From Business in Vancouver – Avison Young has announced the listing of 815 West Hastings Street, a 106,943-square-foot office block built in 1976. The property last sold in December 2010 for $45.3 million, when a private buyer acquired it from Investors Group.

815 West Hastings

 According to RealNet Canada Inc., office properties valued in excess of $10 million enjoy an annual compound growth rate of 7.2%. Documentation Avison Young circulated last week suggests a “pricing guideline” for 815 West Hastings of $60 million, though a formal list price has not been set.

Read more: http://www.biv.com/article/20131015/BIV0320/310159888/us-debt-shenanigans-stand-to-boost-local-borrowing-costs

Morguard has applied to the City of Vancouver to amend the existing CD-1 for their property 601 West Hastings Street (also referred to as 333 Seymour Street) to retain the existing office tower, and build a 25-storey office building with:

• A total floor area of 227,700 SF
• 3,627 sq. ft. of ground level retail space
• a public plaza
• a density of 24.34 FSR
• a proposed height of 357 ft
• 102 parking spaces and 78 bicycle parking spaces in 5 levels of underground parking

Great West Life has applied to the City of Vancouver to rezone a parkade at 753 Seymour Street (next to Vancouver Centre) for an office tower.

The proposal would allow for a 32-storey building with:

• 336,186 SF of office space with ground floor retail space
• 4 levels of above grade parking and six levels of underground parking
• a total density of 15 FSR (after inclusion of the existing buildings)
• a total height of 403.5 ft

More information here: http://former.vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/rezoning/applications/753seymour/index.htm

Richmond office market shows ‘slow but steady’ rebound – Richmond Review.

Richmond’s sky-high office vacancy rate has fallen to a five-year low but remains the highest in the region, according to a new report from Avison Young.

The firm’s Mid-Year 2013 Metro Vancouver Office Market Report pegs the vacancy rate at 17.3 per cent—4.5 per cent less than one year ago—demonstrating the local market’s continued slow recovery.

“Continued tightening of the Richmond vacancy rate remains a good news story for the market, which has seen a slow but steady rebound since 2010,” said Darrell Hurst, Avison Young principal, in a news release.

Surrey’s vacancy rate is close behind, at 16.7 per cent. The lowest rate belongs to downtown Vancouver, at 4.6 per cent, while Metro Vancouver’s average stood at 7.5 per cent after the first six months of 2013.

In its semi-annual survey, Avison Young noted vacancy in the Richmond market is at its lowest point since 2008 after peaking at 24.6 per cent.

1152 Mainland Street, a four storey, brick and beam office building on Mainland near Davie Street has been sold to Mark James for $18,500,000. Known as ‘The Yaletown Building’, the 36,911 SF building is described as “the quintessential Yaletown office building offering 20 foot high ceiling and exposed brick and beam construction”. The building was built in 1912 and is located directly adjacent the Yaletown Canada Line station.

The building had been listed for sale earlier this year.