BrookPort Business Park bustling

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This article was published 29/07/2024 (404 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While construction in Winnipeg’s industrial real estate sector remains at a collective crawl, Whiteland Real Estate has added another piece to its 300-acre puzzle within CentrePort.

Meantime, it is a couple of months from wrapping up its long-awaited project of fully serviced industrial land.

The locally-based developer completed the third phase of the vast BrookPort Business Park as 12 and 18 Aster Dr. — matching 10-unit, 27,000-square-foot industrial condominiums valued at a combined $25 million — were added to the fold.

A sign of the demand that continues to exist within Winnipeg’s scarcely-available industrial sector, all 20 units were sold before construction started in 2022. All are now fully occupied.

Phase 3 of BrookPort consists of 40 lots on 90 acres of land, all of which are owner-occupied. Phase 1 featured 80 acres of developed land; Phase 2 brought another 160 acres of fully-serviced space to the industrial sector.

“There are lots of new jobs being created,” said Satpal Sidhu, president of Whiteland. “Everyone who invested in BrookPort Phase 1, 2, 3, 4, they’re happy, they made their money and they have successfully grown their businesses and are doing well.”

Winnipeg’s industrial market has stabilized overall this year. Availability remained unchanged in the second quarter — holding at 2.8 per cent — as 17,000 sq. ft. of positive net absorption occurred, according to a recent report from CBRE, a global commercial real estate agency.

Meanwhile, construction on new supply is happening at its lowest rate since Q4 of 2021, as costs and interest rates continue to deter many.

While Paul Kornelsen, vice-president and managing director of CBRE Winnipeg, conceded the local market could certainly use some more supply to meet the existing demand, he expressed no worry about slowed levels of development.

“I don’t think it’s a cause for concern at all,” Kornelsen said. “We could definitely still use some new product to help alleviate the demand, but it just doesn’t make financial sense for developers to really overextend themselves on a speculative build.

“That’s where we’re seeing it, because, for a long time, we’ve been saying that the industrial market has been under-built or underdeveloped and we had a really strong pipeline … Now those projects have come through the pipeline and been completed. Overall, it’s still very tight.”

Kornelsen doesn’t suspect things will change the rest of the year.

“There’s going to be upward pressure on rent, as when the market is tight and there’s not a lot of options, it usually makes the most financial sense just to stay in place, even if it’s not quite the space that you need,” he said.

“Something is going to need to happen, I don’t know when that will be.

“That’s sort of like an inciting incident, so whether that’s a reduction in construction prices or whether that is a big user that either moves into the market or a user who moves out of the market, there’s going to need to be something that is a catalyst for more change.”

Sidhu and cousin Amritpal Jhand (CEO of Whiteland) began construction on BrookPort in 2018. In September, the final 30 acres of the project will be completed and fully occupied.

“Long and quick, you could say,” Jhand said of their vision finally coming to fruition.

“We noticed the land had been sitting there for a long time and we noticed that people were looking for rental and there wasn’t enough land for people to rent to grow their business over there. That caused us to … bring that land to life.”

Whiteland’s investment in BrookPort was a risky one in the eyes of several experts, owing to the state of the industry at that time. The dice roll has appeared to pay off, however, as the first three phases are fully occupied and the last 30 acres of development have already sold.

“They’re heavily invested in that area and one of the reasons why the area has been successful is because of them. If they didn’t do what they did, things could be very different,” Tom Derrett, vice-president of Winnipeg industrial for Colliers, said of Whiteland leadership.

“If it wasn’t for their vision to do that, then I’d like to think there would be an opportunity missed in this community because there’s some big companies within their footprint and, of course, other landlords that have built on lands they have sold to.”

Sidhu said he’s been pleased with how BrookPort has turned out thus far and has been warmed by the opportunity it is has provided for business owners.

“It’s kind of a role model for the newcomers coming and they’re growing their business over there,” Sidhu said.

“It’s a central hub for trucking, parts, shops and it’s a good opportunity for newcomers, new growing business over there, lots of job opportunities … It’s all happened in the last five years and that’s a very big thing for Manitoba and for people coming over here, for them to see how things are going over here.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca