2022 was an active year for land sales activity in Metro Vancouver; largely a carryover from a return to acquisitions in 2021 after a two-year period of general stagnation in the market.

Continuing a trend since 2019, the bulk of land sales activity is happening in suburban markets, and now predominantly for commercial and industrial properties. The Downtown luxury tower sites that dominated the market between 2015-2018 remain largely absent.

Here’s a look at each of the 10 largest land deals of 2022:

1. The Grove Brentwood, Burnaby

• Price:                  $215 Million
• Site Area:            8.3 acres
• Vendor:               Aoyuan Canada
• Purchaser:          Anthem & Kingsett

The goods:        For the second year in a row, the largest land deal of the year took place in the Brentwood Town Centre area of Burnaby, one of the fastest growing, densest municipal centres in all of Metro Vancouver.

“The Grove” project, originally designed and rezoned by Aoyuan, is an 8-acre multi-tower, 2,400 unit high density residential project. Aoyuan was forced to sell in 2021 amid financial pressures.

Anthem Properties, with partner Kingsett Capital, will now move the project forward, with rezoning for individual parcels to occur in the near term.

2. Coronation Park, Port Moody

• Price:                  $158 Million
• Site Area:           15 Acres
• Vendor:              Land assembly
• Purchaser:          Wesgroup

The goods:          This sale represents the completion of an epic land assembly by Wesgroup; worthy of its own write up. The assembly involved 54 single family lots located in the Coronation Park area at the Eastern edge of Port Moody. The lots had been marketed in multiple assemblies and secured by Wesgroup over three years. The deal faced several twists and turns amid market uncertainty and evolving guidance and support from the City of Port Moody as to the OCP designation for the overall master plan for the site. Wesgroup submitted their formal rezoning application in July 2022.

The sale of the majority of the lots complete in September 2022 and now Wesgroup can turn their attention to execution of the high density master plan project, expected to include over 2,600 units built in several phases.

The land assembly was completed by Grant Gardner & Thomas Trowbridge of London Pacific.

3. 86-168 S.E. Marine Drive, Vancouver

• Price:                   $150 Million
• Site Area:            12.5 acres
• Vendor:               Hungerford Properties
• Purchaser:           Amazon Canada

The goods:        This site was previously owned by Walmart Canada until Hungerford acquired the property in 2018 for $90 Million. Hungerford undertook preliminary design and planning for the development of a mixed commercial/industrial project until an off-market deal came along from Amazon. Preliminary plans call for a new Amazon fulfillment centre on the strategically located South Vancouver site.

4. Coquitlam College Site, Coquitlam

• Price:                   $148 Million
• Site Area:            7.5 acres
• Vendor:               Coquitlam College
• Purchaser:           Onni

The goods:        The Coquitlam College site and 11 adjacent single-family parcels were acquired by Onni in a deal negotiated in 2021. The assembled site presents an opportunity for future rezoning for high density residential under the Burquitlam Lougheed Plan. Preliminary rezoning plans have yet to be filed with the City of Coquitlam.

The sale was facilitated by Alon Shapiro of CBRE.

5. Kingsway & Willingdon, Burnaby

• Price:                   $145 Million
• Site Area:            1.8 acres
• Vendor:               Bosa Properties
• Purchaser:           Keltic Development

The goods:        For the second year in a row, Keltic Development has made a splash with one of the largest land transactions in Metro Vancouver. An off-market sale of the Esso Gas Station site at 4444-4488 Kingsway was negotiated in July 2022 and completed November 30, 2022. Bosa’s preliminary plans included two towers, up to 70-storeys in height with potentially condos, rental, retail and hotel.

The sale was negotiated by Goran Bucan of Sutton Group West Coast Realty.

