Wire and cable distributor Texcan has consolidated its operations at a custom 105k SF office/warehouse at Wesgroup Properties’ Pacific Link Business Park in Surrey. Developer David Wesik walks us through the deal.
Texcan moved its distribution centre from Anacis Island to a 75k SF build-to-suit warehouse at Pacific Link. The complex includes a 30k SF office for 100 staffers, so Texcan can consolidate admin functions of its local sister companies. This is the largest facility at Wesgroup's 84-acre park, also home to FedEx Freight, Hostess/Frito Lay, Pacific Coast Express, QuikX, Williams Machinery and Lordco Auto Parts, among others. David says the Texcan deal validates Bridgeview as a top logistical location for industrial users (with direct access to South Fraser Perimeter Road) but also one that’s suitable for head offices.
Wesgroup signed a long-term lease with Texcan in spring 2014 and construction of the custom-designed facility, at Scott Road and 103A Avenue, took roughly a year. David says the complex's sizeable office component is a game changer for the South Westminster/Bridgeview node. “Thirty-thousand square feet—that’s a big office deal for Surrey unto itself.” And with next to no vacant industrial land in that area, and “highly fragmented” ownership of plots, “there hasn’t been any other meaningful industrial development here."
Wesgroup acquired the Pacific Link site in 2004 (formerly an auto-wrecking yard, it required substantial remediation) and is two-thirds of the way through its development, with 17 acres remaining. “This was a bet on location,” David explains, noting that SFPR was still in the conceptual stage when Wesgroup bought the property. “If you drop a pin in the centre of the region, you land at Pacific Link.” Seven industrial buildings are up so far, plus a three-pad retail village. And Wesgroup soon starts construction on a 23k SF build, this one done on spec, as will future phases if need be, says David. “We’re feeling pretty bullish.”
At Wesgroup’s Brewery District in New Westminster, three commercial buildings are done and zoning is in place for four residential towers, one of them purpose-built rental, which Wesgroup will own. And at River District (above)—a 7M SF development on Marine Drive—three condo towers are under construction, another launches soon, and a six-storey wood-frame rental building is planned. The goal, says David: deliver 200 to 300 units a year at River District, where his firm has a conditional deal for a 17k SF liquor store and is finalizing a grocery store lease. “So we've still got a decade or two of building left there."
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