Grosvenor Property Canada has signed a 10-year lease with construction company Doka Canada for a 15-acre industrial site on Annacis Island, the latest in a pair of major transactions that underscore continued demand for industrial space in Metro Vancouver.

The agreement for 830 Carlisle St., a former Russel Metals property, will double Doka's Metro Vancouver footprint and gives the company room for a large covered yard and office operations. It follows Grosvenor's lease of a 163,000-square-foot industrial building to S&S Activewear announced in June, as tenants compete for space in a market where the supply of large industrial properties remains particularly tight.

Robert Duteau, executive vice-president of investment at Grosvenor Property Canada, said the Doka deal highlights the limited options available to companies looking for large industrial sites in the region.

Doka was already operating in Delta and wanted to roughly double the size of its facility, while Grosvenor had a rare 15-acre site with existing infrastructure that could be adapted to the company's needs.

“The industrial market continues to have a scarcity of supply. There isn't a tap you can turn on for a bunch of new industrial land. That's a major differentiator in the Vancouver industrial market compared with many other industrial markets in Canada. Because of that, the vacancy rate typically stays very low.”

1,200-acre industrial park

Grosvenor bought Annacis Island in 1952 and created a 1,200-acre industrial park. 

“Today, Annacis Island is the most well-located master-plan industrial park in Vancouver,” said Duteau.

“You have mountains on one side, the ocean on the other, and the agricultural beltline on one side. There isn't that availability of space,” he said.

“There aren't new sites. Prices are so much higher here because of the scarcity of land. There's not a significant amount of new supply coming on. So today, Vancouver still commands the highest industrial rental rates in Canada.”

Duteau said Grosvenor has plans for a new 150,000-square-foot facility on the island which would be the company’s first new development there since 2013. Construction on the project is expected to start next year.

Grosvenor Property Canada is an owner, developer and investor in high quality mixed-use places as well as industrial properties. As at December 31, 2025, GPC’s total assets under management was $2.8 billion.

Annacis falls under the jurisdiction of the City of Delta. Grosvenor owns 186 acres with 36 separate properties. It is the single largest landowner on Annacis Island.

Given the long-standing legacy of the island, there is a gamut of ages of products. 

“We've got some old supply that's kind of reaching functional obsolescence. We have a newer product. Newer for us is kind of 2000 to 2005, which would be sort of the better, more modern logistics-type properties that we have there,” said Duteau.

“And then we have one building, the M6 building, which we just had a major announcement on four weeks ago, which is our newest building there. It's called the Millennium Six building. It's 163,000-square-feet, best-in-class. It's an A-class industrial logistics building that was just leased to S&S Activewear, which was the single largest lease transaction that Grosvenor's ever done on the island.

“We have in the past done a few deals that were larger in size on some sites that we sold off, but this was the largest deal that we've done by revenue.”

Grosvenor plans for future developments

Duteau said Grosvenor has a varied supply of different types of buildings at different ages and at some point it will demolish those buildings and introduce new supply.

He said some of the existing buildings on Annacis Island are on leases. Grosvenor owns the land but doesn’t control the sites on those properties. Over time all of the sites will come back to Grosvenor, which has plans to develop them. 

Because of the scarcity of land in the Vancouver area, Duteau said rental rates have exploded, doubling over a fairly short period of time, peaking at $22 to $24 per square foot for best-in-class real estate ”to where we're at today, which they've come off.”

The 15-acre site leased to Doka is one of the largest pieces of land Grosvenor owns on the island.

Annacis Island is in a very central location and attractive to anyone in last-mile logistics. Access to the road structure, or infrastructure, is what's key. The island scores very well with the logistics-type companies based on its location, added Duteau.

“Given the shortage of available land, you don't have a lot of options. This was a unique site that had this existing infrastructure on it that gave them an opportunity to have a covered yard, and they were looking for a large, 15-acre site to double the size of their operation. We just had the right piece of land at the right time.”

The formwork system by Doka is in use at Grosvenor’s Brentwood Block masterplan in Burnaby, B.C.

"Doka is an exceptional global company with a long history of supporting some of the world's most ambitious construction projects," said Duteau. “This lease represents a unique partnership between landlord and tenant, as we are currently utilizing Doka's proprietary formwork systems on Brentwood Block, our landmark mixed-use master-planned community in Burnaby.

"The fact that we are working with Doka both as a tenant and as a trusted construction partner speaks to the quality of their products and their reputation within the industry. It's rewarding to see this evolution of our partnership."

Doka is a subsidiary of Austria's Umdasch Group and operates in more than 60 countries.

“The new Annacis Island facility marks an important step in Doka’s continued growth in Western Canada. This investment reflects our confidence in the ongoing strength of British Columbia’s construction sector and reinforces Doka’s commitment to being close to our customers, helping them meet evolving project demands with innovative formwork and scaffolding solutions,” said Gunnar Falke, CEO, Doka Canada Ltd, in a statement.