Making changes
Three years of incentives designed to spur the rejuvenation of downtown Maple Ridge continue to bear fruit as the recent purchase of a three-storey building by Burnaby-based Spire Development Corp. underscores.
Maple Ridge launched its Town Centre Incentives initiative in 2011 to encourage the redevelopment of an aging downtown core made up largely of single-storey structures.
“It’s for those who see the opportunity and want to get in early and do some of that,” Sandy Blue, manager, strategic economic initiatives with Maple Ridge, said at the time.
While there were no goals set for either residential or office development, the intervening years have seen approximately 40 projects approved for incentives – such as an exemption from municipal property taxes on the increase in property value – with another nine pending. A total of $77 million in building permits have been issued under the program.
The incentives were a factor in Spire’s decision to pursue the acquisition of Pacific Colonade at Dewdney Trunk Road and Fraser Street, a 49,000-square-foot commercial property.
The deal closed at the beginning of August. Spire president Lawrence Green declined to disclose a purchase price, but Avison Young had listed the property for $4.5 million. Spire plans to invest about $3 million in a complete makeover. Occupancy is set for January 2014.
One tenant, BC Buildings Corp., has signed on for the renovated property, while Club 16 Trevor Linden Fitness has committed to 20,000 square feet.
“A motivated city with progressive development tax incentives and staff is what attracted us to doing more work in Maple Ridge,” Green said. “The city has really been wonderful at working with us to transform challenged real estate into modern, efficient and attractive first-class real estate assets.”
River to cross
While the broader makeover of downtown Maple Ridge aims to attract residents and jobs to the community, the opening of the Golden Ears bridge in 2009 has also put the district in direct competition with areas south of the Fraser.
“The river division no longer has as much of an impact as it used to,” said Mark Belling, principal of Fifth Avenue Real Estate Ltd. “There’s a lot of value on the Maple Ridge side that’s competing with Surrey and Langley that never did before the bridge connected.”
By the same token, the bridge also allows people to work north of the Fraser but live on the opposite side of the river – a challenge that developers need to take into account.
“The condo sector cannot easily compete in Maple Ridge, because the value proposition from alternative new housing is just so fantastic,” he said. Townhomes and the like trump highrise living simply because they are so much cheaper relative to the rest of the Lower Mainland.
Residential prices stable
House price increases may have stalled in July, but they haven’t dropped – bucking a trend that’s emerged in Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver statistics since 2008.
Typically, prices have declined during the latter half of each year beginning in 2008. That year, the benchmark composite price dropped 12% in the six months from July to December. The historic rebound in pricing during 2009 was followed by what’s become the normal pattern: an increase in the first half of the year, and then declines in the second half ranging from 1.7% to 4.8%.
This year the benchmark price for the REBGV area rose 1.2% to $601,900 in the first six months of the year. The price didn’t budge in July, thanks to steady resales and a stable market.
Norm Couttie, president of Adera Development Corp., said the new home market was likewise stable, with sales declining in summer after an active spring but poised to rise again come autumn. •
