- What Industrial property sells for $145m
- Why Buyer HTEC will build a liquid hydrogen facility at the site
- What next High prices for industrial property in Metro Vancouver are expected to continue
HTEC has paid $145m for 21.4 acres of industrial property in North Vancouver, the municipality’s largest such deal ever, according to the brokers.
The site, at 100 Forester Street in the District of North Vancouver, will host a liquid hydrogen facility. The deal closed on April 30.
CBRE represented the seller, ERCO Worldwide, in the deal. Executive vice president Chris MacCauley said the tight market for industrial property in Metro Vancouver means companies requiring a location in the city will be confronted with high prices.
“We’re land constrained,” MacCauley told Green Street News. “So, they’re going to have no choice but to continue to pay record-setting prices because we just don’t have an inventory of available vacant land.”
BC Assessment valued the property at $103m in 2023.
The transaction between ERCO and HTEC is the second largest industrial land deal in Metro Vancouver’s history, MacCauley said. The transaction took more than two years to complete. ERCO will lease back part of the property for manufacturing, including generating by-product hydrogen gas.
On May 24, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, a crown corporation, announced a $337m loan to HTEC to “expediate and expand” its operations in British Columbia and Alberta.
The CIB said the loan will help implement HTEC’s sustainable fuel supply chain aimed at the commercial trucking sector.
MacCauley said HTEC and ERCO had a working relationship, crediting John Engelen, vice president of corporate development at ERCO, for making the deal come to fruition.
“He was the one who was really instrumental in bringing this all together,” MacCauley said. “Record setting price per acre was only achievable by the synergies with ERCO and HTEC with the hydrogen component.”
Avison Young represented HTEC.
