A District of Squamish lot exchange of Business Park property will assist in the development of commercial and light industrial facilities, including a possible bingo hall.
On Tuesday (Aug 1), council for the District of Squamish authorized an exchange of a district Queens Way lot - on which sits the town's sewage pump station - with another lot immediately beside it.
"We want to encourage people to develop it sooner than later," said Acting Mayor Mike Jenson.
Fulcrum Beedie, the largest industrial developer in Vancouver, wanted the lot for a light industrial development that may include a gaming facility.
"We've got a gaming facility in one of our facilities, and they looked at Squamish a few years back and we're looking at it as a possible option for it," said Fulcrum Beedie spokesperson Rob Fiorvento.
The gaming operators referred to are not the firm that was rejected in a bid to set up a bingo hall in the Chieftain Plaza on Cleveland Avenue several years ago, he added.
Jenson said he didn't know that Fulcrum Beedie had a gaming facility in mind and greeted the information with "hesitation".
"I'm not sure if I would support that," he said. "It's in an industrial area. It's close to a residential area. My initial reaction is hesitation. I didn't support the one at the entrance of town. I would support a bingo hall but I support it in an area that doesn't have high visibility to our tourist industry."
Fiorvento said the developer is also considering five other prospects for the site.
"We're just going through trying to determine what would be the best use for it. What's the demand up there," he said. "We want to be as flexible as possible, we're not set on one use for them. We've looked at anything from - we're not going to do residential - it'll be service industrial/commercial industrial. There may or may not be a gaming facility on the site, there may be other types of commercial uses that might work for the area. We're open."
Fiorvento said his company wanted the site because Squamish is ripe for industrial development.
"We've been in Squamish on our other site for a little over two years. We think it's a developing area," he said. "We think that with the residential components coming there will be a need for distribution showing space. In our mind, I think that market's due for what we call a little higher end industrial."
There remains a long process of zoning amendments or rezoning before any type of development can occur, and Fiorvento said his company is not only open to community consultation, they welcome it.
"We're very open," he said. "It's quite honestly what we're hoping for here."
