If not Home Depot, Then What?

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In the Real Estate Roundup of last week’s Business in Vancouver, Peter Mitham reports that the land that the old Marketplace IGA stands on is up for sale. This would suggest that Home Depot has definitely given up on developing this land into a mix of residential and commercial property. They were thwarted in their plans back in 2004 after heavy neighbourhood resistance, which led City Council to put in a cap of 10,000 sq.ft. per store around Broadway and Arbutus. Grocery stores and drug stores were exempted, to allow for the development of London Drugs and the new Marketplace IGA in the 2200 block of Broadway.

I don’t pretend to know much about real estate, let alone commercial real estate and commercial development, but I would have thought that the recent approval of a monster Canadian Tire on Southwest Marine Drive would have left Home Depot hopeful for the current City Council to overturn the retail cap. I guess they are not waiting for what-ifs and are choosing to sell high instead.

It will be very interesting to see who ends up buying the land and what will happen to it once the leases are up in 2009. But it does seem very likely that this piece of land will end up being developed in a similar way as The Vine. Minus the large retailers that is.

Last modified: June 2, 2008

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