by Peter Mitham
Business in Vancouver, September 10th-16th

Backers of the biggest high-tech office park ever proposed in B.C. are looking at other plans such as an auto mall for a 17-acre False Creek site.

A recent letter from Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (B.C.) Inc. solicits city planners' input regarding an auto mall proposed as an alternative to Schroeder Properties Ltd.'s Tech-park.com development.

Avison Young brokered Schroeder Properties president Rod Schroeder's purchase of the site from Bellingham's Trillium Corp. in 1999. Schroeder paid $20.5 million for the site with the intent of developing a two-million-square-foot, campus-style office complex.

Difficulties securing a development permit and a downturn in tech markets stalled the start of the project, expected to cost $500 million. Tenants were never announced even though Schroeder claimed he had two waiting in the wings.

A year ago, Schroeder sold his portfolio of four shopping centres for $170 million to Riocan REIT to secure additional financing for Tech-park.

Schroeder denies planning an auto mall for the site but city planner Ian Smith said the letter from Avison Young requests input on behalf of Schroeder Properties and 16 auto dealers around central Vancouver.

"Automobile retailing would likely accelerate the development of the site and may allow creative ideas to be incorporated into the overall use plan," Avison Young told the city in the letter. Smith said the site might also have a small amount of high-tech space as well as live-work units. He said the proposal is attractive because it promises redevelopment of a languishing area.

"Right now there doesn't seem to be any kind of a permanent high-tech industrial use that wants to move into that amount of land," Smith said.

"If we were to consider an auto mall in that location, we'd be freeing up space in more urban areas [for development]."

The letter states Schroeder's willingness to work with the city in making the site accessible. The issue was a major obstacle to municipal approval of the original Tech-park plans. Site access remains an important issue, Smith said.

"Are those linkages going to be realized in an auto mall configuration? It would certainly have to be a much different auto mall than my understanding from looking at Richmond and some other places," he said

The city's planning department will consider the proposal in the coming weeks but Smith doesn't expect council to consider any proposal that is submitted until next year.

Area resident Mark Budgen, a member of the Strathcona Residents Association, said an auto mall would betray the city's vision for the area and the potential of the high-tech zoning put in place to attract developers such as Schroeder.

It would do nothing to create community or provide jobs, he added.

"That site needs Tech-park -- or something like Tech-park -- that would be an enormous economic boost to the area and provide a lot of jobs which now don't exist in this area," he said.

Meanwhile, Vancouver Jeep Chrysler bought part of the CN property adjacent to the Tech-park site last week in anticipation of future expansion. The site was previously secured by Bosa Development Corp. in late 2000 for high-tech office space, but relinquished a year ago.

Mark Ell, general manager and owner of the dealership, said the acquisition will allow him to expand his shop from 13,000 square feet to as much as 40,000 square feet.

But Ell said the move won't come before there's further development in the area. "We're not in a hurry to move right now," he said. "Depending on how things go, it could be as early as two years but we're anticipating between four and six years before we move."

Currently, the only major development in the area is Discovery Parks' 300,000-square-foot False Creek research park. Interomex Biopharmaceuticals Inc. located there earlier this year, and Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. will move in later this month.

A second building is under way and a third is in the preliminary planning stages.
 

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