It’s time to put the finishing touches on the latest phase of the Portland Street Depot project by Remington Development Corp.

The new office-warehouse distribution facility, located between Portland Street and 11th Street at 26th Avenue S.E. is the second phase of an earlier development which measured 500,000 sq. ft. The new phase will ring in at 131,930 sq. ft.

Construction on the second phase started last fall, and Remington president Larry Mason tells me he expects to start paving some time over the next two or three weeks.

The Portland Street Depot project, above, is into Phase II, near the new Cintas laundry plant, below.

Tenants signed so far include KBM Commercial Floor Covering and Interwest Office Furnishings.

Office buildout will be about 10 per cent, and second-floor offices are available. The building features 25-foot-high ceilings, as well as a rear loading dock facility and parking for 153 vehicles onsite.



Portland Street, near Blackfoot Trail S.E., offers quick access to downtown and arterial roads, Mason notes.

The new Cintas laundry plant is to be on a four-acre site on the northwest part of the Portland Street project. “They bought the land; we’re just building the building for them,” says Mason.

Recent trends all point to flexibility being the key to suburban industrial-office space.

Modern flex buildings can have more variety in office space, and can accommodate different types of users in the shop or warehouse area.

And small bays for the flex-tech market are doing well right now, Mason notes. In suburban office space, he says Remington is still looking for tenants for the former Panasonic space in its Deerfoot Business Park just north of 64th Avenue N.E.

The company has been in talks with some prospects, but nothing had been signed as of last week. The building is almost new and some of it has never been occupied.

Meanwhile, Remington’s Heritage Towne Centre at Deerfoot Trail and Heritage Drive S.E. is almost fully leased. The goal is fall occupancy.

Tenants include Palliser Furniture, the Living Room Shop, Co-op Gas and Liquor, Kitchen and Patio, Tim Horton’s/Wendy’s and Boston Pizza.

Half the development will see Costco acquiring its own site to develop a new store.

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Kevin Pshebniski, president of Hopewell Development Corp., says the market has slowed down since the fall of 2000, and industrial space is readily available.

Hopewell currently has four active developments in the industrial category, including 60 acres south of 68th Avenue and 52nd Street S.E. at Smed Lane. There is a 250,000-sq.-ft. building with 160,000 sq. ft. still available for lease.

In its business park near McKnight Boulevard and Barlow Trail N.E., Hopewell has a building of 100,000 sq. ft. with about 25,000 sq. ft. available. Two other buildings each have about 30,000 sq. ft. left.

The park can still accommodate a few more buildings if needed, he adds.

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Consolidated Properties Ltd. says it has sold its Kennedale Warehouse property in Edmonton for $1.6 million.

The deal closes Friday of this week.

Consolidated said the sale is part of a strategy that has seen it sell 10 retail and industrial assets since Jan. 1 and buy five downtown office properties.