New rapid transit lines are expected to drive development and support suburban office, retail and residential markets in Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto.

This includes: the imminent 3.3-kilometre Metro Line, which will stretch light rapid transit (LRT) service from the current terminus near Edmonton City Hall to the campus of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT); the 11-kilometre Evergreen Line, slated to open in the summer of 2016, to tie Port Moody and Coquitlam into the 79-kilometre network linking Vancouver and its surrounding cities; and an 8.6-kilometre addition to Toronto’s Spadina subway line, taking it into the neighbouring city of Vaughan, projected for completion in the fall of 2016.

Proximity to rapid transit is almost a mathematical component in valuing residential and commercial real estate, as analysts factor the added worth of an easy walk to a station. For example, the Jones Lang LaSalle Rapid Transit Office Index for Greater Vancouver sets the upper limit of what can be defined as “on” the transit line at 500 metres.

“Given Vancouver’s climate and the amount of rain, 500 metres is probably the maximum distance where you can get off a train and get to your office and not be completely drenched,” says Andrew Laurie, a senior associate with Jones Lang LaSalle.

Last year’s inaugural Index revealed generally lower vacancies and higher rents within that 500-metre radius than in less accessible areas in the suburban markets of Richmond, Burnaby, New Westminster and Surrey. On the development front, four new buildings, representing more than 800,000 square feet of office space, are now under construction near TransLink SkyTrain stations in Burnaby and New Westminster.

“Once you are connected to the line, convenience is increased while travel times are reduced,” Laurie notes. “If you look at the number of real estate transactions along the Evergreen route, you can conclude that the development community is seeing opportunities.”

EDMONTON

Edmonton’s new line will connect to two major hospitals and Oxford Properties’ Kingsway Mall, a regional shopping centre that now hosts about 8 million patrons annually.

“We are fortunate to have two LRT stations opening up at the mall, at the north and south ends of the property,” says Seana Almer, property manager at Kingsway Mall.

Edmonton Transit System (ETS) estimates the new line will pull about 13,000 weekday riders, representing 130,000 to-and-from trips between Monday and Friday, to the system. Long-term expansion plans should eventually push the LRT line even further into the mall’s customer base in the St. Albert neighbourhood, but right now its operators are looking south with anticipation.

“It connects us directly to downtown,” Almer says. “It also makes it easier for our customers and staff working in the mall to be able to choose to reduce their carbon footprint.”

VANCOUVER

Transit connections that can help reduce motor vehicle trips similarly fit with Morguard Investments Ltd.’s corporate sustainability goals, making for a green bonus at Coquitlam Centre, a regional shopping mall located on Vancouver’s pending Evergreen Line. Beyond that, the mall’s property manager foresees business advantages.

“We are in the business of attracting people to come to the shopping centre so the easier it is for people to do that, and benefit our retail tenants, that’s an obvious benefit for us,” observes Ken Moffat, vice president, asset management, with Morguard.

Morguard is the mall’s third-party manager, but is gauging investment potential in the entire area.

“The opportunities for intensification are more likely to happen along transit lines and at nodes. Quite often what we see happening, and what we are expecting to see in the case of Coquitlam Centre, is that an influx of residential and commercial development will happen in the area,” Moffat says. “We expect we would be able to partake in those opportunities ourselves.”

Laurie also outlines possible positive spinoffs for tenant attraction.

“The cost of living is so high that many people are getting pushed out of the Vancouver residential market and are living farther and farther away from the downtown core,” he says. “As the migration to the suburbs continues, suburban office locations on a rapid transit line will be seen as an attractive alternative for companies looking to retain and recruit top talent.”

TORONTO

From a landowner’s perspective, York University Development Corporation was an early advance planner for the arrival of the Spadina subway line at the 457-acre (185-hectare) campus located on the Toronto side of  the city’s boundary with Vaughan and York Region. Collaboration with Toronto Planning staff produced a 2009 update to the Secondary Plan for the campus’ so-called edge precincts – which encircle the core of academic buildings, residences and associated university facilities – priming those outlying areas for mixed-use, commercial-residential development.

The campus is situated roughly midway on the extension to the line, which will add six new stations to the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) subway system.

“Virtually the whole campus will be within a 10- to 15-minute walk of one of two stations,” reports Chris Wong, director, transportation and master planning, with York University Development Corporation. “We have been getting ready to be able to go out to the development industry to invite them to come in with proposals of how they could work with the University in the development of this area.”

Subway train service at four-minute intervals will ease travelling for many of the approximately 56,000 people who are enrolled as students or work on the campus. It will also reduce the University’s carbon footprint from the approximately 1,700 buses — encompassing TTC, York Region Transit, Brampton Transit and regional GO Bus services — that now move through the central bus hub on a daily basis, Monday to Friday.

The new line is projected to open somewhat in sync with the beginning of the 2016-17 school term — a schedule that has also shaped the agenda for the University’s own planners.

“The Secondary Plan gives us the uplift in density that will translate into increased land values once this piece of infrastructure starts operating,” Wong says. “We’ve done and are doing the work to make our land as marketable as possible.”

Barbara Carss is the editor-in-chief of Canadian Property Management.