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Vancouver’s West Broadway is in the midst of a ‘land rush’ - The Globe and Mail<br />
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PROPERTY REPORT<br />
Vancouver’s West Broadway is in<br />
the midst of a ‘land rush’<br />
The Globe and Mail<br />
daily newspaper<br />
Toronto, ON<br />
August 22, 2016<br />
FRANCES BULA<br />
VANCOUVER — Special to The Globe and Mail<br />
PublishedMonday, Aug. 22, 2016 4:28PM EDT<br />
Last updatedFriday, Sep. 02, 2016 4:48PM EDT<br />
29 Comments 0 0 0 18<br />
AA<br />
The building at 950 West Broadway in<br />
Vancouver is unremarkable, a two-storey<br />
concrete structure that is home to an IHOP, a<br />
Japanese restaurant and an insurance broker,<br />
among other things.<br />
But it sold last May for a phenomenal $46-<br />
million, according to B.C. Assessment Authority<br />
records, even though it had been assessed at<br />
just $18-million. It was the latest recordbreaking<br />
sale in what has been a year of <strong>highwater</strong><br />
marks for commercial properties along<br />
Broadway.<br />
Why so high? As Colliers, the agency listing the<br />
property, put it: “Without question, the highly<br />
anticipated UBC-Broadway Rapid Transit Line<br />
has placed a spotlight on West Broadway and<br />
amplified demand for land and investment<br />
assets.”<br />
That sale and others demonstrate the impact<br />
that a future transit line – even one that has no<br />
confirmed funding or firm completion date –<br />
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/vancouvers-west-broadwayis-in-the-midst-of-a-land-rush/article31494096/[26/09/2016 11:59:03 AM]
Vancouver’s West Broadway is in the midst of a ‘land rush’ - The Globe and Mail<br />
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HIGHLIGHTS<br />
The commercial building at 950 West Broadway sold last May for $46-million,<br />
according to B.C. Assessment Authority records. (Colliers)<br />
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“There’s been a land rush on Broadway,” says<br />
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Jon Stovell, the chair of the region’s Urban<br />
Development Institute. “Developers have been<br />
purchasing with an expectation it will be one of<br />
the densest areas in the region.”<br />
That’s all in anticipation of the extension of the<br />
Broadway SkyTrain line from Commercial Drive<br />
in the east to Arbutus Street in the west, a plan<br />
that has been talked about for a couple of<br />
decades.<br />
If built, the line would serve a corridor that has<br />
been called Vancouver’s third downtown, a long<br />
strip that is already packed with medical<br />
offices, restaurants and stores. Some parts of it<br />
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have office towers already, especially near<br />
Vancouver General Hospital, but much of it is<br />
unprepossessing and low-rise.<br />
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/vancouvers-west-broadwayis-in-the-midst-of-a-land-rush/article31494096/[26/09/2016 11:59:03 AM]
Vancouver’s West Broadway is in the midst of a ‘land rush’ - The Globe and Mail<br />
But hopes are high that the new transit line will<br />
actually happen this time, after Prime Minister<br />
Justin Trudeau made specific promises about<br />
transit funding for Broadway during his<br />
campaign last fall.<br />
So far, only initial planning money has been<br />
committed. Everyone is now waiting for what’s<br />
called the second-phase funding, which is<br />
supposed to be negotiated this fall in<br />
anticipation of a much bigger commitment to<br />
transit projects across the country by the<br />
Liberals in their second budget next February.<br />
Even when that comes through, though, it<br />
could be as much as a decade before the<br />
Broadway extension opens.<br />
As well, it’s unclear at this point whether the<br />
city will rezone the area for more density. At<br />
the moment, much of the central corridor is<br />
zoned to allow for buildings that are equivalent<br />
to just three times the lot size.<br />
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/vancouvers-west-broadwayis-in-the-midst-of-a-land-rush/article31494096/[26/09/2016 11:59:03 AM]
Vancouver’s West Broadway is in the midst of a ‘land rush’ - The Globe and Mail<br />
A long-established Vancouver family, the Pappajohns, snapped up the Denny’s<br />
restaurant site on West Broadway this year for $26-million. (Colliers)<br />
“Once we have confirmed funding and an<br />
annual project, we’ll engage in a planning<br />
process,” says Jane Pickering, Vancouver’s<br />
acting general manager of planning. “Around<br />
transit stations, it’s pretty clear there will be<br />
some densification.”<br />
One area that does have the green light for<br />
greater density is around the existing<br />
Commercial-Broadway station, the secondbusiest<br />
in the transit system. Increased density<br />
around that station was recently approved as<br />
part of the Grandview-Woodlands community<br />
plan, which is mapping out what services are<br />
needed as the neighbourhood grows by 10,000<br />
people over the next 25 years.<br />
There is a Safeway grocery store with a large<br />
parking lot next to it, where developer Ian<br />
