It's going to be the perfect community to live, work and play.
That's how the Tsawwassen First Nation was described Tuesday during a special event announcing the opening of the second phase of the Deltaport Logistics Centre.
Now available for leasing, the 200-acre parcel, once built-out, will have four million square feet of light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution space, a tremendous opportunity for companies looking for logistics sites ideally located close to major road and rail networks as well as Deltaport, according to the First nation.
Tuesday's announcement was made in the first phase of the logistics centre.
That 100-acre section is fully leased and now under construction, eventually seeing such highprofile tenants as Great Western Life and the Port of Vancouver set up shop.
"Today we see the further development of our Deltaport Logistics Centre as a tremendous opportunity to bridge our past with a bright, prosperous future for our people into the 21st century," said TFN Chief Bryce Williams.
The TFN is seeing success, Williams noted, because it has excellent, active partnerships, making the First Nation more than just landlords.
The TFN certainly appear poised to prosper, cashing in on its historic urban treaty signed several years ago, with the industrial zone but also multiple developments.
The recently opened Tsawwassen Mills regional shopping mall will be joined over the coming weeks by another new mall, Tsawwassen Commons, which is about to see its first retail tenants open. Meanwhile, construction by several developers, including Aquilini Development, continues on new townhome, condo and single-family homes that will eventually have more than 6,000 new residents.
Saying they work with their development partners to secure long-term leases, Chris Hartman, CEO of the TFN Economic Development Corporation, said there won't be much reason to cross the river as the TFN will have most everything a fully integrated community needs, making it ideal for employers to locate there.
The TFN, meanwhile, is still waiting for word from the B.C. Lottery Corporation whether it will get a casino. The First Nation, which would still have to go through its own approval process, is facing a competing bid from neighboring Delta.
