TransLink has regained ownership of the 120,000 square foot Burnaby building that B.C. Transit sold for a $9-million loss in 2004.
On Dec. 18, 2014, TransLink paid $13.9 million for 6700 Southridge Dr. after spending $63,666.76 a month on rent since Aug. 1, 2012, according to Steve Walsh, TransLink’s acquisitions and leasing manager in a memo. The building, across the street from the B.C. Rapid Transit Co. operations and maintenance yard, was purchased in anticipation of refurbishing and expanding the SkyTrain fleet.
Bombardier was the original occupant, but when it stopped making SkyTrain Mark II vehicles there in 2004, B.C. Transit bought the facility for $17.2 million.
B.C. Transit then sold the facility and the land for $8.2 million in November 2004 to Mac and Jac Clothing president Eric Karls, who flipped it for $13.025 million in April 2005 to Dayhu Investments.
Walsh’s January 27 internal memo said TransLink bought the facility “to address capacity issues” at the SkyTrain Operations and Maintenance Centre, also known as OMC1.
Read the full story in our sister publication Business in Vancouver here.
