Wellcox Yard in Nanaimo - Date/Photographer unknown.

2 June 2012

South-End Waterfront Has Untapped Potential

Nanaimo Vancouver Island British Columbia - "This isn't about gentrification," Hardie said. "It's about our community inevitably changing... and our neighbourhood changing with it."
 
Anderson believes redevelopment will happen slowly and in stages. Metropolitan centres, like Vancouver, Victoria, and Toronto, created waterfront walkways in their waterfront industrial parks first, drawing developers to the site.
 
But changing the industrial landscape in Nanaimo will not come easy.
 
The evolution of the waterfront hinges on private owners and what happens with the Wellcox rail lands. City officials are waiting to see who purchases the Canadian Pacific Railway's 22-hectare property, currently listed at $7.9 million. It is the only industrial real estate for sale.
 
Other companies, like Coastal Wood Industries and Western Forest Products, have made it clear they have no plans to leave downtown Nanaimo.
 
The Wellcox site could be an important trigger for future development and allow for one of the few opportunities the city has to negotiate for public park along the waterfront, city officials say.
 
But interest in the CP Rail site has only been "periodic."
 
"It is a tricky piece of land," said Brad Bailer, with Colliers International. "If you are going to change the use to something else then you're going to need a concept that's going to work."
 
The new landowner could also grapple with challenges of environmental assessments, the rail yard, and road access. The Snuneymuxw First Nation also has land claims to the property.
 
Without redevelopment, a walkway is up to private landowners like Seaspan and CP Rail, which would need to invest in constructing a trail inland to the Nanaimo Port Authority, Anderson said.
 
No one has stepped forward yet.
 
Tamara Cunningham.