Commercial property owners in Vancouver are taking advantage of the sellers' market, according to reports.
As per The Globe and Mail, two properties have just been listed in the market. First, the Molson brewery is located on a large piece of land adjacent to Vancouver's Burrard Bridge. On the other hand, the Bentall office towers are said to be the core of the city's business district for details. Aside from those two, brokers are saying that more owners are considering the same action.
According to Hendrik Zessel, senior managing director at the commercial brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield, "Today, there's a lot of money in the system. People want hard assets and Vancouver is safe."
Managing director Maury Dubuque at Colliers International reportedly believes that anyone owning commercial property in Vancouver's rising market is looking into the advantages of selling. He said, "There's a lot of discussions in a lot of boardrooms throughout Vancouver on real estate strategy. Many of our clients are having those conversations."
The spokesperson for Ivanhoé Cambridge in Montreal, Sébastien Théberge, has explained that the reason the company is selling a valuable asset such as the Bentall is because the time is right. He said, "There is great appetite from global institutional investors for core assets in key cities and there is limited inventory that is accessible. Bentall Centre offers a centre-ice location, long-term value and opportunity for more development."
Great West Life is a partner with Ivanhoé, which holds a minority share in the Bentall towers. It was reported that a co-owner would usually be given the chance to buy the asset first. It was a surprise that it went to the market all of a sudden but Théberge has mentioned that Great West was notified before the property was listed.
On the other hand, according to The Globe and Mail, Molson brewery is a different story. It was reported that although it is on the market, it is still producing beer in cans and kegs. The company spokesperson, Jennifer Kerr, said that, "Molson Coors has decided to evaluate the current market for the potential sale of the site and relocation of the brewery."
While it is not an issue if landowners sell and develop their sites, Vancouver's general manager of planning, Brian Jackson said that since Molson site is an industrial area in the regional growth strategy plan, "We have told all potential purchasers that they should purchase the property based on industrial land values," he said. "Anything beyond that is pure speculation."
