Competitive Advantage
The District's advantages include the availability of land and building space, competitive development cost charges, and an attractive quality of life.
The industrial space vacancy rate in the District is around 4.4 percent and net rental rates are on par with the GVRD average, but still well below that of Vancouver. In its 2005 Municipal Report Card, the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties ranked Maple Ridge fourth-best among the 17 GVRD municipalities on development costs. The community's quality of life, for example in the areas of access to recreation, housing availability, housing affordability and public school quality, is also an asset.
Transportation congestion and location in the eastern corner of the GVRD will soon be solved by new transportation investment. As the centre of business activity in the region shifts eastward, the District has a location advantage, once transportation constraints are overcome. The expansion of light and small-scale industries, driven by the emergence of complex supply chains (e.g. contract manufacturing), and an increasing emphasis on technology and knowledge inputs, are creating a growing dependence on quality, timely and cost-effective transportation infrastructure and quality telecommunications services. Maple Ridge offers all of these benefits.
In the future, the development of the proposed Golden Ears Bridge, population growth on the North Fraser, the regional shift of industry from west to east and the decreasing supply of industrial land in western GVRD communities will increase demand for industrial land in Maple Ridge and draw in new businesses. In the GVRD, large tracts of land continue to be lost to non-industrial uses and few large ready-to-build projects are expected to come onto the market in the years ahead. The GVRD projection is that the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows share of total industrial space will rise from just over one percent in 2001 to approximately four percent by 2021. Maple Ridge will fulfill a high profile regional industrial role by providing land gradually being lost in the Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, and North Shore municipalities. This growth of 400 percent will easily be the most significant in the GVRD and create a total inventory of approximately 670,000 square metres.
The District is committed to support high value job creation through the Economic Development Department. Any client requiring land is welcome to contact our department, and staff will work with companies and their agents to find viable land and create opportunities for relocation of business and job creation.