6. Tricity Central, Coquitlam

• Price:                  $130 Million
• Site Area:           5 acres
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:          Marcon & Quadreal

The goods:          In the works for well over two years, this deal closed representing one of the largest master plan communities in Coquitlam. Marcon and Quadreal have passed through the initial rezoning phase for the site at the southeastern corner of Lougheed and Barnet highways for “TriCity Central”.  The multi-tower development will see approximately 2,000 residential units in addition to office, hotel and retail space.

7. 7590-7688 80^th Street, Delta

• Price:                  $117 Million
• Site Area:           23 acres
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:          Beedie

The goods:         Beedie outbid 13 other buyers for this site, the largest industrial land deal of the year. The former Delco Container site is vacant pending redevelopment plans by Beedie.

This sale was brokered by Steve Brooke and Joel Barnett of CBRE.

8. 19469-19511 92^nd Avenue, Surrey

• Price:                 $111 Million
• Site Area:          14 acres
• Vendor:             Private Investor
• Purchaser:         Conwest

The goods:         Conwest closed on this 14 acre industrial sale in October 2022. The total sale price represents $7.8 Million per acre.

9. 900-990 West 12^th Avenue, Vancouver

• Price:                  $100 Million
• Site Area:           1.5 acres
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:          VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation

The goods:        The VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation closed on this full city block property across from Vancouver General in March 2022 with a long term vision for potential redevelopment. For now, the existing Windermere Lodge long term care facility and adjacent apartment building will be retained pending future redevelopment of the sites.

10. 5910-5998 Cambie Street, Vancouver

• Price:                 $76 Million
• Site Area:           0.74 acres
• Vendor:              Wall Financial
• Purchaser:         Coromandel Properties & Peterson Group

The goods:       This full city block at Cambie & 43^rd was sold by myself, Simon Lim, James Lang and Jessica Hathaway in an off market transaction negotiated in late 2021 and closed in February 2022. The site has rezoning approval for a two-tower development including condo and hotel.

Some notes from the above list:

• 3 of the 10 largest land deals in Metro Vancouver took place in the City of Vancouver (down from 5 of 10 last year, and 9 out of 10 at the “peak” of the market in 2017)
• 6 of 10 are residential land deals, down from 8 of 10 in 2021
• 3 of 10 were sold by open market bid process (the other 7 were ‘off-market’ or not openly offered)
• All 10 were bought by well-established ‘local’ development groups, a shift from 2016-2018 when many “new” buyers were making a splash

Please contact me for further information on any of the above transactions, or if any questions, comments, or corrections to the article.

Happy Holidays!

The City of Vancouver has released a Draft of the much anticipated Broadway Plan that now includes details on land use designations, density, built form and public benefits.

This is the most detailed iteration of a planning process which launched three years ago.

The full draft plan can be viewed on the City’s website, here.

The Broadway Plan is broken down into three main geographic neighbourhoods:

• Kitsilano
• Fairview
• Mount Pleasant

Here is a summary of the overall draft plan as well as detail for proposed zoning within each neighbourhood.

Kitsilano

Fairview

Mount Pleasant

2021 was a bounce back year for land transactions in Metro Vancouver. Following two years of declining transaction value, a renewed interest in development across all asset classes fueled a significant number of sales throughout the region.

One of the emerging differences between the current activity and the previous hot market of 2016-2018 is the shift in focus toward suburban markets, and to asset classes including rental residential and arguably Metro Vancouver’s hottest asset class: industrial.

The days of speculative trades for Downtown luxury condo sites are largely gone for now; the pre-sales market for luxury has only recently started to thaw. Otherwise, the focus for many of the large local residential developers has been suburban markets and purpose built rental.

It is clear that both private and institutional investors continue to be bullish on the long-term fundamentals in Vancouver, and the expectation is that 2022 will be another active year in the market.

