UBC acquires even more land for future Surrey City Centre campus

Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the future UBC Surrey campus. (Perkins&Will/UBC)

The University of British Columbia (UBC) appears to have big ambitions for establishing its presence in Surrey City Centre.

Based on highly preliminary visuals, the campus’s scope could potentially rival the size of Simon Fraser University’s existing Surrey campus floor area.

Conceptual artistic renderings that were not previously released to the public — when UBC first announced its acquisition in 2021 of a major tract of land to build a satellite campus — show a possible scale of the future purpose-built UBC Surrey campus.

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There could be multiple towers — potentially reaching heights of nearly 40 storeys or more — along with various mid-rise height base podiums and buildings that frame a north-south linear public plaza within the middle of the development site. It is a pedestrian-only space fronted by active uses in the ground levels of the buildings, and designed with ample landscaping, seating, and high-quality materials.

Perkins&Will is the architectural design firm performing this work.

Existing condition:

Existing condition of the 2021-acquired site by UBC of 9770 King George Boulevard, Surrey. (Google Maps)

Potential future condition:

Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the future UBC Surrey campus. (Perkins&Will/UBC)

Matthew Ramsey, a spokesperson for UBC, told Daily Hive Urbanized these artistic renderings illustrate very preliminary design and planning work. He emphasizes the final configuration of buildings, total building floor area, and ultimate uses are still unknown, with these new renderings showing a massing study.

“There is a great deal of planning that needs to take place before any applications will be submitted by the City of Surrey by UBC Properties Trust,” said Ramsey.

When the university first announced the project and site acquisition in 2021, it indicated the intention was to pursue a mix of residential and commercial spaces to help fund the construction of on-site academic space. Previous internal university administration reports also indicate a potential building floor area of about 500,000 sq ft of academic and research space alone — not including the other supporting uses of residential and commercial space.

In contrast, the existing SFU Surrey campus spread across Central City and the 2019-built Sustainability Engineering building has a combined total building floor area of over 600,000 sq ft. SFU Surrey’s next expansion is proposed to be BC’s second medical school, which could be housed within 254,000 sq ft of purpose-built academic space for teaching doctors and nurses in a new office complex just north of Central City.

Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the future UBC Surrey campus. (Perkins&Will/UBC)

Moreover, the future UBC Surrey campus land area is now significantly larger than what was initially announced in 2021. Multiple lot acquisitions have formed a land assembly.

In November 2021, UBC Properties Trust announced its acquisition of the three-acre property of 9770 King George Boulevard at a cost of $70 million. Located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Fraser Highway and King George Boulevard, this site for the future campus is currently occupied by Grace Hanin Community Church, and it is strategically situated within a very short walking distance from King George SkyTrain Station and Surrey Memorial Hospital.

But as it turns out, UBC Properties Trust also later quietly acquired an adjacent site immediately to the south. Ramsey confirmed to Daily Hive Urbanized the university’s acquisition in 2022 of the 2.1-acre property of 9666 King George Boulevard, which is currently occupied by a strip mall building with businesses including Browns Social House and Mucho Burrito. Records show this subsequent acquisition had a value of $40.5 million.

The 2021 and 2022 acquisitions provide a potential combined UBC Surrey campus footprint of over five acres.

9666-9770 king george boulevard surrey ubc

Location of the future UBC Surrey campus at 9666-9770 King George Boulevard, Surrey. (Google Maps)

The land assembly for the future UBC Surrey campus at 9770 King George Boulevard (2021 acquisition; red) and 9666 King George Boulevard (2022 acquisition; blue). (Google Maps/Daily Hive)

Existing condition of the 2022-acquired site by UBC of 9666 King George Boulevard, Surrey. (Google Maps)

Also in 2021, UBC’s previous leadership suggested the university has a long-term vision to grow the Surrey campus to deliver a wide range of programs and serve 10,000 students or more.

UBC’s land acquisitions are immediately adjacent to developer Lark Group’s campus of City Centre-branded office buildings in Surrey City Centre’s emerging Health and Technology District.

The first three City Centre buildings constructed over the past decade have a combined total floor area of about 500,000 sq ft of office space suitable for tech, medical clinic, academic, and research uses. Future phases by the Lark Group on adjacent sites could build an additional one million sq ft of office space.

In June 2022, UBC acquired an entire floor of strata office space in the City Centre 1 building for its Master of Physical Therapy and Occupation Therapy programs. The total cost for acquiring 23,000 sq ft of office space and performing tenant improvements was about $34 million.

Earlier this year, Lark Group announced its upcoming City Centre 5 tower will see a mix of uses, including 500 beds of student housing and various academic spaces in partnership with Western Community College (WCC).

UBC is also currently in the process of building a 509-ft-tall, 45-storey tower vertical satellite campus in downtown Kelowna, where there will be about 92,000 sq ft of academic space and over 500 units of purpose-built student housing. However, the project has been experiencing some construction challenges due to poor soil conditions.

UBC currently has over $3.4 billion worth of capital projects planned through 2040 for projects that already have an identified scope.

9770 King George Boulevard Surrey UBC campus

November 2021 artistic rendering of the potential redevelopment concept for the University of British Columbia campus at 9770 King George Boulevard, Surrey. (UBC)

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