This South Surrey development property, adjacent to Hwy. 99 and Croydon Drive (at left), is on the sale block. (Courtesy Frontline Real Estate Services)

A 9.4-acre development property in South Surrey, B.C., has been listed for sale for $45 million; providing an opportunity to meet the growing needs of the city’s population boom.

The unique, large-scale development site at 2660 Croydon Dr. is in a highly desirable area to live and work which has experienced notable residential and commercial growth in recent years, said listing agent Braydon Hobbs of Frontline Real Estate Services.

A portion of the property is occupied by a trucking company and a single-family home. The majority of the site is vacant.

The site is designated “mixed employment,” which allows for a range of commercial “job-creating” uses.

It includes 2.97 acres of unencumbered land with the remainder of the property suitable for parking, landscaping and similar uses.

“Development sites of this size are becoming increasingly rare across the region, not to mention ones in such a prime location as the Hwy. 99 corridor. The benefit to having a business in this area is the ease of access from all of the nearby communities in the region,” said Hobbs.

“This area offers immediate proximity to all the things a business owner or an employee would need to have an amazing lifestyle.”

The 2660 Croydon development site

Hobbs said 2660 Croydon is one of the last large-format development sites available in the region, “especially anything that has to do with employment lands on it.”

He said it has “fully identifiable usage” because the full 9.4 acres can be developed. A previous ownership group had submitted applications for multiresidential developments that were primarily rental, but the plan received pushback from the municipality due to some of the design pieces.

The ownership group decided rather than redesigning its plans, it would take the property to market.

“The sky is the limit in terms of what a creative developer could build,” said Greg Mitchell, a senior development manager at Primex Investment Ltd., the current owner of the site, in a statement.

The mixed-employment designation allows a variety of office and light industrial development.

“The notable point about this is that a lot of people at face value dismiss all of the land that is underneath the power lines as totally unusable,” said Hobbs.

“But, you’ll see in all the adjacent development properties, those under-power-lines encumbered areas can be used as surface parking and actually does add value to the unencumbered lands and provides some additional flexibility of what you can do because it has so much parking.”

“Ever since we’ve put this out, we’ve become more and more involved in conversations or receiving phone calls about this area,” Hobbs said.

Frontline has received attention from land owners, developers and residents with inquiries about “what’s going to happen now.”

Few employment land areas remain in Surrey

“They identify this as kind of one of these last employment land areas to be developed,” Hobbs added.

“This undeveloped piece along the highway is kind of the last piece in this corridor plan being developed. People are waiting for the community to come to life with this last piece in the middle.”

He said the location is adjacent to Highway 99 which averages 46,525 vehicles per day and is in close proximity to Morgan Crossing, Grandview Heights and amenities on King George Boulevard.

It is also adjacent to ongoing residential growth with more than 50,000 homes within 10 kilometres.

“The subject property is designated Mixed Employment in Surrey’s Official Community Plan,” said a Frontline listing brochure for the property.

“This designation allows for 1.0 to 1.5 FAR with a mix of industrial, commercial, business and office uses, specifically those that are not suited for within Town Centres, like business parks, light industrial developments, and industrial-related office uses.

“Public facilities are also permitted within the Mixed Employment designation.

“The property has utility right of ways along the north-east border, this encumbered land is essential for future development to achieve maximum density on the unencumbered 2.97 acres. The encumbered area is well-suited for parking and landscaping.”

Adjacent neighbourhoods

The adjacent Morgan Heights, North Grandview Heights and Sunnyside Heights neighbourhoods are experiencing considerable residential growth with many new town/rowhouse and single-family communities being built.

Frontline data says South Surrey-White Rock’s population grew by over 15,000 between the 2016 and 2021 census, to over 119,000.

This number is expected to continue to grow as increased density is planned for the area, including in the recently adopted Semiahmoo Town Centre plan, it added.

“The really exciting piece is the flexibility that the site offers,” said listing agent Todd Bohn of Frontline, in a statement.

Frontline was founded 17 years ago and focuses on all types of commercial real estate for sale and for lease.