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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1254353
18 INVEST in BC 2 0 2 0 Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association. In special partnership with BCBusiness. L O W E R M A I N L A N D / S O U T H W E S T companies such as local quantum software developer 1QB Information Technologies (1QBit). It's easy to forget, amid this knowledge- industry growth, that Metro Vancouver was built around its port. But expansion there is also proceeding as Canada's trade continues to pivot toward the fast- growing economies of the Pacific Rim. Last year, GCT Global Container Terminals announced a $160-million investment that will boost the Vancouver Harbour terminal's container-handling capacity by 25 percent, to a million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year. Meanwhile, the federal government earmarked $102 million in funding from the National Trade Corridors Fund to improve intermodal facilities and road and rail connections for freight around the metropolitan region. NEW PROJECTS A number of regional transportation improvements are also afoot, including the $1.4-billion replacement of the Pattullo Bridge between Surrey and New Westminster, the addition of new lanes and on-ramps on Highway 1 in North Vancouver and Langley and the $2.8-billion extension of the Millennium SkyTrain line west along Broadway to Arbutus Street in Vancouver. Municipal politicians have reached agreement on SkyTrain extensions to UBC in the west and Langley in the east. Stepping out of the shadow of Vancouver International Airport, the Fraser Valley's aviation hub, Abbotsford International, tallied more than one million passengers in 2019, having more than doubled its traffic in just four years. The long-expected move of St. Paul's Hospital to a $1.9-billion campus on the False Creek Flats proceeds apace, with the City of Vancouver approving Providence Health Care's rezoning application for the 18-acre site in November. Further, the provincial government announced in December that it would build an entirely new hospital in the Surrey neighbourhood of Cloverdale in response to the population growth in the area. The film and television production industry is growing outward from its urban base. Not only are suburban municipalities like the Tri-Cities seeing a surge in location shoots; in September, Martini Film Studios announced plans to build a 600,000-square-foot studio in Langley, FROM TOP TO BOT TOM: WESTBANK ; VESTA PROPERTIES; NCH'KAY/WESTBANK which will be the largest dedicated film facility in Canada. Outlying communities in the Fraser Valley and Sea to Sky Corridor are likewise attracting advanced manufacturing. Last September Molson Coors opened the latest and most efficient of its 29 breweries around the world in Chilliwack. Compared to the Vancouver brewery it replaced, the facility operates using 20 percent less energy and 40 percent less water and includes a state- of-the-art CO2 recovery system. Already home to atmospheric remediation company Carbon Engineering, Squamish continues to lure cleantech companies—the latest being Nexii Building Solutions, a manufacturer of modular buildings using a proprietary material, Nexiite, that is far less carbon-intensive than traditional building components. HOUSING THE NEWCOMERS After a pullback in 2018, the Lower Mainland real estate market righted itself in 2019—in fact, Surrey, the region's second most populous and fastest-growing municipality, blew through past records for building permits to reach a new high of $2.29 billion. Plans for major housing projects abound. The former Oakridge Transit Centre in Vancouver will feature more than 1,600 new homes in 17 buildings ranging up to 23 storeys. Westbank Corp. is redeveloping nearby Oakridge Centre mall into a highrise mixed-use retail and residential complex. The Squamish Nation has unveiled a plan for 6,000 homes to be developed on its land at the south end of the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver in partnership with Westbank. The community, named Seʼnáḵw, would be primarily for rent, answering a dire need for rental properties in the region. The Squamish Nation also intends to build 1,000 homes for its own members on reserve land on the North Shore. In Langley, Vesta Properties has begun work on Latimer Heights, a $1-billion master-planned community of some 2,000 homes and a retail village on 74 acres. Algra Bros. is moving forward with an ambitious plan to redevelop four acres of restaurant, retail, office and residential space in Chilliwack's city centre. "With a strong economy and population growth, Vancouver remains a desirable place to live that will eventually draw buyers back into the market," states a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute. The report gives Metro Vancouver the best real estate outlook in Canada for 2020. • LOFTY ASPIRATIONS: (Clockwise from top) Artist's rendering of the redeveloped Oakridge Centre; Latimer Heights in Langley; the Squamish Nation's imagined Senákw village on either side of the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver