Bentall Kennedy LP has been knocked off its perch after at least six years at No. 1 on Business in Vancouver’s list of the biggest commercial property managers in B.C.
Beedie rose to the No. 1 spot in 2019 from No. 3 in 2018 by expanding the number of properties managed by 23.4% to more than 11 million square feet of office, retail and industrial property. This growth bucked the industry trend as the average property managed by the top 20 property managers in B.C. fell by 1.9%.
Despite the recent relatively small one-year decline, the average property managed by the largest commercial property managers in the province grew 9.9% from 2015 to 2019.
Beedie’s growth was largely concentrated in industrial properties, which made up 98.8% of the company’s portfolio, up from 97.6% in 2015. Industrial real estate held the largest portion (42.7%) of the real estate portfolio managed by the top five largest property managers. This number largely reflects Beedie’s managed real estate mix. If Beedie is excluded, the average industrial property managed by the top five drops to 29.4%, leaving office real estate as the largest portion of managed properties at 37.8%.
Over the past five years, the top 20 property management firms in the province have increased their portfolios of all commercial real estate types. Retail real estate had the largest increase at 15.4%, to a total of 40.3 million square feet in 2019 from 34.9 million square feet in 2015. Despite the five-year growth, there was a steep decline over the last year as retail real estate managed by the province’s largest property managers fell 8.2%. Over the past five years office and industrial real estate managed grew by 9.8% and 7%, respectively.
Beedie’s movement up the list wasn’t solely the result of its increase in managed industrial property. Bentall Kennedy LP had a large decline in property managed, which dropped 28.2%, or 4.2 million square feet, to 10.7 million square feet from 14.9 million square feet in 2015. •