Here’s a look at each of the 10 largest land deals of 2021:

1. 5900 No. 2 Road & 6191, 6311 & 6751 Westminster Highway, Richmond

• Price:                  $300+ Million
• Site Area:           27 acres
• Vendor:             Quadreal
• Purchaser:         Keltic Development

The goods:        For the second year in a row, the largest land deal in Metro Vancouver is in Richmond, though the transaction is much larger than in 2020. A press release from Keltic describes this deal: “Currently, the property is occupied by light industrial / commercial tenants. The company plans to create a vibrant multi-use destination including residential, commercial and industrial spaces that will add richness and vitality to the city. Twenty-three per cent of the land, or 6.4 acres, will be developed into green space and contributed back to the city for community use.”

The off-market sale was brokered by Goran Bucan.

2. 7000 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby

• Price:                  $151 Million
• Site Area:           14 acres
• Vendor:              Pension Fund
• Purchaser:         Create Properties

The goods:       I was honoured to have brokered this landmark sale with Simon Lim in the Bainbridge area of Burnaby. Create Properties is currently working with the City of Burnaby on a large-scale multi-phase development as part of the Bainbridge Urban Village Plan.

3. 1155 East 6^th Avenue, Vancouver

• Price:                   $118 Million
• Site Area:            2.1 Acres
• Vendor:              Shaw
• Purchaser:          Low Tide Properties

The goods:        This transit oriented development site is currently occupied by Shaw, but allows for potential rezoning and redevelopment under the False Creek Flats Plan, which could potentially allow up to 5.0 FSR of commercial and industrial space.

4. 13301 104^th Avenue, Surrey

• Price:                  $99 Million
• Site Area:           6.4 acres
• Vendor:             Private Investor
• Purchaser:         Private Investor

The goods:          This sale involved a 6.38-acre future multi-high-rise development site in Surrey City Centre Improved with 11 rental apartment buildings totaling 156 units. It was brokered by Dean Thomas of HQ Commercial. The asking price was $98 Million.

5. 2300 Madison Avenue, Burnaby

• Price:                  $88 Million
• Site Area:           6.5 acres
• Vendor:              BC Hydro
• Purchaser:         Polygon Homes

The goods:          Polygon acquired this BC Hydro site in November 2021. The site comprises two lots, 2300 Madison Avenue, which is currently occupied with an older industrial warehouse building; and a BC Hydro Right-of-Way. The site is located within the Brentwood Town Centre Development Plan, and is designated for medium to high-density multiple family residential development. A preliminary application calls for three towers and 975 units including condos and rentals.

6. 622-688 SW Marine Drive, Vancouver

• Price:                  $68 Million
• Site Area:           1.5 Acres
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:         Chard Development

The goods:         This 66,474 SF development site (the “Denny’s site”) was brokered by Simon Lim, James Lang and Jessica Hathaway. It is located one block from Marine Drive Skytrain Station and a current rezoning application by Chard contemplates two towers with 573 rental units.

7. 2111 Main Street, Vancouver

• Price:                 $60 Million
• Site Area:          35,000 SF
• Vendor:             Private Investor
• Purchaser:        Nicola Wealth Real Estate

The goods:         This site on the West side of Main Street known as the City Centre Motel, has long been a targe of many local buyers and was sold to Nicola in November. There is no word yet on redevelopment plans of the motor hotel, but the plan in the short-term is to rent the units to artists.

8. 5 West 4^th Avenue & 4-16 West 3^rd Avenue, Vancouver

• Price:                  $57 Million
• Site Area:           36,234 SF
• Vendor:              Alsco Canada
• Purchaser:        PCI Developments & HOOPP

The goods:        This sale involved an I-1 zoned site comprising two older industrial buildings in the burgeoning Mount Pleasant Light industrial/office district. No word yet on redevelopment plans. The deal was brokered by Blair Quinn of CBRE.

9. 2450 United Boulevard, Coquitlam

• Price:                 $45 Million
• Site Area:          9.5 acres
• Vendor:             Coca Cola Canada
• Purchaser:         Beedie

The goods:        This acquisition by Beedie was one of the larger industrial land transactions in 2021. The site is currently improved with a vending machine distribution centre. There is no word yet on future redevelopment plans.

