Retailers are starting to sign leases to occupy space in the River District in southeast Vancouver although occupancy is not expected for at least six months.
Save-On-Foods, TD Bank, Westminster Savings and Starbucks are some of the retailers to have already signed on the dotted line, Wesgroup vice-president of corporate development David Wesik told Business in Vancouver.
“The first building in our town square will be complete in April or May of 2017,” Wesik said.
“The Westminster Savings will be in that building along with a couple other deals that I can’t disclose at the moment.”
The River District project is part of a 120-acre site in southeast Vancouver that borders the Fraser River and Boundary Road.
About 500 residents have moved into hundreds of homes in the development and another 1,100 homes are expected to be complete by mid-2018.
The retail hub of the project is the town square: a set of four buildings that combine to have 163,428 square feet of commercial space with about half of that at street level.
The first of the four buildings to complete in that square will be on the southeast corner and have 21,528 square feet of commercial space.
A building on the southwest is then expected to complete a few months later and have 22,604 square feet of commercial space.
“We haven’t announced any retailers that will be there yet,” Wesik said. “We have some conditional deals.”
The largest of the four buildings is on the northeast corner of the square and it is expected to complete by 2018. Save-On-Foods, Starbucks and TD Bank have leased some of the 62,646 square feet of commercial space in that building.
The final building in the town square is just breaking ground now and it is set to be complete by 2019, according to Wesik.
“Residential sales have been strong and we’ve sold out all of our condos,” he said. “We’ve got discussions with a number of tenants but no firm deals.”
There is expected to be 56,650 square feet of commercial space in that final building and Wesik said it would be a good place for a daycare, pharmacy and restaurants.
