BC Business
It takes tenacity and an uncompromising combination of skill and vision to reimagine old buildings and recreate them as successful, new developments. Every urban property deserves to realize its true purpose. PC Urban Properties Corp, a Vancouver-based real estate development and investment company, has been doing just that: finding untapped potential in old industrial sites and repurposing them into real estate projects that span the spectrum from office and retail to industrial and multi-family.
Where others see challenges, PC Urban’s Brent Sawchyn and Gary Fawley see opportunities. The team’s Intraurban Business Park project, for instance, is the first industrial strata development within the city of Vancouver to be built in the last five years. The new business park situated just south of the SW Marine Drive and Laurel intersection, is transforming an underutilized property into small-bay, commercial strata properties. Ideally located just three blocks from the Canada Line, Intraurban is at the nexus of key transportation corridors, including Highway 99 and Vancouver International Airport. The project will densify and revitalize existing industrial land and attract small and medium-sized businesses and their employees to this burgeoning location.
Creative real estate solutions such as Intraurban bring value to both businesses and their surrounding communities. PC Urban is also reshaping an iconic corner of Mount Pleasant that was once the heartland of Vancouver’s thriving industrial manufacturing sector. It’s remaking history by preserving The Lightworks Building, a 1940s architectural icon that housed Cemco Electrical Manufacturing Company–that era’s leader in the tech sector. The reimagined 54,000-square-foot, six-storey building will provide much-needed commercial space for today’s creative manufacturers and businesses in the hub of the city. PC Urban’s innovative work has already breathed new life into North Vancouver with a new location for outdoor gear pioneer MEC and award-winning 1515 Barrow Street, the industrial redevelopment of the Lynnwood Hotel.