The British Columbia government's plan to privatize liquor warehousing and distribution is expected to kickstart a massive redevelopment in East Vancouver.
The 300,000-square-foot BC Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB) warehouse and retail store at 3150 East Broadway sits right in the middle of what city hall calls the Grandview Boundary Industrial Area, near both the Rupert and Renfrew stations on SkyTrain's Millennium Line.
According to the City of Vancouver property registry, the BCLDB land is valued at $21.414 million. The government's request for proposals may take another month or two, according to a government spokesman who refused to be named.
"You've got four or five different owners in that immediate vicinity who are contemplating significant additions to that current office stock, upwards of half a million to a million square feet which will likely be phased in and subject to pre-lease commitments," said Darrell Hurst, principal of Avison Young Commercial Real Estate. "That site that currently houses the Liquor Distribution Branch is likely to be viewed in the same way. It's under-densified, it's a prime piece of property, it'll have a tremendous amount of attention and attraction from the investment community and people looking at those types of opportunities."
The sixth and seventh buildings of the eight-building, 17-acre Broadway Tech Centre are nearing completion adjacent to the Renfrew station. Broadway Tech tenants include Aker Solutions, the BC Ambulance Service, BC Lottery Corp., HSBC Bank of Canada and Nintendo of Canada. Owner BC Investment Management Corp. and development/management/lease company Bentall Kennedy are already eyeing expansion with a proposed five-building complex at 3030 East Broadway, just across Lillooet Street from LDB.
Pacific Capital Real Estate Group's Renfrew Business Centre Phase I opened in 2009 anchored by the Art Institute. Phase II is a proposed seven-storey, 170,000-square-foot office building targeted for a 2014 opening at 12th and Renfrew.
Hurst said industrial and light-industrial users can't support the land values.
The area was developed in the 1950s as an industrial park with rail service and access to Highway 1. The warehouse's I-2 zoning allows industrial, service and high-tech use, which has intensified since the Millennium Line opened in 2002. City hall's 2008 area plan foresees worker population increasing to 14,000 from 4,000. •
