2013 has been relatively quiet for the sale of office buildings in Metro Vancouver. There were no major downtown office buildings sold in the past year; though there were a number of sizable deals elsewhere in the region.

Here are the top 5 office deals in Metro Vancouver in 2013 (ranked by purchase price):

1. Discovery Parks Building, 887 Great Northern Way – Dundee REIT acquired the building through a share sale in May for a total purchase price of $66,135,000. The 165,000 SF building was developed in 2002 by Discovery Parks. It is fully leased and includes tenants such as QLT Inc., and 1-800-GOT-JUNK. The cap rate was reported to be 6.2%.

 
2. Surrey Central Business Park – Concert Properties‘ sale of Surrey Central Business Park was one of the larger deals of the year at $59,700,000. This five building, 350,000 SF portfolio was bought by a local investor. This sale was linked with another of Concert’s assets in Burnaby.

 
3. 1770 West 7th Avenue – just a few weeks ago this sale was announced. Chip Wilson, former CEO of Lululemon acquired this 5-storey, 75,000 SF office building located at Burrard and West 7th. The building, built in 1985, was sold for $32,625,000, or $430 per SF.

4. 3500 – 3650 Gilmore Way – this sale was part of Concert’s portfolio sale of suburban office assets. The $30,700,000 purchase price equates to $295 per SF.

5. 33991 Gladys Avenue – this newly constructed 3-storey, 71,500 SF office building was sold by the developer to a local private investor for $20,250,000. The building was 85% leased to the Federal Government.

2013 was a relatively quiet year for multifamily sales. After some fairly large deals over the past few years, there were relatively few large deals this year, save for a pending portfolio of 5 buildings in the West End and North Vancouver that were marketed by CBRE.

Why so few large deals? Chalk it up to a lack of sellers and values that have reached unsustainable heights. Buyers continue to be well-established owners looking to slowly build their portfolios, or local and offshore private equity simply looking to place capital in safe locations.

Here are the top 5 apartment deals of 2013 (ranked by purchase price):

1. 1952 Comox Street – a building known as “The Breakers” sold to well known landlords Hollyburn Properties in August for $16,350,000. The 10-storey, 61 unit building was built 1964. The cap rate was reported to be 4.8%. This was an off-market deal.

2. 1929 West 3rd Avenue – This 53-unit Kits lowrise apartment was put on the market with the Goodmans in 2012 and sold in January of this year for $15,200,000; equating to a 3.8% cap rate and $286,000 per unit. The building was built in 1973 and contains 47 one-bedrooms and 6 two-bedrooms.

3. 1715 West 11th Avenue – Granville Villa, a 65-unit apartment building located at West 11th Avenue and Pine Street in the South Granville area of Vancouver sold in July for $14,867,000; equating to a 3.3% cap rate, and $228,000 per unit. The 3-storey building was built in 1973 and contains mostly one-bedrooms and bachelor units. The building had been listed for sale for $16,500,000. The buyer was local private equity.

4. 990 Bute Street – this 36-unit apartment building at the corner of Nelson and Bute was sold off-market to well-known apartment owner Belmont Properties in May 2013. The building had been fully renovated by the previous owner. The $13,000,000 purchase price represents a 4.1% cap rate and $360,000 per unit.

5. 30 East 11th Avenue – This 66-unit highrise was purchased by local investor Raymond Heung in August. The 10-storey concrete building was built in 1976 and was formerly owned by The Baptist Housing Society of B.C.

A public hearing on a residential towers proposal with arts amenities for South Surrey could take place as soon as Feb. 3, if the project passes first and second readings in January.

That’s the target date, according to Shawna Nickel, marketing director for Cotter Architects Inc., designer of the multi-purpose project proposed for co-developers the Reifel Cooke Group and the Surrey City Development Corporation.

The target date for first and second readings of the project is Jan. 13. If both readings are passed, the project would be able to proceed to public hearing on Feb. 3.

The two-tower proposal – which, in addition to around 328 residential units, would provide building shells for both a 350-seat theatre/performing arts centre and contemporary arts cafe and gallery – would be located at the corner of 152 Street and 19 Avenue.

Read more: http://www.peacearchnews.com/news/236475391.html