City of Burnaby buys Metro Vancouver's old headquarters towers | Daily Hive

City of Burnaby buys Metro Vancouver's former headquarters office towers for $65 million

The former headquarters office of Metro Vancouver Regional District at 4330 Kingway, Burnaby. (Google Maps)

Almost exactly seven years after Metro Vancouver Regional District moved out of its longtime headquarters office campus at 4330 Kingsway in Burnaby’s Metrotown district, the property is now owned by the City of Burnaby.

Burnaby’s municipal government recently participated in the insolvency process for the 1983-built office complex at the southeast corner of the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Kingsway.

In 2018, the regional district sold the 350,000 sq ft office complex, which included two towers reaching 19 and 10 storeys, to Slate Asset Management. Subsequently, the company created a plan to make significant investments to completely renovate the complex into a premium Class AAA office space.

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The property is attached to the nickname of “Golden Towers” for its reflective golden-tinted glass exterior, but the renovations planned by Slate Asset Management would have completely replaced the facade with a new look to improve its energy performance and aesthetics.

At the time, a growing number of property owners of older office buildings across the region were making improvements to their facilities to better compete with the surge in higher quality office supply with ample amenities.

4330 kingsway burnaby capital point metro vancouver regional district

Site of the former headquarters office of Metro Vancouver Regional District at 4330 Kingway, Burnaby. (Google Maps)

The former headquarters office of Metro Vancouver Regional District at 4330 Kingway, Burnaby. (Google Maps)

Slate Asset Management had marketed their office renewal project as “Capital Point,” with the property billed as a strata ownership office space, as opposed to the more common typology of rental office.

Construction on the renovations was supposed to begin in Spring 2021 for completion in Spring 2023, but no work was performed. This project was pursued at a time when office demand had gone off the cliff due to the pandemic, with demand for such real estate remaining depressed due to semi-remote office work.

In May 2023, Capital Point announced the renovation project into premium strata office space had been cancelled, and that they would explore potential alternative opportunities of a mix of new residential and commercial uses. Shortly after the project’s cancellation announcement, insolvency proceedings were triggered as a result of the developer defaulting on their loans to finance the project.

Capital Point 4330 Kingsway 5945 Kathleen Avenue Burnaby

Cancelled project: 2021 artistic rendering of Capital Point at 4330 Kingsway and 5945 Kathleen Avenue in Burnaby. (Dialog/Slate Asset Management)

Chris Bryan, a spokesperson for the City of Burnaby, told Daily Hive Urbanized the municipal government has acquired the property for $65 million, which he emphasizes is “well below-market value” as the 2024 assessed value of the property is $87.7 million.

According to BC Assessment, the 67,800 sq ft plot of land is worth nearly $61 million and the structure is worth about $30 million.

The municipal government used the City’s Corporate & Tax Sale Land Reserve Fund to finance the acquisition.

However, Bryan notes that the City has yet to identify a potential use for the property, including its potential renovation or demolition for a brand-new purpose-built redevelopment. He says City staff will prepare a report for Burnaby City Council outlining the potential uses.

Cancelled project: 2021 artistic rendering of Capital Point at 4330 Kingsway and 5945 Kathleen Avenue in Burnaby. (Slate Asset Management)

In 2015, the regional district acquired the 2014-built, 29-storey Metrotower III office tower at Metropolis at Metrotown mall for its new replacement and expanded headquarters office. The regional district relocated to Metrotower III in 2017 after spending $205 million to buy the tower and $35 million to outfit the space for its specific needs.

However, the regional district does not occupy the entirety of Metrotower III’s 414,000 sq ft of Class AAA office space. Earlier this year, the regional district told Daily Hive Urbanized that as of 2023, over 28% of Metrotower III’s 414,000 sq ft of office space is leased to businesses and other third parties. These uses provided the regional district with $5.8 million in revenue in 2023, which includes several long-term tenants that were signed on by Ivanhoe Cambridge prior to the change of ownership.

The regional district sold their old headquarters complex at 4330 Kingsway to Slate Asset Management in 2018 for $86 million.

This is one of the City of Burnaby’s most significant property acquisitions since late 2020 when it acquired the 2013-built, 146,000 sq ft Fortius Sport & Health complex for $26.6 million. Pandemic-induced financial issues forced Fortius to permanently close its operations and sell the property, and the municipal government subsequently converted the training hub for amateur and elite professional athletes, including Olympians, into a general community-use recreational centre — now known as the Christine Sinclair Community Centre.

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