200 West Esplanade, the Esplanade Theatre building, a 5-storey retail and office building in the Lower Lonsdale area of North Vancouver has been sold by Colliers for $12,350,000 to First Capital Realty.

The building has a net rentable area of 38,628 SF, of which about 30,000 SF is cinema space and the balance is retail and office. The building was built in 1990 and is on a 17,928 SF site.

Deloitte Real Estate’s recent Crane Survey highlights a trend in retail mall ownership: there are few opportunities to buy malls, leading prospective mall owners to either build new developments or to reinvest in existing assets.

The report notes that a handful of groups own the majority of large retail assets in Metro Vancouver.

“Most of the larger shopping centres in Canada are owned by a select few groups, and they haven’t been sellers in recent years,” Andrew Evans, who co-authored the report, told Business in Vancouver.

Courtesy BIV. Read more: http://www.biv.com/article/20121113/BIV0111/121119994/0/small-business-confidence-continues-slide-in-june/mall-sales-scarcity-forcing-owners-to-reinvest-or-expand

YVR confirms designer outlet switch; new site adjacent to Canada Line station.

Vancouver Airport has decided to move its proposed designer outlet shopping centre into the shadow of a Canada Line station.

The facility, being built in conjunction with UK-based luxury outlet firm McArthurGlen, will now be situated next to the Templeton station on Sea Island.

YVR had originally planned to build the outlet centre off Russ Baker Way, next to BCIT and were still preparing the ground at the site as recently as two months ago.