In one of the largest mixed-use office and retail projects to break ground locally since the collapse of the commercial real estate market, a 35,000-square-foot development in East Vancouver moved forward this week despite delays caused by a toughening lending environment for investors.
Located on a 1.44 acre parcel at the corner of S.E. 192nd Avenue and 20th Street, the site will be home to at least eight businesses, including anchor tenant Pinnacle Capital, a health and wellness center, a neighborhood grocer and two restaurants, according to developer Dean Kirkland.
Even with 95 percent of leases signed before this month's groundbreaking, the project went through significant financing hurdles before getting the green light.
According to Darryl Horowitz, a commercial broker representing Kirkland and business partner Tom Files, each potential tenant in the development had to be approved by lender Wells Fargo Bank in order for the project to move forward.
For Horowitz, these rigorous lending standards were the latest in a paradigm shift for real estate investors struggling to adapt to a continuing freeze in credit markets. "The amount of scrutiny by lenders that developers and builders are going through is unprecedented," he said.
Though Kirkland called the financing process "frustrating at times," he was loath to blame banks for the tight credit market, which continues to plague real estate investors even as an economic recovery begins to take hold.
"You can always point fingers at the bank," Kirkland said. "But at the end of the day, it was greed that did this to us."
As principals of 192nd Plaza LLC, Kirkland and Files purchased the corner property on a busy thoroughfare near the Vancouver-Camas city line for $971,285 in August 2008, according to county records.
Heading construction at the site is Perlo-McCormick of Portland, with Vancouver-based Nutter Corp. providing utility work.
In addition to 192nd Plaza, Kirkland and Files plan to embark on a 20,000-square-foot mixed-use project called 192nd Station, as well as a medical office development on four-acres located near Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital.
