Small businesses spur Burnaby industrial deals

Small and medium-sized businesses are driving an industrial real estate recovery in Burnaby, says a new Avison Young report.
Broker Kyle Blyth, who specializes in Burnaby industrial sales and leasing transactions, says small and medium-sized companies are helping to maintain the Vancouver suburb's traditionally stable conditions. Traditionally, after a downturn, he says, smaller industrial owner-users re-enter the market first and then larger companies come back.
Although Burnaby vacancy has notched up to 3% from 2.6% in the fall of 2009, it is still well below the Metro Vancouver average of 4.7%. Older properties needing renovation or redevelopment have slightly skewed Burnaby's rate upward.
But properties with high ceilings, good visibility and exposure, and easy access to arterial routes are in high demand. Meanwhile, landlords, well educated on market conditions, are offering new tenancies or retain existing ones.
Existing tenants will likely be able to capitalize on more favourable lease rates as they act on long-term needs that have been put off pending the global economic recovery.
In the few cases where developable land is available, developers will be asked to pay a premium. Lawrence Green, president of Spire Development Corporation can relate.
His company paid $1.4 million per acre for land where the new Spire Corporate Centre on North Fraser Way is located.
According to Blyth, strata-ownership projects, which help offset high land costs, are likely to increase. As the report notes, the Beedie Group, is also developing strata projects in South Burnaby.
Notable leases include Core-Mark International renewing on 70,000 square feet (sf) at 7800 Riverfront Gate while Mustang Survival (45,000 sf), Japan Foods (40,000 sf), Dynamex Couriers (30,000 sf) and Shoppers Home Health Care (20,000 sf) inked new rental agreements.

Metro Van Comissioner to discuss growth strategy

Metro Vancouver commissioner Johnny Carline will look into the region's distant future during this month's NAIOP Vancouver breakfast meeting.
Carline will provide an overview of the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy during the NAIOP event May 26 at the Hyatt Regency.
A draft of the plan, entitled Metro Vancouver 2040: Shaping Our Future, has been out since last November and is now undergoing reviews by various stakeholders and other groups.
The draft says Metro Vancouver's vision for the future will be achieved "by embracing and applying the principles of sustainability, not least of which is an unshakeable commitment to the well-being of current and future generations and the health of our planet, in everything we do."
Carline, also the region's chief administrative officer, has strived to be a strong voice in the sustainability movement. Since taking up his post in 1997, he has launched the award-winning Sustainable Region Initiative (2001), which NAIOP's e-mail blast on the breakfast notes, made the sustainability movement "a political fact of life" in Greater Vancouver.
Metro Vancouver is the regional governing body for the local metropolitan area and its two million inhabitants. The group's responsibilities include water, sewer, drainage and solid waste management systems as well as regional growth management, air quality, regional parks and affordable housing.

Here's a link to the planning document: http://ow.ly/1MPqM.