Industrial
Industrial action, in fact, is one of the hottest areas in Abbotsford. About 220 acres of land around the busy Abbotsford International Airport is being marketed for aviaton-related businesses and the City of Abbotsford has earmarked 37 other properties in Clearbrook and Peardonville for industrial use.
The airport, ranked as the largest secondary airport in Canada with 460,000 passengers annually, is now run by an airport authority that reports to City Hall.
"What we're really trying to assess is the best way to operate the airport," said Jean-Paul Laube, business development manager for the Abbotsford International Airport. "We're marketing ourselves as the Fraser Valley's airport so we view ourselves as having to have the infrastructure in place to go out and bring in business.
"The No. 1 priority is maximizing the airport as an economic driver."
An acre of prime land zoned for industrial in Abbotsford ranges from $750,000 to $850,000 per acre, according to local realtors, but some B sites can be found in the half-a-million-dollar range. Sounds expensive, but not when compared with the average of $1.2 million per acre for industrial land in Metro Vancouver.
The City of Abbotsford calls industrial space "job development" lands, and it is an accurate moniker. One of the biggest industrial projects this year is an expansion of the Saputo Dairy Products Canada manufacturing facility, worth $2.3 million and about 150 jobs.
"Business friendly"
Abbotsford, named last year by the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties (NAOIP) group as the "most business friendly municipality" in B.C., is offering generous tax incentives to attract employers.
At the airport, for instance, industrial developers who spend at least $100,000 receive a 100 per cent property tax exemption in the first year, and the exemptions extend out to 10 years.
Tax breaks are also used in downtown Abbotsford to encourage new infill commercial construction. "Abbotsford's economy is strong and we want to do everything we can to keep it that way. Tax incentive programs like these ensure that Abbotsford remains competitive among other municipalities," a city release stated.
According to a NAIOP survey, it would cost a total of $3.52 per square foot in total civic fees to rezone and develop a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in Abbotsford, compared with nearly $6 per square foot in Vancouver and $5.35 per square foot in Surrey. Abbotsford also has the fastest approval times in the Lower Mainland, taking an average of 90 days from a rezoning application to putting shovels in the ground for an industrial building, NAIOP found.
Along with the tax incentives a strategic projects team was created in 2008 to help identify a small number of high-impact projects for Abbotsford and deliver expedited services to the development community.
An example of this strategy is lands around the highly rated University of the Fraser Valley, where former industrial lands are being rezoned for mixed-use retail and residential projects. Land here is going for close to $1 million an acre, says Paul Penner, manager of Re/Max Little Oak Realty and the former president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.
"Abbotsford is the biggest sleeper city in B.C., " Penner said, noting that it is a centre for high-paying jobs. He pointed to the new Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre, aviation giants such as WestJet and Conair and new manufacturing facilities as such job generators.
Housing
Abbotsford's housing market has taken a hit, but there are signs that it is coming back. Quantum Developers is planning to build the tallest condo high-rise in the city with a 26-storey tower that will start marketing this spring. Polygon Homes of Vancouver is also active in the market, but some other developers - such as Solterra - have put new housing projects on hold until "Abbotsford prices recover," as a Solterra spokesman said.
The median price of an Abbotsford detached house is $400,000 and a typical condo sells for $155,000 - among the lowest prices in the Lower Mainland and about $140,000 less than in neighbouring Langley.
Penner, whose staff crunched the numbers, reckoned that, based on travelling times and prices, "the 25-minute increase in drive time from Surrey to Abbotsford equates to a savings of $5,028 per minute, and the 10-minute increase from Langley City could save the buyer a whopping $14,260 per minute behind the wheel."
After a slowdown in late 2011 Abbotsford detached housing sales jumped 18 per cent in February, perhaps due to home buyers doing their own math, especially for higher-end homes. "You can buy an executive-style house in a premier community, like Eagle Mountain, for around $700,000," Penner said, noting a similar house in Metro Vancouver would easily run to more than $1.5 million.
The expansion of the Port Mann Bridge, the Mt. Lehman freeway exchange and the completion of the Golden Ears Bridge across the Fraser River will further reduce commute times, Penner noted, forecasting that more Metro home buyers will begin to see Abbotsford as a best buy.
The apartment vacancy rate in Abbotsford is around 6 per cent, the highest in the Lower Mainland; but, according to landlords like Dhillon, this just makes it a prime buying opportunity.
"The [rental] potential is enormous," Dhillon said, adding that you can buy apartment buildings in Abbotsford and Surrey for less than the construction value.
Retail
Developer Shape Properties is among those who recognize Abbotsford' potential. Shape is in the midst of developing the $200 million, 600,000-square-foot High Street "lifestyle" shopping district on a 20-acre site in West Abbotsford, which will include Wal-Mart, London Drugs, Cineplex VIP Cinemas, the first Marshalls outlet in B.C. and 17 other retailers when it opens next spring.
Downtown tax incentives - which include tax holidays for up to five years - are also helping to encourage new retail projects in Abbotsford's historic core, according to Jay Teichroeb, manager of Abbotsford's economic development office.
from Western Investor April 2012
