New Westminster News Leader – Restaurant eyed for new building.

An open house will be held next Thursday for a proposed restaurant patio at the Queen’s Park West office complex under construction in New Westminster’s Uptown district.

It will be held Nov. 29 from 5 to 8 p.m., at 300-601 Sixth St.

Uptown Property Group are the owners of the building, which is on Sixth Avenue at Fifth Street.

Read more: http://www.newwestnewsleader.com/news/180187751.html

Peace Arch News – Morgan plan moves ahead.

A proposed commercial and office space development on a 25-acre parcel of property at 20 Avenue, just east of Highway 99 cleared an important hurdle last week, winning approval in the form of a unanimous third reading at a city public hearing (Couns. Mary Martin and Judy Villeneuve were absent, according to the city clerk’s record).

The $100 million Morgan Place Developments Ltd. project will include 25,953 sq. m (279,000 sq. ft.) of retail and restaurant uses and 9,662 sq. m (104,000 sq. ft.) of office space.

It will have 1,330 parking stalls, 676 of which will be underground.

Read more: http://www.peacearchnews.com/business/173751331.html

Colliers International has acted on behalf of the Vendor in the sale of 1445 West Georgia Street, a six storey 32,490 SF office building on a 10,800 SF site located in Coal Harbour in Downtown Vancouver. This site is a redevelopment property under the existing DD zoning, which allows residential up to 6.0 FSR. The purchase price was $15,250,000, representing $469 per SF for the building, or $235 per SF of buildable area.

Anthem Properties recently announced the acquisition of the BC Electric Building, a 119,334 square foot office building located at in intersection of Hastings Street and Carrall Street.  The price was undisclosed.

Valuations for office buildings in Burnaby have risen over the past ten years amid declining cap rates and rising rental rates. The average value for office building sales in the past two years has been hovering around $200 / SF.

This market is predominantly characterized by larger office complexes, interspersed with smaller local office and strata business park office. Newly built buildings in the core areas such as Glenlyon office park and Canada Way corridor have achieved values over $250 / SF, with older product in local residential areas and industrial areas reaching below $100 / SF.

Cap rates have generally decline from an average above 8.0% to decline below 6.50%; a trend consistent with other suburbs in Vancouver.

Investment activity in this market has been relatively constrained given a lack of available product. As we reported in July, Bosa acquired a sizeable office asset located just off Canada Way at Sperling Avenue, for $33,000,000.

In terms of new supply, Metrotower 3 is currently under construction and is expected to complete in 2014. The leasing market remains in favour of tenants with a reported Q2 2012 vacancy rate of 11.2% (source: Colliers).