By Mark MacDonald
Business Examiner Vancouver Island
NANAIMO – Colliers International is bullish on the Nanaimo and central Vancouver Island commercial real estate market.
They were when they urged Jason Winton to move to Nanaimo from Vancouver in 2004, and their move into the market has been rewarded. Since Winton, Vice President and Managing Broker of Commercial Sales & Leasing officially opened the office in 2006, Colliers has grown by adding Brad Bailey and Brad Archibald, and have posted over 500 deals worth over $500 million.
“Colliers has a great reputation, and we wanted to bring Vancouver clients here to the Island,” says Winton. “We had to educate people here about what we did and how different things are with Colliers. I was their pilot project, and when the revenue and listings kept climbing, we knew we needed to add other brokers.
“Colliers has a very professional way of doing business,” he states. “We’ve been known to do a lot of big deals, but we also do a very good job of the smaller stuff, yet in the same professional manner.
“We’re a small office doing big things and doing them well.”
The trio has had as many as 150 listings at one particular time.
“Every year, we’d tick up,” he recalls. “By 2010, we were getting invited to every dance to present about our services. We’ve been bullish on Nanaimo before bullish was fashionable. It’s always been a no-brainer for us, especially coming from Vancouver.”
Some of the office’s notable deals include the sale of Pacific Rim Shopping Centre in Port Alberni for $17.1 million, Metral Station in Nanaimo for $11.35 million, Holly House and Westwind Manor in Duncan for $10.5 million, Southgate Shopping Centre in Nanaimo for $9.7 million, Marina West Resort in Tofino for $7.9 million, and Timberline Village in Campbell River for $10.3 million.
Colliers had conducted many high-profile transactions from Duncan to Campbell River involving shopping centres, office buildings, retail buildings and commercial land, industrial buildings and land, apartment buildings, retail, office and industrial leasing, resort and hotel properties, and even land for single and multi-family developments.
Bailey notes that “CAP rates are pretty attractive here, so investors are getting good returns on their investments. . .It’s real estate migration at the end of the day. The market is so competitive in Vancouver and Victoria so people may sell there and buy here in Nanaimo and they’re banking significant residual proceeds after the sale. This area has always looked affordable, and people have discovered it now.”
Archibald adds that there is plenty of activity in multi-family units.
“We haven’t seen this type of demand for multi-family residential for probably 10-plus years,” he states. “Right now, there are around 1,500 purpose-built rental units currently being built or in the design phases in the Nanaimo region alone. That’s unheard of.”
There is a dire shortage of industrial land available in the region, however, and whatever does come on the market moves instantly.
Their latest project is the massive 840-acre-plus Sandstone property in south Nanaimo, zoned for commercial, residential and industrial flanking the Island Highway.
“The owners want one developer to come in and quarterback the project,” Winton states.
www.colliers.com