It is no secret that real estate development is the single greatest catalyst for business growth, and a couple of Vancouver-area projects are taking it a step further by offering their locales novel services.
Vancouver’s Railtown district has not seen a new commercial building constructed in around 50 years, but Rendition Developments has entered the area with Bench, a 35,050 square foot, six-storey concrete building that will have a shuttle bus to Waterfront Station on the SkyTrain.
According to Brian Roche, Rendition’s president, the local neighbourhood is a mix of tech and gaming companies, architects, interior designers, furniture manufacturers, as well as a slew of other eccentrics and international companies. However, it has neither quick downtown access nor adequate parking.
“I think the shuttle service will be very popular,” said Roche. “The reason the shuttle was even contemplated is parking has always been a premium because most of the buildings are very old and sites have been very small, so they’re not conducive to underground parking.”
Railtown is an enclave of sorts just east of Gastown and close to the waterfront. Roche expects more development to continue building upon what Rendition started with Bench.
“We were the first ones in,” he said. “I bought the first land when the rezoning was talked about, and since we came in there have been half a dozen other developers who started coming in when they saw the potential in the area.”
In Port Moody, a Vancouver suburb of roughly 35,000, industry has been scarce. Most residents work in either Vancouver or Burnaby, but Panatch Group is trying to change that by working with the municipal government.[Read Me…]
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