Gillespie of Westbank Corp., who has worked<br />
with Safeway on other projects in the past, is in<br />
the midst of designing a new complex of towers<br />
with residential and office space.<br />
Mr. Stovell says he’s certain the province,<br />
which has to commit to millions of dollars in<br />
funding, along with the federal money, for the<br />
project to proceed, will be pushing the city to<br />
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/vancouvers-west-broadwayis-in-the-midst-of-a-land-rush/article31494096/[26/09/2016 11:59:03 AM]
Vancouver’s West Broadway is in the midst of a ‘land rush’ - The Globe and Mail<br />
allow more density.<br />
Reliance Holdings acquired a large West Broadway site, which includes the<br />
current Mountain Equipment Co-op store that is due to move in a couple of<br />
years. Plans call for rental units on the site. (Colliers)<br />
“Clearly, the province is convinced the<br />
Broadway line has to go along with<br />
densification. They’re not going to allow what<br />
happened on the Expo line again,” he says.<br />
The city’s first transit line opened in 1986 – the<br />
Expo line ran from downtown Vancouver to<br />
Surrey – and is remarkable for the low density<br />
of development that still exists around its<br />
stations 30 years later.<br />
But there are no firm guarantees on exactly<br />
what density will be allowed.<br />
That’s not stopping property buyers, though.<br />
The prospect of a new transit line along West Broadway has made commercial<br />
buildings more appealing to developers. (Colliers)<br />
Mr. Stovell’s company, Reliance Holdings,<br />
acquired a large site eight blocks east of the<br />
IHOP restaurant, the current Mountain<br />
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/vancouvers-west-broadwayis-in-the-midst-of-a-land-rush/article31494096/[26/09/2016 11:59:03 AM]
Vancouver’s West Broadway is in the midst of a ‘land rush’ - The Globe and Mail<br />
Equipment Co-op store that is due to move in a<br />
couple of years.<br />
The property, currently valued at $47-million,<br />
was acquired by his company last June for a<br />
price that doesn’t appear in B.C. land records.<br />
Another noted land deal along the corridor was<br />
the purchase by the long-established<br />
Vancouver family, the Pappajohns, of the<br />
Denny’s restaurant site on Broadway three<br />
blocks west of the IHOP site.<br />
That was purchased for $26-million, double the<br />
2015 assessed value, in February this year.<br />
Besides those purchases, the City of Vancouver<br />
and TransLink, the transportation agency that<br />
will be building and operating the Broadway<br />
line, have bought pieces of land at key<br />
locations, several sources say.<br />
But one problem with the early buying at high<br />
prices is that it may actually hinder<br />
development, at a time when Vancouver is<br />
suffering from a severe squeeze on housing.<br />
Both house prices and rents have been soaring<br />
in the past year, as existing and new residents,<br />
along with investors, have competed hard for<br />
the slow-growing supply of housing.<br />
Some of the current speculation is “stripping<br />
more supply out of the market,” says Avison<br />
Young principal Mehdi Shokri. “Transit is<br />
supposed to be helping spur development, but<br />
we’re going to find we’re adding more pressure<br />
to the supply problem,” he says.<br />
As a result, he says, sites west of where the<br />
new line is supposed to stop are seeing more<br />
development activity because builders there<br />
know there is likely to be no change, so they’re<br />
proceeding on the basis of the current zoning.<br />
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/vancouvers-west-broadwayis-in-the-midst-of-a-land-rush/article31494096/[26/09/2016 11:59:03 AM]
Vancouver’s West Broadway is in the midst of a ‘land rush’ - The Globe and Mail<br />
But in the hot new transit-line area, people are<br />
holding off.<br />
For example, the buyer of 950 West Broadway<br />
is a company called Hometop Enterprises that<br />
was created just last February.<br />
The company’s incorporator is Bao Meng Wen,<br />
with an address in the city’s upscale Kerrisdale<br />
neighbourhood. The company does not appear<br />
to have any development experience.<br />
New purchasers like that feel that they can only<br />
get a return on the high prices they paid if they<br />
get considerably more density – and will wait<br />
however many years it takes to get that, says<br />
Mr. Shokri.<br />
Mr. Stovell adds, “We won’t see a lot of<br />
projects breaking ground until there is clarity<br />
on the zoning.”<br />
But he expects it will go quickly after that. He<br />
is hoping to build a large rental project on the<br />
MEC site and anticipates that others might do<br />
the same.<br />
“One of the things I think you’ll see out of the<br />
gate is a lot of rental. Rental works in the<br />
current market.”<br />
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Follow Frances Bula on Twitter: @fabulavancouver<br />
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TOPICS Vancouver, British Columbia<br />
29 Comments<br />
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/vancouvers-west-broadwayis-in-the-midst-of-a-land-rush/article31494096/[26/09/2016 11:59:03 AM]