19 assessed values of Metro Vancouver landmarks and major properties

Jan 4 2025, 1:06 am

Every January, BC Assessment’s annual property assessments make headlines, often focusing on soaring residential values that capture public attention.

Homeowners eagerly check their property assessments, and discussions about affordability, real estate trends, and taxation dominate the discourse.

Yet, amid this residential spotlight, the immense value of non-residential properties often goes unnoticed.

From bustling commercial hubs to sprawling industrial complexes to local parklands, non-residential properties play a crucial role in shaping British Columbia’s economy and infrastructure. While they may not generate the same buzz as residential valuations, their assessed values reflect another dynamic of the real estate market.

In no particular order of importance, here are 19 notable assessed values of landmarks, parks, major commercial properties, infrastructure and other non-residential sites based on BC Assessment’s new 2025 assessment roll, which is based on July 2024 values.

Stanley Park — $3.649 billion

Spanning 1,000 acres at the tip of the downtown Vancouver peninsula, Stanley Park now has an assessed value of $3.649 billion, including $3.638 billion for the land and $10.7 million for the structures and improvements.

This is slightly up from one year ago. The popular natural park and tourist destination was previously assessed at $3.617 billion, including $3.606 million for the land and $10.7 million for the structures.

Stanley Park is owned by the federal government, which has leased the property to the City of Vancouver for $1 per year since the park’s opening in 1888, two years after the municipality’s incorporation.

It is important to note that parkland assessments are based solely on their permitted uses, which exclude major urban development. Hypothetically, if Stanley Park were zoned for high-rise development comparable to the zoning just beyond its border with the West End, its land value would increase dramatically. For instance, a 0.67-acre lot of a high-rise property on Nelson Street, adjacent to Stanley Park, is valued at $33.565 million. Using this valuation only as a hypothetical benchmark, Stanley Park’s land could be worth an astounding $50.07 billion.

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Aerial of Stanley Park in Vancouver. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

Queen Elizabeth Park — $455 million

Queen Elizabeth Park, the 130-acre municipal park at the geographic centre of Vancouver, is now worth $455.2 million, including $443 million for the land value and $12.2 million for the structures and improvements. This is up marginally from its previous assessment one year ago of $449.4 million, including $436.7 million for the land and $12.7 million for the structures and improvements.

Again, such values by BC Assessment are only based on its permitted uses as a park. If major development were permitted, based on the land value of adjacent single-family lots within the City’s Cambie Corridor Plan, Queen Elizabeth Park could hypothetically be worth about $3 billion.

Also known as Little Mountain, Queen Elizabeth Park is the highest geographic point in Vancouver, with its hilltop peak at an elevation of 410 ft (125 metres) above sea level. According to the Geological Association of Canada, Little Mountain was formed by a volcanic dyke over 30 million years ago, and over time the glaciers over this land mass eroded the softer sedimentary rock that surrounded the hard igneous basalt rock of the area, creating what is now a hilltop peak. The sunken garden atop the hill is due to the park’s past basalt quarry operations.

The name of the park is often mistaken for being associated with Queen Elizabeth II, when, in fact, it was named after her mother, Queen Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth Park Vancouver

Aerial view of Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. (Josef Hanus/Shutterstock)

BC Place Stadium — $244 million

BC Place Stadium in downtown Vancouver carries an assessed value of $244.4 million, including $69.3 million for the land and $175.1 million for the structure and improvements.

This is down from the previous year, when it was assessed at $271 million, including $69.3 million for the land and $201.7 million for the structure and improvements.

The 55,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof hit an all-time record value of $307 million in the July 2018 assessment during the peak of the last strong real estate market cycle.

The venue was built in 1984 with an inflatable air-supported dome roof. Some renovations were performed leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, followed by the major renovation of the stadium immediately after the Olympics, including the installation of a retractable roof.

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BC Place Stadium in downtown Vancouver. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

Rogers Arena — $140.5 million

Downtown Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, owned by the Vancouver Canucks under the Aquilini family, is worth $140.5 million, including $49 million for the land value and $91.5 million for the structure.

This is slightly down from the all-time record of $143 million in July 2023, when the land was assessed at $40.4 million and the structure at $93.6 million.

It should be strongly emphasized that the current $140.5 million valuation for Rogers Arena is only for the 19,700-seat indoor venue and does not include the value of the attached rental housing and office towers built on the property in 2014/2015, which are also owned by Aquilini Development.

