BCBusiness

20 B C G E U B C B U S I N E S S . C A J U N E 2 0 2 5 Back here in B.C., Vancouver Community College in East Vancouver has come up with a startlingly bold plan to build as many as 4,000 apartments on its site on East Broadway, one of the most ambitious of a raft of college and university efforts to add new or more housing to their campuses. (These are mainly the result of the province providing incentives and a legal framework to encourage them to do that.) Vancouver set off some buzz in February with its announced plan to develop 4,500 apartments that will not be low-cost or subsidized but just straight-up market- rate rentals available to any household making less than $190,000 a year. That has prompted all kinds of questions about whether the city should get into this kind of business and what the pitfalls might be. Interestingly, while a lot of people are alarmed at the city venturing into doing its own development, Vancouver actually already did that almost 20 years ago when it built market-rate apartments on top of its Mount Pleasant community centre and library, as senior city officials fretted about the complete lack of new purpose-built apartments. The building never has a vacancy that I know of. But it's unlikely that other cities—or other non-housing organizations—are going to par- ticipate in a mass movement to follow in those footsteps. Surrey pondered develop- ing some of its own apartments more than a decade ago, as then-mayor Dianne Watts was working to create an identifi- able "downtown" for a rapidly growing city that had been a bedroom suburb until then. Council had created a Surrey City Development Corporation and thought about building something itself to ignite other new construction in that area. In the end, the city decided against that, says Michael Heeney, who has been president of the development corporation off and on since 2017. "Nothing has ever hap- pened like that in Surrey. Traditionally, we tend to not work in the areas where the private sector is managing fine," he says. That's an approach shared by many, and it also applies to nonprofit housing for some. In West Vancouver, city council wanted to see some kind of "workforce housing" built. But they, too, decided not to do it on their own. "We leased the land for a dollar to Kiwanis Housing and they are going to build it and manage it," says former mayor Mary-Ann Booth. "I don't think municipalities should get into the business of actually building and managing properties. It's too risky." But there is one adventurous non-developer organization that is forging ahead with plans for building its own housing: the BC General Employees' Union (BCGEU). Its project in Burnaby near the Royal Oak SkyTrain station has been in the news for a few years, starting from when the union bought a property there in 2019—then applied to the city in 2020 with a pitch for a new office combined with almost 300 apartments, half of them at below-market rates, and childcare space. It got a lot of public support and council approval in 2022. Like many developments in the Lower Mainland over the last two years, it has run into some speedbumps, particularly as construction costs have continued their elevator ride up. The union had hoped to start construction in 2023. Two years later, that hasn't happened and the development has been revised to eliminate some amenity space and parking, while the proportion of apartments that will be rented at below-market rates has been reduced to 40 percent. In spite of that, BCGEU pres- ident Paul Finch says this proj- ect is still going ahead—along with two others that haven't hit the headlines yet. Finch says the union is currently planning for a similar redevelopment of two office buildings, out of the 13 sites it owns throughout the pro- vince (one in Victoria and one in Nelson). "We are supplying afford- able childcare and housing when we need to develop an office," he says. That will apply any time it needs to build a new office. Even though the union doesn't have any history of doing development, Finch says it does have expertise in how to manage complex projects. And he has advice to others on what they'll need in their organization if they think of doing the same. "Three things you need if you're going to do this: technical expertise, procurement management and an internal audit system," he says. The BCGEU has those already, Finch notes. As well, it has hired a development man- ager to work with the general contractor as it moves ahead with those projects. Union members won't au- tomatically get preference for the apartments but, if all other things are equal, they could be chosen over a non-union mem- ber with similar qualifications, he adds. The process has been a bit tough and the union is awaiting imminent news that it will get financing help from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). In spite of all that, Finch re- mains optimistic—especially af- ter getting such strong support in Burnaby—that the union is doing the right thing. " We are supplying affordable childcare and housing when we need to develop an office." —Paul Finch, president, BC General Employees' Union

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