Concerns are emerging that a building boom of office towers in downtown Vancouver is creating far too much supply.

Only half the 2.18 million square feet of new office space in seven towers under construction downtown — a boom enabled by new zoning bylaws in 2009 — has been preleased, executives at the Vancouver Real Estate Forum said Thursday.

“I am not seeing a lot of office demand right now, and that is concerning to me,” Bart Corbett, senior vice-president of Cushman & Wakefield, said in an interview.

Corbett and other executives discussed office space development and economic trends at a panel discussion titled “The Vancouver Hangover?”

A common theme was that Vancouver’s commercial real estate market is slowing. The panel was asked how eager landlords are to offer inducements to would-be tenants, and which sectors among high-tech startups, resource industry offices, or “slow and steady” traditional businesses, are preferred.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/business/real+estate+executives+gather+discuss+Vancouver+housing+trends/9530873/story.html

A 69,000 SF office building located at 618 6th Avenue in the Uptown area of New Westminster has sold for $32,471,500, or $471 per SF. The 6-storey office building is anchored by RBC and was acquired off-market by Value Group.

A prime piece of Cloverdale real estate that’s sat vacant nearly 15 years won’t be a patch of dirt much longer.

Construction on the Cloverdale Gateway project is expected to start by late February or early March, according to the building’s architect, after Surrey city council approved a final re-zoning application last month.

A two-storey office and retail building at the entrance of the historic downtown core would replace the empty lot that was once home to a gas station.

Burnaby’s PJ Lovick Architects firm spearheaded the design featuring brick columns, long wood beams and tall glass windows.

“It will be a great gateway piece,” said architect Andrea Scott, adding construction on the corner of Highway 10 and 176 Street should be finished by the year’s end.

Read more: http://www.cloverdalereporter.com/news/244016691.html

Richmond’s office market continues to recover since peaking in 2010 when one in every four offices were empty.

Avison Young’s year-end Metro Vancouver Office Market Report for 2013 shows Richmond no longer boasts the worst vacancy rate in Metro Vancouver.

At year’s end, Richmond’s rate sat at 15.4 per cent—nearly double the Metro Vancouver average of 7.8 per cent, but better than Surrey’s high of 17.3 per cent.

Richmond’s rate is now at its lowest point since mid-2008, according to the real estate firm. It reached a peak of 24.6 per cent in the 2010 Olympic year.

“While leasing activity remained limited, vacancy continued to decline in all classes as tenants occupied existing properties,” says the report.

Class A properties—the most desirable—still have the highest vacancy rate of 19 per cent. The rate for the lesser Class B rests at 7.9 per cent, while Class C properties boast the lowest rate: 5.7 per cent.

Read more: http://www.cloverdalereporter.com/news/244016691.html

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