TAEHOON KiM; SOURCE: SURREy CiTy DEVELOPMENT CORP. FEBRUARy 2018 BCBusiness 17
T H E M o N T H ly I N f o R M E R
tmı
"Mr. Horgan is going to sur-
prise a lot of people in terms of
protecting the interests of all
British Columbians" –p.23
F e b r u A r Y 2 0 18
INSIDE
Freighted discussion ... Capital gains... Pitching for dollars ... working relationships ... + more
F
rom his 18th-oor win-
dow—cranes on the sky-
line, construction crews
below—Michael Heeney sees
his new job as city builder all
around him. Last September the
architect took the helm of Surrey
City Development Corp. (
SCDC),
the for-pro-t agency that works
at arm's length from city hall.ƒIt's
someone from a development
business background," he adds.
"But for me, it's been very much
a continuation of my interests
and my passion in building a
city. And it's nice to be able to
focus on one city for a change."
It makes sense that
SCDC
would choose Heeney, who
succeeded Aubrey Kelly, now
head of the
UBC Properties
Trust. Heeney's role in the birth
of downtown Surrey dates back
to the early days of the city's
master plan, when
BTA (recently
renamed Revery Architecture)
served as a consultant.
Surrey by Design
URbAN DEvElopMENT
SuRREY CITY
DEVELOpmENT CORp.
bY ThE NumbERS
a switch from his previous gig
as principal at Bing Thom Archi-
tects (BTA),
where he led projects
in Vancouver, Hong Kong,
London and Washington, D.C.
"It surprised a lot of people,"
Heeney says at his desk in
Surrey's Central City o"ce
tower. "I think the preconcep-
tion is that this is a job held by
Why did B.C.'s second-largest city hire an architect to lead its
property development push? As it turns out, Michael Heeney and
Surrey are old friends
by Kerry Gold
MASTER BUILDER
Heeney helped design Surrey's
Central City complex. Now he's
back for the rest of the town
$120 million
Book value of
SCDC's
real estate assets as of
December 2017
$62 million
SCDC's fiscal 2017
budget for acquiring
and developing real
estate projects
69%
Portion of
SCDC's
profits from the
sale of serviced
industrial land
