UBC acquires office space in Surrey for new program expansion

Jun 24 2022, 12:46 am

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is making further inroads into establishing a presence in Surrey.

It has acquired the second floor of strata office space — about 23,000 sq ft — within the City Centre 1 building of the Health and Technology District’s HealthTech Innovation HUB by local developer Lark Group.

This will be the home of the university’s Master of Physical Therapy program for the South of Fraser region, with the space set to be furnished with laboratories, seminar rooms, student learning commons, and multi-purpose spaces.

UBC selected this space within this particular building as it is strategically located next to Surrey Memorial Hospital, and the university’s 2021 acquisition of the neighbouring three-acre site at 9770 King George Boulevard — a future mixed-use development with a purpose-built Surrey campus.

“We are excited about the arrival of UBC to Surrey and we’re honoured that UBC has chosen to locate these programs here in the Health and Technology District,” said Kirk Fisher, senior vice president of Lark Group, in a statement.

“We look forward to the expanded engagement, leadership, and opportunity this will have for all of Surrey especially since we share incredible synergies in vision, commitment and investment to accelerate and reinforce Surrey’s ever-growing opportunities in healthcare innovations.”

UBC’s new space in City Centre 1, located at 13737 96 Avenue, is expected to open to students in Fall 2023.

It will also pave the way for the future expansion of other UBC health professional programs in the area, such as occupational therapy and midwifery.

In late 2021, UBC leadership stated over the long term, further expansions of the Surrey campus in the general vicinity could expand the range of programs, and serve 10,000 students or more.

City Centre 1 is a 2014-built, 12-storey building with 180,000 sq ft of office space, plus ground-level retail.

Upon full buildout, Lark Group’s Health and Technology District will span up to eight office buildings containing over one million sq ft of office space, providing enough capacity for up to 15,000 jobs. Work is currently underway on the fourth and fifth buildings.

The district is within close proximity to SkyTrain’s King George Station, which is the starting point of the future Expo Line extension to Langley Centre.

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