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/1494678
T E R M S + C ON DI T ION S Our contribution to the language of business and beyond Sim•ple Plan Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim's plan to run the city on "vibes" Work•ers Chomp The free lunch service that large companies provide for their employees Mo•tor•cy•cle Bye•ar•ies When the courts ordered Hells Angels clubhouses to be forfeited to the province In•flay•tion In which Bobby Flay comes to your house and gets heated about the rising mortgage rates Po•lease force The short tenure of the Surrey Police–if Mayor Brenda Locke gets her way years, while the taxes paid on it during that time came to a little under $400,000. As it turns out, Aoyuan was caught up in the Chinese financial crisis, which led the company to cancel that project and sell a Burnaby site. Those familiar with com- mercial real estate in the city say that the story of that Gran- ville site is not surprising. It seems that every vacant store or lot has its own similar-but- different set of circumstances leading to its complete stall. "There is a host of reasons why things aren't happening on those sites," said Kirk Kuester, an executive vice-president with Colliers International in Van- couver. "It could be a situation on the owner's side: 'I missed the market and now I want to sell for yesterday's price.'" Or it could be an environmental problem (sites of former gas stations and drycleaning opera- tions are particularly difficult and can take years to resolve). Or it could be that an owner or developer has gotten lost in the city's permitting labyrinth. Or they're afraid of putting in short- term tenants. Or who knows. It's a big decision to let an in- vestment sit empty after you've put hundreds of thousands of dollars into it—or even millions. But it might make financial sense to some, says Kuester. "If it's sitting, it's because the owners believe there's a higher and better use associated with waiting." The giant building on Broadway that used to house Mountain Equipment Co-op, for example, has sat vacant for several years while owner Jon Stovell waited for the city to come out with its Broadway Plan, which will allow him much more density for the site. Concord Pacific will likely hold off on doing anything with the former Molson Brewery site for a century if that's what it takes to see the city come around to changing it from industrial to commercial/residential zoning. Those who don't blame developers are likely to instead blame city hall for many of the slowdowns—and with some rea- son. There is a never-ending list of woeful tales about projects held up for months or years as the city's many departments fail to come to consensus on what's allowed. At Strand Development, Mike Mackay and his team make a point of trying to keep properties rented out. "It's just good corporate citizenship to maintain some vibrancy on the street," says Mackay, whose company has been building a lot of new rental around the city, along with commercial/in- dustrial in the Mount Pleasant industrial zone. "It's a brand risk for us if we don't." Plus, he says, it only makes sense to keep cash flow com- ing. Mackay's company had a four-storey project ready to go in that Mount Pleasant zone a year ago, then decided to re-apply last year for a seven- storey building after a change in city policies allowed for more density. Before the shift, Strand had emptied out the commercial spaces on the site, which included operations like Motorino Electric and City Side Winery. But the company refilled them after deciding to apply for the new project, since it could still take up to two years before construction could start. New tenants looking for relatively cheaper rents leased there, including the nonprofit Food Stash and Leon Cycle. Some landowners are hesi- tant about short-term renting, or find it difficult to get tenants who are willing to sign a lease that has a demolition clause. Some are unfamiliar with the idea of renting out to pop-up operations, which several landlords in Vancouver have been experimenting with. Or they don't know how to access those operators who might be interested in shorter-term leases. That's a barrier that Lewis Silberberg, a commercial real-estate broker who has done contract work for the city on problems with commercial vacancies, has noticed. Silberberg is a great believer in tackling empty storefronts as a way to sustain the health and vitality of shopping areas. But, he says, each site needs a tailored assessment. And maybe even some special- ized help—particularly for the many smaller landlords that are surprisingly numerous in Vancouver—in figuring out how to attract a good tenant for a short-term lease, or how to get through the city's obstacle course, or to see the advan- tages of filling the space sooner. Because the issue might not be a landowner who is holding out for a better deal or getting tan- gled up in city permits. The is- sue could be a landowner who isn't making the best decisions. "The first step is to ask, 'Why is there a vacancy?'" says Silberberg. From there, you need to figure out what kind of help is the best. "I don't think you can assume that because you're a landlord, you know what you're doing." n ( the informer ) CITY OF VANCOUVER, ISTOCK 20 BCBUSINESS.CA MARCH/APRIL 2023