Vancouver’s municipal transit agency is stepping into the realm of speculative real estate development as it seeks to capture for itself revenues associated with the private projects around its expanding network of stations.
TransLink, which has been building out a light rail network that includes a planned 16 kilometre expansion by 2028, said in a statement it would stand up an in-house wing to pursue development of residential, commercial and mixed-use projects near its transit hubs. After a pandemic that has left city agencies bruised and transit ridership down nationwide, the effort appeared to be an attempt to capitalize on the city’s booming real estate market while addressing its housing shortage, rooted in a deficit of more than 80,000 homes.
“While we continue to bring riders back to the system after a very difficult two years, this initiative is a creative way to generate funding for essential Metro Vancouver transit services,” TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn said in the statement.
The agency did not respond to a request for clarification of timelines, partners or which sites might be the among first targets of its new program.
While TransLink did not mention specific examples in its statement, private firms have embarked on a number of high-profile projects on or adjacent to TransLink stations. Recent projects from national developers such as Shape Properties and Grosvenor loom large in the region.
Shape's Brentwood Town Centre, developed along with investment firm L Catterton Real Estate and Healthcare of Ontario Pension, is one of British Columbia’s largest master-planned, mixed-use developments. The project, at 4676 Brentwood Blvd., is set to ultimately deliver more than 6,000 residential units across 11 towers, as well as 3.9 million square feet of commercial space in a phased construction process, all developed around a TransLink station.
Similarly, Grosvenor last week announced a high-profile development on the former site of the Oakridge Transit Centre, where it plans to deliver 1,630 units spread across 17 buildings, including towers up to 26 storeys. The development doesn’t center around a new station, but will take shape on a former TransLink property.
Vancouver is not the first British Columbia city to ponder capturing the development dollars that sometimes flow after municipalities install improvements like transit stations.
The city of Surrey launched the Surrey City Development Corp. in 2007, which similarly sought to boost revenues by playing a role in the development of 3 Civic Plaza and the Campbell Heights industrial land.
But that project ultimately died, with the Surrey Now-Leader reporting in 2020 that it had fallen victim to hungry city budget-makers looking to sell off assets to meet pandemic budget funding shortfalls.
TransLink's next steps will be funding and partnerships, both of which are still up in the air, according to the statement, as well as selection of a first target site.
