Last year, Keltic Canada Development broke ground on a new health-innovation project.
The Vancouver-based Keltic teamed up with global medical technology company Masimo to develop a multi-level facility.
“We’re proud to see that our reputation as a leader in the life sciences sector has helped lead Masimo to expand their operations in B.C.,” stated Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation.
The 100,000 square foot facility, located at historic 220 Prior Street near the eastern half of the False Creek, marked the first building in the Healthcare Precinct in the FLATS district.
The project “will become a cornerstone of research and innovation in B.C. and Canada,” according to Keltic, a Canadian-owned real estate development company founded in 2016 in Vancouver.
Innovation District
The emerging area is arising as an “Innovation District,” according to a recent report from Avison Young, situated between the residential neighbourhoods of False Creek Flats and Mount Pleasant.
The Innovation District orbits around the new St. Paul’s Hospital and health campus, which promises more than one million square feet upon completion in 2027.
Companies committed to spaces within the Innovation District include Vancouver biotech firm AbCellera Biologics, digital studio Animal Logic, and social media platform Hootsuite.
“Developments on under-utilized industrial land will provide much-needed investment to the area and act as a catalyst for new market activity,” reads the AY report, titled “The Innovation District.”
“These developments will aid in extending Downtown beyond the peninsula, further solidifying False Creek Flats and Mount Pleasant as a key consideration for occupiers looking for centrally located space,” the report stated.
Developers, including Low Tide Properties, continue to build offices in the region, AY notes.
But the city of Vancouver is currently in a state of flux, with some of its highest commercial vacant rates in history—despite the highest tech-job growth in North America through 2020 and 2021, according to data released by CBRE through its Tech-30 report.
“Hybrid work has changed the nature of our workplaces more than anything else since the invention of the internet,” Ryan Wong, CEO of Vancouver-based tech unicorn Visier, stated in 2022.
Wong is absolutely correct in his assessment of impact. Yet it seems that high sub-lease rates aren’t scaring off commercial developers in Vancouver.
Low Tide Properties, co-founded in 2011 by local celebrity entrepreneur Chip Wilson, has been doggedly advancing Great North Way in Vancouver as a biotech hub through securing key tenants, including StemCell Technologies and Augurex Life Sciences Corp.
Low Tide imagines a hub where tenants grow and stay rather than exit the BC ecosystem after reaching a certain stage, according to president Andrew Chang. Tenants occupy half a million square feet combined across more than a dozen firms across the city.
Life Science Hub
The prize jewel of Low Tide’s current portfolio—and a pulse of the fledging Innovation District—is Lab29, a purpose-built Life Sciences project.
Low Tide has designed a building “that is functional for Life Science tenants first and foremost,” according Adam Mitchell, the developer’s Vice President of asset management.
“We hope it becomes a foundational part of the local Life Science industry and allows some of the made-in-Vancouver success stories to find a permanent home in our market once they need to scale, rather than having to look at larger US markets,” he stated.
British Columbia has a “clear value proposition for Life Science companies from a talent standpoint,” Mitchell says. “Our post-secondary institutions produce job ready individuals, we have open immigration funnelling global talent into the market, and we are expanding interest in STEM programming with traditionally underrepresented groups.”
Low Tide believes that Life Science companies want to establish operations here, “they just need the purpose-built space to do so,” says Mitchell.
“Our vision for the False Creek Flats is to create a vibrant, world class neighbourhood that allows creators, innovators, and makers to thrive when thrown into a mix with each other and supported by amenities,” he informed AY. “We want this place to have purpose, both for the people there every day but also for Vancouver on a global context.”
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