildings, each with five to six storeys, along with a separate amenity building, would cover a one-level parkade on the 2.5-hectare (6.2-acre) development site near Garden City Road.

City council approved rezoning of the site earlier this year. Two residents complained over the growing density of the Alexandra neighbourhood, but the project is within the projected population targets under the West Cambie Area Plan.

Read more: http://www.richmondreview.com/news/227910411.html

In a blockbuster cross-Canada deal of more than $60 million, Madison Pacific has bought 12 office/industrial properties, including three in Langley. With the Agricultural Land Reserve severely limiting development closer to Vancouver, the Fraser Valley township is fast emerging as a B.C. commercial real estate hotspot, according to industry experts.

“The Langley site in particular is strategic in that it represents 21 contiguous acres of land with over a kilometre of frontage on the Trans-Canada Highway,” says Robert Gritten, principal at Avison Young, which led the 12 deals for Madison Pacific. “As Madison Pacific invests for the long term, the opportunity this site offers for redevelopment is dramatic.”

Like all properties in the deal – to a total of 540,000 square feet of office/warehouse/enclosed storage space on 98 acres of land – the Langley ones have only 13-per-cent site coverage, compared to traditional industrial averages of 40-50 per cent. All are tenanted by Burnaby-based Taiga Building Products.

Referring to “the stifling effect” on Metro Vancouver of the ALR restrictions established by the Barrett NDP government starting in 1973, Gritten says: “As a result of this supply-demand imbalance, yes, we are more expensive than most, if not all, markets in North America. The geographic advantages that make this city such a great place to live actually work to a disadvantage when we attempt to meet the demand of our industrial manufacturers and distributors. They want and need to be here. We are the gateway for Canada to Asia, but it is so difficult to secure suitable premises for most of our user clients.”