If the towers and other parcels attached to Rogers Arena are also included, the property currently has a combined total assessed value of about $512 million, including the 28-storey west tower with its 140,000 sq ft of office and retail space within the lower levels ($75.5 million) and 192 apartment units within the upper levels ($104.6 million), the 30-storey south tower with its 262 apartment units ($165.9 million), a vacant parcel of land at the property ($25.55 million), and the arena ($140.5 million).

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Rogers Arena in downtown Vancouver. (Bob Frid/USA TODAY Sports)

Hastings Park/PNE — $1.2 billion

Spanning 151 acres, Hastings Park, owned by the City of Vancouver and the home of the PNE, is now worth $1.2 billion, including $811.3 million for the land and $389.3 million for the structures and improvements. This is down slightly from $1.233 million in the previous year, with that value breaking down to $811.3 million for the land and $421.9 million for the structures and improvements.

This assessment includes the surface parking lots on the south side of East Hastings Street and the north side of McGill Street (next to New Brighton Park) that support the PNE’s operations, the PNE’s open fairgrounds, Playland amusement park, Hastings Racecourse, the 1,600-seat Pacific Coliseum (former home of the Vancouver Canucks), Agrodome, other fairground buildings, and the landscaped park areas of the Sanctuary (pond) and Italian Gardens.

Hastings Park’s assessed value will likely see a notable bump in 2026 when the new 10,000-capacity PNE Amphitheatre reaches completion.

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“Home + Away” staircase and bleachers public art at Empire Field in Hastings Park. (City of Vancouver)

Canada Place — $564 million

The Canada Place pier of downtown Vancouver is currently assessed at a total of $564 million.

The landmark pier, visually distinct for its iconic five sails and wide range of uses, is worth $260 million for the land and water area it sits on and $304 million for the structure and improvements.

The East Building (East Wing) of Vancouver Convention Centre, including its ballrooms, meeting rooms, and exhibition halls, contained within Canada Place, is worth $133.1 million, including $54.8 million for the land and $78.4 million for the structure and improvements.

Canada Place’s tower with the Pan Pacific Hotel and World Trade Centre Vancouver office space is worth $351.2 million, including $172.4 million for the land and $179 million for the structure and improvements.

The cruise ship terminal within the pier is worth $36.4 million for both the land and structure/improvements combined, while the major public parkade beneath the cruise ship terminal is worth $21.5 million. As well, the public promenade along the perimeter of the pier is worth $21.9 million.

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Canada Place cruise ship terminal in downtown Vancouver. (Destination Vancouver)

Canada Place was initially built in 1985 as the Canada Pavilion for the Expo ’86 World’s Fair, and the pier was extended northward in the early 2000s to create an additional berth for cruise ships.

Most of the structure sits over water on a combination of older and newer pilings built at different periods of the site’s history as a pier.

West Building of Vancouver Convention Centre — $1.08 billion

The West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre, constructed in 2009 in time for its use as the International Broadcast Centre for the 2010 Winter Olympics, is currently assessed at $1.08 billion.

This current assessment includes $3.73 million for the 39.2-acre water lot and $1.079 billion for the 2009-built convention centre building, the public promenades/seawall, Jack Poole Plaza, the restaurant pavilion building leased to Cactus Club Cafe, and the parkade.

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The green roof at the Vancouver Convention Centre’s West Building. (Vancouver Convention Centre)

University of British Columbia campus — $7.618 billion

The academic campus owned and directly owned by the University of British Columbia (UBC) is worth a total of $7.618 billion, including $1.64 billion for the land and $5.93 billion for the structures and improvements.

This calculation spans well over 900 acres, including academic, research, and office buildings, student housing buildings, UBC Hospital, Thunderbird Fields, Thunderbird Stadium, Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, Museum of Anthropology, UBC Botanical Garden, vast public spaces, and University Hill Secondary School, which is a Vancouver School Board-operated high school.

It should be emphasized that this assessed value does not include market residential buildings within the academic campus, as well as the residential/commercial buildings of Wesbrook Village, Acadia Park, and other areas in the University Endowment Lands.

Up until 2013, after significant renovations and a building expansion, University Hill Secondary School relocated to its current facility, which was previously the National Research Council Building. This former research building is leased to the school board at a nominal cost over 99 years.