10. 1290 Hornby Street, Vancouver

• Price:                 $45 Million
• Site Area:           15,000 SF
• Vendor:              Private Local Investor
• Purchaser:         Wall Financial

The goods:       Another sale brokered by Simon Lim, James Lang and Jessica Hathaway, 1290 Hornby Street is a high-density residential tower site located on the corner of Hornby and Drake Streets between Vancouver’s Beach District, Yaletown and the West End. The site has already started the rezoning process and has received support from the City of Vancouver. The proposed development is a 35-storey residential high-rise building to comprise of condominiums and cultural amenity space – no social housing required.

Some notes from the above list:

• 5 of the 10 largest land deals in Metro Vancouver took place in the City of Vancouver
• 4 of 10 were sold by market bid process (the other 6 were ‘off-market’)
• All 10 were bought by well-established ‘local’ development groups, with previously active offshore buyers absent from these large deals.

Have a question or a comment on any of the transactions above? Please feel free to contact me.

A City of Vancouver report going to Council next week seeks approval for the annual inflationary rate adjustment to DCL’s and CAC’s.

The target DCL and CAC rates are adjusted annually to keep pace with changes in property values and construction costs.

The proposed adjustment for 2022 is a increase of 1.2%. The increase returns to an inflationary trend after the pandemic forced a decrease of 0.8% for 2021.

Here are the new proposed rates:

The new target rates will become effective September 2021.

In past years, compiling a list of the Top 10 land sales in Metro Vancouver was a daunting task; not only was there such a large volume of sales transactions to sift through, but the size of the larger deals was staggering, with the total of just these 10 deals alone eclipsing $1 Billion annually for the period of 2016-2018.

It was an overheated market that was due for a correction, and this decline began in mid-2018.

The more recent global pandemic that emerged in March 2020 has and will continue to have major implications for almost every facet of local and global real estate. For the overall Metro Vancouver land market however, the pandemic can somewhat be characterized as “beating a dead horse”. 2019 sales volume was already down by more than half the previous year.

A pullback from developers to acquire more land amid a significant condo development pipeline in most submarkets was a primary reason. Land for both rental residential and commercial development has remained relatively scarce which has offset some of the decline in condo land activity. Likewise, more recent activity suggests a return of demand for condo land in the suburbs, though core luxury condo sites have essentially fallen off the radar. Land for industrial development is now acutely scarce, with each transaction seeming to support a record value per acre.

While the 2016-2018 market may seem like a distant memory now, there are reasons for optimism heading into 2021. One sentiment emerging from this trying year is that both private and instituational investors continue to be bullish on the long-term prospects for Vancouver and a projected demand for continued residential, commercial and industrial development. Any return to inflows of international capital, either for individual strata units, or for land deals, will also contribute to momentum in the years ahead.

Here’s a look at each of the 10 largest land deals of 2020:

1. 6851 & 6871 Elmbridge Way, Richmond

• Price:                  $60 Million
• Site Area:           3.4 Acres
• Vendor:               Bene Development
• Purchaser:         Landa Global

The goods:        The largest land deal of 2020 would not have even cracked the Top 10 list in recent years, which speaks to the shift in the market. The sale of this site on Elmbridge Way in the Oval Village area of Richmond’s City Centre area has an existing rezoning application for three residential towers, plus commercial and hotel space. The deal was negotiated in 2019 and continues Landa Global’s expansion in the overall Vancouver marketplace.

2. 8188 & 8132 Manitoba Street, Vancouver

• Price:                   $60 Million
• Site Area:            5.0 Acres
• Vendor:               Private Investor
• Purchaser:          Wesbild

The goods:        This 5.0-acre, I-2 zoned industrial development site is located just South of Marine Drive in South Vancouver. Wesbild has now submitted a development application for the first phase of the site, a 3.2 acre parcel that will be developed into two unique 6-storey industrial/office buildings, totalling 330,000 SF in the first phase. The sale was brokered by Stu Morrison, Darren Cannon and Roy Pat of Colliers.

