As well, Osprey Village, a trendy mixed-use residential and retail project, is underway on the river with at least 12 new storefronts. Retail space is being sold in Osprey Village for around $250 a square foot.
"Our projected job-growth rate is 130 per cent over the next 20 years," Graham said. That's compared with 52 per cent for Metro Vancouver.
Maple Ridge
Larger Maple Ridge, just east of Pitt Meadows, has leveraged both bridges and incentives to draw real estate development. And all of the action convinced Calgary's Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) to rank Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge the second-best real estate investment opportunity in B.C. in 2013 for the third straight year.
"We are very proud that our community has once again been signalled out for recognition by REIN," said Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin in July.
"The report highlights how the improvements to the transportation infrastructure have made our community accessible to investors in the Lower Mainland. That, combined with programs like our Town Centre Investment Incentive program, have resulted in over 40 projects in our town centre valued at $80 million."
That figure is now closer to $110 million, according to city planners, and includes more than 1,000 new condos and townhomes under construction or complete, a $20 million hotel complex and a raft of new retail and industrial projects.
Maple Ridge has seen a number of very high-profile projects in the last two years, including extensive renovations to its Haney Place Mall in 2012 to accommodate Thrifty Foods' new location and an expansion and renovation of the shoppingt centre for Target Canada's new location, scheduled to open this month. As well, Great Canadian Gaming Corp.'s new Community Gaming Centre was scheduled for completion in October 2013.
Incentives
Maple Ridge is also working to attract more industrial development, targeting on zoning from 170 to 230 acres for manufacturers and distributors. Potential infill sites include: 40 acres under consideration for rezoning in Hammond south of Maple Meadows Industrial Park; in the northern Blue Mountain area; in the Albion Flats on land at 232nd Street and 128th Avenue; and various parcels along the Lougheed Highway (Highway 7) adjacent to Kwantlen First Nation land, east of 240th Street.
In the meantime, it's residential and commercial that's attracting the most attention, with some developers drawn by generous tax incentives that include commercial and mixed-use projects such as hotels, conference and meeting facilities, offices and multi-family residential.
Qualifying projects enjoy priority processing, three years' municipal-tax exemption - with up to six years' municipal-tax exemption for energy-efficient projects - and a host of other goodies.
Project categories include new commercial construction valued at greater than $1 million and new multi-family residential construction. Within the central business district, where higher-density residential is encouraged, there is no maximum building-height restriction.
Perhaps the strongest incentive, however, is the "open for business" attitude seen along the Pitt-Ridge corridor.
A NAIOP survey released last month that tallied the total municipal fees to rezone and construct a 100,000-square-foot-industrial warehouse, showed Maple Ridge had the second-lowest cost in the Metro region.
Total fees in the city were $239,679, compared with $1.03 million in Richmond and $676,671 in Vancouver, which were the most expensive cities. Pitt Meadows, at a total of $418,051 in fees, was close to the average cost in 18 municipalities surveyed.
However, Pitt Meadows had one of the fastest approval times in the region for a new industrial project, at an average of 120 days from application to building permit.
from Western Investor November 2013