The assessed value of UBC’s Vancouver campus has gradually increased over the past decade.

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University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

University Golf Course — $24 million

Owned by the Musqueam First Nation, located just east of UBC and the University Endowment Lands, the 146-acre University Golf Course property — which is bisected into north and south parcels by University Boulevard — carries an assessed value of $24.38 million for its current uses as a golf course. This includes $21.559 million for the land and $2.82 million for the structures and improvements.

Under a 2007 agreement with the provincial government, the First Nation must retain the property’s use as a golf course until 2083, at which point it could potentially be redeveloped.

University Golf Course UBC

Aerial of University Golf Course at UBC, with University Boulevard cutting through the course. (Google Maps)

Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus — $1.75 billion

Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) main campus atop Burnaby Mountain has an assessed value of about $1.75 billion, including $777 million for the land value and $952 million for the structures and improvements.

This focuses on the 362-acre portion of the campus with academic, research, and office buildings, student housing buildings, and vast public spaces, including pathways, courtyards, open playing fields, and roads. It does not include the UniverCity residential neighbourhood on the eastern end of the mountaintop.

Like the UBC Vancouver campus, the SFU Burnaby campus has seen its assessed value climb gradually over the past 10 years.

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Academic campus of Simon Fraser University atop Burnaby Mountain. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

Trans Mountain Burnaby Refinery — $541 million

The 189-acre Trans Mountain Burnaby refinery, situated on the southwest slope of Burnaby Mountain, carries an assessed value of $541 million, including $365 million for the land and $176 million for the structures and improvements.

This is up drastically from the property’s July 2015 assessment of about $129 million.

The refinery is currently undergoing a major expansion with additional tanks, which will support the operation of the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline. The expanded refinery is expected to reach completion later in 2025.

trans mountain burnaby refinery expansion

Construction on the expansion of the Trans Mountain Burnaby Refinery. (Marcon)

BCIT Burnaby campus — $589 million

The main campus of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) on Willingdon Road in Burnaby is worth about $589 million, including $393 million for the land value and $195 million for the buildings and improvements.

Construction is now underway on BCIT Burnaby’s first new student housing building in four decades.

BCIT Tall Timber Student Housing Burnaby 1

Location of the Tall Timber Student Housing tower at BCIT Burnaby. (Google Maps)

Metropolis at Metrotown’s indoor mall — $1.26 billion

Burnaby’s Metropolis at Metrotown, the largest shopping mall in British Columbia, has an assessed value of $1.26 billion, including $669 million for the west wing of the indoor mall and $591 million for the east wing of the indoor mall.

Both wings were largely built in the late 1980s and under separate ownership groups, with the west wing originally known as Metrotown Centre and the east wing originally known as Eaton Centre. In 2005, a narrow pedestrian bridge linking the second level of both malls was replaced with a major mall expansion — the mall corridor with existing tenants such as Apple, Lululemon, Banana Republic, and Aritzia — that merged both wings, and it was at this juncture that the mall gained its new name of Metropolis at Metrotown.

Both wings have a combined total leasable retail floor area of about 1.6 million sq ft on about 38 acres of land, including most of the parking facilities that serve the mall.

The indoor mall’s west wing assessment includes $206 million for the land value and $463 million for the structure and improvements, while the east wing includes $410 million for the land value and $181 million for the structure and improvements.

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Existing condition of Metropolis at Metrotown mall. (Google Maps)

Ivanhoe Cambridge owns the mall’s west and east wings, as well as the 1988-built, 28-storey Metrotower I office tower and 1991-built, 30-storey Metrotower II office tower, which have a combined total office floor area of 642,000 sq ft. Both towers have a combined total assessed value of about $300 million, which is not included in the aforementioned assessed value of the indoor mall.

The 28-storey Metrotower III office tower with 414,000 sq ft was developed by Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2013. Shortly after the tower’s completion, it was sold to Metro Vancouver Regional District for the regional government’s new headquarters office.

None of these assessed value calculations include the northeast corner of the mall property, which formerly entailed a surface vehicle parking lot and the 1950s-built Sears/Toys “R” Us building. This northeast parcel was sold by Sears to Concord Pacific for its high-rise mixed-use redevelopment, which is now under construction. The first phase includes Metro Vancouver’s new tallest building, while the future second phase entails the demolition of the former Sears/Toys “R” Us wing.

