BCBusiness

Dec2018-flipbook-BCB_LR

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1050020

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 14 of 71

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2019 BCBUSINESS 15 T he real estate industry might seem like it hasn't seen any change for decades, and in some ways that's probably true. But the trade is starting to embrace new technologies. In the past couple of years, Matt Dixon, development manager at Vancouver-based design, development and construction firm Omicron, has adopted augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), giving potential clients an advance look at the final product. 7:30 a.m. Dixon likes getting to the office before anyone else, mostly so he can sort through the mess of emails in peace and quiet. That means an early SkyTrain trip to Omicron's downtown headquarters from New Westminster, where he recently bought a condo with his girlfriend after seven years in Yaletown. "That's the thing I don't think everybody gets," he says. "They look at development companies and go, 'Ah, these guys are big, bad developers who have lots of money.' Well, no, we're all just regular people competing against the same factors they are." 9 a.m. Internal meetings dominate the early part of Dixon's day. Omicron has five departments: architecture, engineer- ing, interior design, construction and development. Some projects involve all of them, and others don't. For instance, the architecture, interior design and engineering teams are working on plans for the new Molson Coors brewery in Chilliwack, while construction is deployed on various buildings in downtown Vancouver. Dixon and his development team (three strong plus two more staff at Omicron's Victoria office out of a total of 140) bridge the gaps between the other departments. They also market projects and over- see them, mostly by brokering deals with landowners and tenants. 11:15 a.m. On this October morning, Dixon heads over to the Railtown office of Key Marketing, a real estate sales firm. Omicron and Vancouver's Lotus Capital Corp. bought a property together and are working with Key on the project. The four-person meeting starts with "personal and business bests," and Dixon has the perfect reveal for the former as he whips out his phone to show photos of his new dog–a Catahoula leopard named Lewis. The rest of the crew pokes fun at him, suggesting that given his recent condo and canine acquisitions, they know a good jeweller. The rest of the meeting is more of a catch-up session, as the munici- pality recently stepped in ("at the 11th hour," according to Dixon) and is holding up construction. "There's no real reason for devel- opers to build cheaper residential buildings, because projects are costly and take forever to be approved," says the affable 30-year-old, show- ing some frustration. Lunch Dixon tries to schedule lunch outside the o"ce, usually with a client or someone in the industry he can talk about trends or ideas with. He's particularly partial to Gastown's Nicli Antica Pizzeria and its prosciutto mushroom pie. 2:30 p.m. Dixon jumps right back into meetings after lunch, usually visiting a client or hosting them at Omicron's office. Either way, he's equipped with a VR headset that can access the design team's virtual renderings. This lets the user tour the finished develop- ment before construction has begun. "It's too expensive to make mistakes," says Dixon, "so being able to walk them through virtually is a complete game changer for us. AR/VR is laughed at in tech circles because it hasn't taken off as a consumer item. But on our side, it's revolutionary." E N T R Y L E V E L DEVELOPING SITUATION Matt Dixon is on the front lines of a company's bid to bring real estate into the future by Nathan Caddell 4:30 p.m. Dixon often finishes his day by checking on construction projects by phone or in person, so he's equipped with updates for tomorrow's meetings. We visit a site in progress, whose final stages he'd shown me in VR. It looks like things are on track to end exactly as projected. "The level of progression is still slow, because [AR/VR] is clunky–you need a headset, and it's expensive," he admits. "But it's happening, and a lot of companies are getting invested in it. I think it'll be the norm in a couple of years. If you want a new office space, you'll walk in and be like 'Where's the VR headset? I want to see it.'" a day in the life G O F I G U R E 8 CINEPLEX THEATRES IN B.C. THAT OFFER HOME DELIVERY, VIA UBER EATS, OF POPCORN, CANDY AND OTHER CONCESSION ITEMS SOURCES: NAKED SNACKS, CINEPLEX, CITY OF VANCOUVER, BC STATS, GOVERNMENT OF B.C. $15,000 Amount raised by Vancouver-based Naked Snacks on Kickstarter in 2015 to expand its new healthy-snack home deliv- ery subscription business G O F I G U R E $15,000 280 Convenience stores in the city of Vancouver, a 28% drop since 2008 $41.6 million Value of B.C. sugar and confectionary exports in 2017 39% from 2016 470%Increase in revenue since then CONCESSION DECEMBER/JANUARY 2019 BCBUSINESS 0 Snack products that B.C. cannabis retailers are allowed to sell TOP EXPORT MARKETS: U.S. and Costa Rica

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of BCBusiness - Dec2018-flipbook-BCB_LR