Langley draws Manulife
Manulife Real Estate, a division of Manulife Financial Corp., has set the stage for this week's breakfast meeting of commercial real estate association NAIOP with its March 5 purchase of Langley's Aldergrove Village Shopping Centre.
Manulife acquired the property from Calgary-based MDC Property Services Ltd., which acquired the property in September 2007. Manulife paid $29.25 million for the property.
Built in 1999, Aldergrove Village includes six buildings with a total of 91,517 square feet. Save-On-Foods is the anchor tenant. Other occupants include Shoppers Drug Mart and Mark's Work Wearhouse. The property sits on a 6.8-acre lot. This week's NAIOP breakfast will see panellists discuss the West Coast's "unconventional retail" market.
While the repositioning of key retail real estate is on the agenda, as well as the emergence of outlet centres and partnerships with First Nations, a key element in the discussion – as at previous sessions – will likely be B.C.'s relatively low per capita volume of retail space.
A report on Canada's retail sector from Colliers International last fall indicates that Metro Vancouver is second to last among Canada's metropolitan areas when it comes to retail space, with just 13.9 square feet per capita. Victoria has the least amount of space, at 13.3 square feet per capita.
By contrast, Halifax leads the way with 28.2 square feet, followed by Edmonton at 27.6 square feet and Calgary with 25.5 square feet.
Given the relative shortage of retail assets in Metro Vancouver and intentions by 75% of owners to hold the assets they've got, Manulife's investment was a rare opportunity to enter the market.
It has two other properties in B.C., both industrial properties, located in Delta and Surrey. Overall, it has 14 properties across Canada, primarily in Ontario.
Fox gets makeover
Main Street's notorious Fox Cinema is getting new tenants.
Before switching to DVDs a decade ago, the Fox was the city's last 35mm porn theatre. In 2007, film writer Robin Bougie described the aging Fox as the kind of place where "it seemed like asking for trouble to even buy a ticket."
Rheanna F., in the most recent Yelp review (2011), called it the kind of theatre where "no one actually comes ... to watch the movies." Indeed, the cinema was under threat of closure in 2009 after a Vancouver police undercover operation discovered sexual acts taking place on the premises.
But this August, David Duprey of Junebug Enterprises Inc. – operator of the Rickshaw Theatre on East Hastings Street and the Rumpus Room and Narrow Lounge on Main Street – will join forces with Thomas Anselmi and Ernesto Gomez of Waldorf Productions Ltd. to turn the Fox into a venue for DJs and live music.
Duprey said negotiations for the 250-seat theatre took two months. An application for a liquor licence could take more than a year, with the province having the final say in what activities it will be allowed to host.
"It's what the province feels is appropriate for me to be allowed to do in that space," Duprey said. "The city doesn't have a lot of influence over that, unfortunately."
Duprey wants to retain the ability to show films, as well as host comedy nights and the kind of events that made the Waldorf a cultural hub. •