Ivanhoe Cambridge is currently in the process of planning its long-term demolition and redevelopment of the indoor mall and parking lots into dozens of high-rise towers with 12,000 new homes, office space, and street-level retail/restaurant uses within the base levels of the new buildings.

metropolis at metrotown mall redevelopment april 2024

April 2024 master plan concept for the Metropolis at Metrotown redevelopment: Full buildout of the entire mall redevelopment. (Ivanhoe Cambridge)

Langara College — $359 million

The 20-acre campus of Langara College in Vancouver is currently worth $359 million, including $192.6 million for the land and $166.4 million for the structures and improvements.

In 2021, the municipal government approved Langara College’s long-term plan to significantly expand its campus with new replacement and expansion of the academic buildings. This will grow the campus floor area from 816,000 sq ft to 1.45 million sq ft.

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Aerial view of the existing Langara College Vancouver campus. (Google Maps)

Langara Golf Course — $698 million

Immediately to the south of Langara College, the 120-acre Langara Golf Course is currently assessed at $698 million. Only $10,000 of the value comes from the structures and improvements, while the overwhelming majority is from the value of the land used for only golf course purposes.

Hypothetically, the property could be worth well north of $2 billion if adjacent single-family lot land values within the Cambie Corridor Plan are used as a baseline.

Langara Golf Course is a public facility owned by the City of Vancouver.

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Langara Golf Course. (Vancouver Park Board)

Fraserview Golf Course — $704 million

Also owned by the City of Vancouver, Fraserview Golf Course at the southeast corner of the city is worth $704 million, with all but $10,000 coming from the land value based on golf course uses. The total area of the golf course spans 209 acres.

Fraserview Golf Course was first established in 1936. During the 1930s, the 100-acre area immediately to the east of the golf course that is now known as Everett Crowley Park began seeing garbage dump uses, and it was officially designated as a landfill from 1944 to 1967.

There are areas of Everett Crowley Park where landfill garbage is up to 16 storeys deep. However, the entire landfill has a 1.5-metre-deep cap that conceals the garbage and has enabled the surface of the area to become naturalized.

In contrast, the former landfill of Everett Crowley Park is assessed at $275 million.

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Fraserview Golf Course in South Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Point Grey Golf & Country Club — $31 million

Located on the north side of the Fraser River in Vancouver’s Southlands neighbourhood, Point Grey Golf & Country Club has an assessed value of $30.9 million, including $23.7 million for the land value and $7.2 million for the structures and improvements.

The privately owned and operated golf course on 141 acres is within agricultural zoning and the river’s flood plain, drastically reducing its assessed land value.

Point Grey Golf & Country Club

Point Grey Golf & Country Club in South Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Vancouver City Hall campus — $127.5 million

The entire 5.5-acre city block of Vancouver City Hall is currently assessed at about $147 million, entailing $131 million for the land value and $15.5 million for the structures and improvements, including the 1936-built heritage City Hall tower.

Under the City’s Broadway Plan, the municipal government has plans to evolve the City Hall campus into the “Civic District” — a high-density mixed-use redevelopment that grows the site’s institutional uses and introduces significant commercial uses and public spaces to establish a new core for Vancouver’s emerging Uptown area.

vancouver city hall redevelopment civic district existing

Existing condition of the Vancouver City Hall campus. (City of Vancouver)

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December 2024 refined concept of the master plan for redeveloping the Vancouver City Hall campus into “Civic District.” (City of Vancouver)

Centerm port terminal — $149 million

The Centerm port terminal, one of the two container terminals on the northern shoreline of East Vancouver and the closest to downtown Vancouver (just north of the Downtown Eastside), is pegged at an assessed value of $149 million, including $82 million for the land and $67 million for the structures and improvements.

Centerm spans a land area of 113.5 acres on the Burrard Inlet waterfront, including a 2023-completed seven-acre westward expansion of the wharf to increase its capacity.

With the wharf expansion and other recent major improvements to the site’s layout and infrastructure, Centerm’s annual container capacity has grown from 900,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 1.5 million TEUs, which is roughly 40% of the overall capacity of the various container terminals of the Port of Vancouver.

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The 2023-completed expansion of the Centerm container terminal in Vancouver. (Vancouver Fraser Port Authority)

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