Surrey City Counncil to consider reviving municipal-owned real estate development firm

Nov 29 2022, 12:45 am

Should the Surrey City Development Corporation (SCDC), a for-profit real estate development firm owned by the City of Surrey, be revived?

A new member motion by Surrey First Councillor Mike Bose calls on City Council to reinstate the SCDC, which was dissolved in 2020 by then-Mayor Doug McCallum and his Safe Surrey Coalition councillors.

SCDC was responsible for creating financially self-sustaining building developments that also serve as an economic catalyst, such as the 2019-built, 52-storey 3 Civic Plaza and Hotel and the ever-expanding Campbell Heights industrial cluster.

Following City Council’s decision to abolish SCDC, all of its assets and portfolios were transferred to the municipal government. This includes the SCDC-started planning project of building a significant commercial space development on the “Centre Block” site of North Surrey Recreation Centre next to SkyTrain Surrey Central Station, including the construction of a 738-ft-tall (225 metre), 47-storey office tower — one of Metro Vancouver’s future tallest buildings.

“SCDC would make sure we are getting value from our land while keeping ownership for future generations. We need to make sure city lands are not vulnerable to politics, because it is too easy to simply sell off our land as a knee-jerk decision or a way to solve a temporary issue such as a deficit. City lands belong to everyone in Surrey, including future generations,” said Bose.

“Once a piece of land is sold, it’s gone forever, but with leases, there’s an annual return and a legacy for future generations which retain ownership of the land.”

Bose suggests the City of Surrey should reinstate SCDC and operate it with a model similar to UBC Properties Trust, which provides the university with a long-term source of revenue through the lease of City-owned property.

It is anticipated SCDC’s portfolio transferred to the municipal government is worth about $250 million.

According to Surrey First City Councillor Linda Annis, SCDC provided the municipal government with $36 million in dividends over a seven-year period.

SCDC was created in 2007 under then-Surrey First Mayor Dianne Watts to develop surplus City-owned lands that provide the City with revenue and also contribute to Surrey’s social and economic development.

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