Evan Duggan, (RENX) — Beedie, the largest private land owner, developer and manager of industrial property in Western Canada, is making a push into the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
The Vancouver-based developer told RENX it has hired Michael Duff to be the GTA director of industrial. Beedie is working on four separate industrial projects in southern Ontario.
“Beedie has been looking for opportunities in the GTA for a long time,” said Beth Berry, Beedie’s vice-president of industrial development. “At least the last 10 years.”
“The GTA is a highly competitive industrial market, and there are a lot of well-established developers who are there with significant land holdings that they’ve owned for years.
“It’s a tough market to enter.”
Legacy Business Centre in Mississauga, Ont., is Beedie’s first foray into the GTA market. (Courtesy Beedie)
Beedie’s largest construction cycle in West
Meanwhile, Beedie — recently named by Business in Vancouver as B.C.’s largest commercial property manager in 2019 — is amid its largest-ever construction cycle in Western Canada.
Industrial dominates the commercial side of its business.
“We are delivering 1.36 million square feet of new industrial space in 2019,” she said. Beedie is also forecasting the delivery of another 2.4 million square feet next year.
“In addition to all of the build-to-suits that are underway for Saputo, for Sobeys and a number of other local businesses, we’ve also just launched seven new industrial strata/condo projects,” Berry said. “That’s across Calgary, Edmonton and Metro Vancouver.”
Beth Berry, Beedie’s vice-president of industrial development. (Courtesy Beedie)
National industrial demand remains strong
Overall, Canada’s big-city industrial market continues to perform well.
“We’ve seen a lot of our existing clients grow,” she said, noting manufacturing has been performing well since about 2013 — a good barometer for the broader industrial market.
Most major markets, though, are facing a limited inventory of industrial space. In Metro Vancouver, total industrial vacancy is down to about 400,000 square feet, she said.
“That makes it really challenging for businesses to grow.”
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