Wesbild, a Vancouver-based developer, owned 1371 McKeen Avenue — a 27.5-acre waterfront site with considerable development potential. After eight years of working to devise a plan with the District of North Vancouver, the company ultimately decided to put the land up for sale and has recently completed the transaction.
Daily Hive Urbanized previously reported on the site in 2019, when the district rejected one of Wesbild’s proposals. Based on a recent release from Wesbild, it appears that little has changed since that time.
“After eight years of ownership, the 27.5-acre waterfront industrial site in North Vancouver has been sold to a Canadian institutional investor. This property represents one of the last remaining privately-held waterfront sites of magnitude in the area,” Wesbild stated in a media release.
Wesbild President and CEO, Kevin Layden, explained:
“After several development applications with the District of North Vancouver that did not proceed, we had to pivot and focus on renovating the existing warehouses that provide much-needed industrial and storage space.”
According to BC Assessment, the land is valued at $175,272,400. However, the Metro Vancouver Industrial Group indicates that the most recent sale closed at $120,000,000.
“With industrial vacancy at less than 1% in North Vancouver, and with industrial rents in the range of $25 to $27 per square foot, businesses in North Vancouver are challenged by increased costs. Across Metro Vancouver, we need more industrial space. But we need a reset in thinking about industrial land development in Metro Vancouver if we are to compete on the world stage,” Layden added.
Back in 2019, when the subdivision proposal was rejected, Wesbild argued that the plan would have created more flexible parcels of land to support a broader range of businesses — particularly small to mid-sized industrial companies. The proposed subdivided parcels would have ranged from 0.6 acres to 10.8 acres, helping to address industrial space shortages on the North Shore.
Tony Quattrin, vice chairman of the National Investment Team at CBRE Vancouver, expressed optimism about the transaction:
“We view this as a landmark transaction that represents a significant sale in an emerging asset class: industrial outdoor storage (IOS). There’s a number of large institutional investors around the globe showing interest in IOS.”
He added:
“We are delighted with the sale as it brought in a well-known Canadian institutional investor. With the limited amount of industrial land in Metro Vancouver, the investor here took a long-term view that it was a good investment for reasonably priced land supported by a strong holding income.”
Wesbild has requested comment from the District of North Vancouver regarding the sale and the claims made in its statement.
With files from Kenneth Chan.