By Frances Bula

Time for all of us to get up to speed here, as First Nations bands around the Lower Mainland and elsewhere are getting increasingly savvy about operating businesses, negotiating deals, and doing development on land they own or have a claim to.

In the wake of the announcement last week about an agreement among the federal government and three local bands to develop two large chunks of land, I went talking to the people behind the scenes who have been watching First Nations grow in the scope of their activities My Globe story here, with a lawyer, a development and a real-estate consultant who have worked with First Nations around the province.

Important for us, too, to understand the differences between developments on reserve land and developments on claimed land.

(One caveat. I referred to Block K as the Shuaghnessy gold club, but Block K, thanks to my informant on Twitter, is actually the chunk of lend just west of the golf club.)

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Source:: Frances Bula

By ChangingCity

Here’s an office development on the 500 block of West Broadway that started construction just over 2 years ago. Designed by Studio One Architecture for Orca West (up to now a mainly residential developer) the project, initially known as the Neelu Barchra Centre, sits in the ‘Uptown’ commercial-only stretch of Broadway, close to the City Hall Canada Line station.

Initially marketed for lease, the scheme was switched to 127 strata office units and seems to have had far greater success as a result. The final building seems somehow more grey than the render suggested – although once the lights are on inside and the planting gets established it may be a closer match.

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Source:: Changing City Updates