3. 9930 197^th Street, Langley

• Price:                   $40.2 Million
• Site Area:            14.5 Acres
• Vendor:               Trimac Transportation
• Purchaser:          Hall Constructors

The goods:        Another industrial land sale nears the top of the list; this one in Langley on an underutilized site zoned for Heavy Industrial uses. No word yet on plans for redevelopment of the site.

4. 495 West 41^st Avenue, Vancouver

• Price:                  $40 Million
• Site Area:           15,860 SF
• Vendor:              Coromandel Properties
• Purchaser:         PCI Group

The goods:          This sale involved a former Esso gas station site at the Northeast corner of Cambie and West 41^st Avenue. Coromandel had acquired the site in October 2014 for $15,800,000. In 2018, an update to the Cambie Corridor Plan redesignated the site to allow for a potential mixed-use tower. No rezoning applications have yet been filed.

5. 1331 & 1340 Olmsted Street, Coquitlam

• Price:                  $39.3 Million
• Site Area:           9.5 acres
• Vendor:              City of Coquitlam
• Purchaser:         Mosaic Homes

The goods:          Mosaic Homes purchased this townhouse development site on Burke Mountain from the City of Coquitlam. The preliminary plan for the site calls for 167 townhouse units.

6. 6031 Wilson Avenue, Burnaby

• Price:                  $35.5 Million
• Site Area:           1.34 Acres
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:         Bosa Properties

The goods:         Just a few short years ago, Metrotown tower sites were selling monthly at record valuations. Today, the market for sites has cooled considerably amid a perceived oversupply of future condo product. This sale on Wilson represents an assembly, as Bosa controls the two neighboring sites at 5977 and 5979 Wilson. The price per SF for the site is considerably lower than what could have been achieved at the peak of the market, and was likely a motivating factor in this deal having been completed in 2020.

7. 2219-2285 Cambie Street, Vancouver

• Price:                 $32 Million
• Site Area:          15,680 SF
• Vendor:             Reliance Properties
• Purchaser:        Nicola Wealth Real Estate

The goods:         This site on the West side of Cambie at West 7^th Avenue, mostly known as the Robinson Lighting property is a fully tenanted retail property that has future development potential under it’s C-3A zoning.

8. 140-150 West 4^th Avenue & 2004 Columbia Street, Vancouver

• Price:                  $32 Million
• Site Area:           36,234 SF
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:         Dayhu

The goods:        This sale involved an I-1 zoned site in the burgeoning Mount Pleasant Light industrial/office district. A development application for the site envisions a 4-storey commercial building at a total density of 3.0 FSR.

9. 475 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

• Price:                  $31 Million
• Site Area:          9,360 SF
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:         Private Investor

The goods:        This site at the Northeast corner of West Hastings and Richards Street in Downtown Vancouver has long been home to tenants including Mr. Big and Tall. While no redevelopment plans have been made public, the intent appears to be a midrise hotel development.

10. Whalley Station Square, Surrey

• Price:                 $26.9 Million
• Site Area:           1.87 Acres
• Vendor:              Private Local Investors
• Purchaser:         Tien Sher Group

The goods:       This property is a retail strip mall in Surrey’s City Centre. Tien Sher has a rezoning application to allow for a high density mixed use development including 500 residential units and commercial space.

Some notes from the above list:

• 5 of the 10 largest land deals in Metro Vancouver took place in the City of Vancouver (up from just 1 last year)
• 3 of 10 were sold by market bid process (the other 7 were ‘off-market’)
• All 10 were bought by well-established ‘local’ development groups, with previously active offshore buyers absent from these large deals.

Have a question or a comment on any of the transactions above? Please feel free to contact me.