TransLink, Vancouver’s regional transit authority , is partnering with local developer PCI Developments to build a 31-storey tower at the southeast corner of West Broadway and Arbutus Street in the city’s Kitsilano neighbourhood.Supplied/TransLink and PCI Developments
Vancouver’s major public transit operator is expanding to become a residential and commercial landlord.
As part of its 2022 investment plan, TransLink, which operates Vancouver’s SkyTrain, SeaBus and other public transportation services across the region, announced it will turn its real estate assets into a new non-fare, non-taxation revenue source.
Now known as its Real Estate Development Program, the initiative aims to enhance transit network connections and create more housing to the Metro Vancouver region as it grows.
The program speaks to the value of real estate in British Columbia and is the latest example of a non-real-estate business venturing into real estate development. Other recent examples in Canada include Vancouver-based telecom Telus and local bakery chain Breka Bakery, both of which submitted applications this year to redevelop properties they own into high-rise towers.
West Broadway and Arbutus Street
In late July, and in partnership with local developer PCI Developments, TransLink broke ground on its first real estate project: A 31-storey tower located at the southeast corner of West Broadway and Arbutus Street in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood. Once complete, the property will include 256 at-market rental units, 47 below-market rental units, retail space and a public plaza.
TransLink, a publicly owned agency created by the Province of British Columbia, says it’s taking a long-term approach by developing on excess land that it owns instead of selling it. That approach allows TransLink to play a role in how the projects are built and ensures smoother integration with existing transit infrastructure.
In separate interviews, TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn and PCI Developments president Tim Grant said that the 50/50 partnership emerged because the two companies owned neighbouring properties that could better serve as a single site. The two organizations have had a long-standing relationship since PCI primarily develops large mixed-use hubs that are integrated with transit stations, such as the Marine Gateway in Vancouver and the King George Hub in Surrey.
The TransLink-PCI project comes as British Columbia nears completion on an extension of the SkyTrain’s Millennium Line – connecting Burnaby, Port Moody and Coquitlam to Vancouver’s Broadway corridor, where six new stations are being added. The project will be located across the street from the line’s final terminal, Arbutus Station. A ground-floor retail unit in the new building is also being built so it can be reconfigured into a secondary entrance for Arbutus Station if needed.
Mr. Quinn says the vision for the project was a “complete community” and transportation network, which is why a public plaza will connect the future Arbutus Station to the existing Arbutus Greenway – a nine-kilometre trail for pedestrians and cyclists that runs from near Granville Island to South Vancouver.
The Real Estate Development Program
Throughout its history, TransLink has bought and sold pieces of real estate, usually in relation to its transit facilities and operations. It also manages retail space in some SkyTrain stations and often co-ordinates with developers that have projects near transit stations.
But developing housing is a completely new endeavour for the transit operator, which has already identified about eight sites that have the potential to be redeveloped, Mr. Quinn says. A few of those projects are already in the pipeline as part of the organization’s Real Estate Development Program, which first started to take shape in 2019.
One of those projects includes a new community development in Surrey, B.C. – a partnership between TransLink and the Surrey City Development Corporation (SCDC) that will see 35 city-owned acres and five TransLink-owned acres transformed into 2,200 news homes, 150,000 square feet of retail space and a new community centre. The property, part of TransLink’s and the SCDC’s Newton Master Development Plan, will be supported by a new rapid-transit bus route and station.
Elsewhere, TransLink is also planning a two-acre project with mixed-use towers rising 14 and 12 storeys near Moodyville Park in North Vancouver, as well as a redevelopment of a nine-acre site next to Coquitlam Central Station in Coquitlam that could accommodate as many as nine towers.
Mr. Quinn says TransLink has received feedback from both North Vancouver and Coquitlam and is now refining its designs, with the aim of returning to both councils with updated proposals in 2027. He says TransLink may also partner with private developers on those projects, recognizing that the company’s expertise is in transportation and not in development.
Revenue diversification
For TransLink, diversifying its revenue is important to the organization’s long-term growth.
“Certainly, a key part of this is looking at ways to diversify and generate long-term revenue, so we can continue to invest and upgrade our transit system,” says Mr. Quinn. “It allows us to rely a little less on fares and taxation. It’s a new innovative source for us that takes pressure off of other sources.”
Mr. Quinn says TransLink’s three major revenue streams are transit fares, the fuel taxes it collects from remitted gasoline sales and the property taxes it collects from homeowners.
Revenue generated from the organization’s Real Estate Development Program – an estimated $22-million over 10 years, according to Mr. Quinn – would be considered ancillary, along with revenue from other sources such as the development charges collected on new real estate developments in the region.
Asked whether TransLink will stick to rental housing and stay away from condo development, Mr. Quinn says the company is looking at projects on a case-by-case basis, including how they may support the goals of the local municipality.
TransLink is not the first transportation operator in the world to get into the real estate development business. The organization has looked toward Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation and MTR Properties as inspiration, but Mr. Quinn says he hopes to inspire others.
“Getting into the real estate development business is something we’ve wanted to do for quite some time. I’d like to think that we’re leaders in North America in this space – this new revenue stream – and we’re really proud of that,” he says.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that TranskLink's first real estate project, in partnership with PCI developments, is located at the southwest corner of West Broadway and Arbutus Street in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood. It is on the southeast corner.