The Future of False Creek Flats - Eleena Marley

Greater Vancouver Board of Trade President and CEO Bridgitte Anderson is joined by Vancouver Economic Commission CEO Eleena Marley to discuss how the Flats will contribute to the city's long-term economic future.

What is GVPOD - Greater Vancouver's Business Podcast?

GVPOD is the podcast of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. President and CEO Bridgitte Anderson talks to leaders in the business community about the challenges and opportunities they experience, as well as issues impacting our region.

0:00:01.8 [BRIDGITTE]:Hello everyone, and welcome to GVPOD - Greater Vancouver's business podcast exploring the challenges and opportunities facing our region. I am Bridgitte Anderson, President and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. We are continuing our conversations about the False Creek flats, if you're not familiar with this area, it is a major job center in Vancouver that runs along an area roughly between the Granville and cambie bridges. The flats is home to the new Emily Carr University campus and the new St. Paul's Hospital, that is under construction. About 8000 people work at over 600 diverse businesses in the flats, and over the next 15 years, this area is about to change dramatically with employment expected to triple. Joining us today to talk about the future of the flat is Eleena Marley, the CEO of the Vancouver Economic Commission. Welcome Eleena.

[Eleena]: hey, thanks for having...

[Bridgitte]: So let's start off with the Vancouver economic commission here is known as the VC. Some may know that it's an external agency of the city of Vancouver, but can you tell us more about what it is and what it does?

0:01:11.6 [ELEENA]: Absolutely, where the V.E.C. is, an agency of the city is primarily funded and governed by city manager's office and ultimately counsel. We have four pledges that govern all the work that we do, and that is really focused on the Vancouver Business Community, Climate Action in economy, indigenous economic prosperity, and prosperity for also equity and diversity, and we have a series of research and programs that we do to basically build resilience in the long term in the economy here in Vancouver.

0:01:48.8 [BRIDGITTE]: Okay, so let's talk about you a little bit. So you've worked in both the public and the private sector in Canada and in the UK. And from my scan of information, your background is in projects and planning and some strategic consulting, so... What brought you to the V.E.C.?

0:02:06.4 [ELEENA]: A great question. I worked for quite a large construction group back in the UK, working a lot on public-private partnerships, so big capital projects where the ultimate client was the public sector, so very early on in my career kind of fell in love with doing public sector projects, they're very purpose led, they ultimately make a difference in a legacy, so what's a lot of school programs and went into consultancy, came over worked at Ernst and young is that advisory practice was setting up and again, worked in the government of Public Sector practice and honestly had a young family, there's pressures and working in professional advisory and was really interested in working on the public sector from that, so I actually went out to the city of Vancouver back in in 2016 in their projects team, so working on the big crunchy programs or projects that a cross-departmental, everything from... Do strategic reviews of clerks department to the very beginning of snack, that was under my team from the city perspective, and basically being a key point of contact for some of the cities closest relationships, so those entities that we own, so easy-park, PNE, which included the master plan a cube economic Commission, and also others we didn't own, but had a good relationship where he needs to build, that was a school board in the port, so go up to know a lot of what the city did at a very strategic level.

0:03:33.5 [ELEENA]:The previous CEO was leaving, and I was approached to say, Hey, can you go into the Vancouver Economic Commission just for six months and support them, you know how that is a set up, and to go and actively look for another CEO and six weeks later on debate and it's been one of my grocers pleasure in my career so far, to get to know the team to really support them and amplify in what they do and thinking about how we prioritize our work, and being in that sweet spot between city policies and their economic priorities and the business community. So how can we bring those policies and strategies alive in a real way with industry and but how can we also advocate the industry in a more meaningful way into city policies and priorities.

0:04:13.6 [BRIDGITTE]: So I can easily see how your background and expertise aligns with what you're doing at the V.E.C., but let's dive into the False Creek flats because the V.E.C. had a role in creating the plan in 2017, and I've read through report, but for those listening who aren't aware... Maybe you could fill in some of the blanks there.

0:04:34.1 [ELEENA]: Yes, so back in 2017, which was pre-my time, we were involved in setting up an innovation in industrial lands report, we developed a flats Economic Development Strategy, which is intended to be read alongside the city of Vancouver's flats area plan, and it's based on four principles loosely modernizing the function of the flats, securing and intensifying the back-of-house functions and catalyzing innovation, so how can get motivation in that space and how can we build identity in that space? Out of that, in 2018, also came on industrial insights research, really to amplify to policy makers the importance in industrial lands, how they are under threat, not enough, not the right types, and ultimately, businesses have been displaced from the city within the last five years that's been predated at being potentially 30,000 jobs, 3.6 billion in annual revenue. So something needed to be done. There's also very young businesses there, a lot of them are less than 20 years old, so how can we retain those that we are able to attract, so we're deeply proud of this work and then got take it into city policy and has informed the False Creek Flats plan.

0:05:59.6 [BRIDGITTE]: And the plan, it really is building sort of clusters, if you will, we've got life sciences, technology education, and I've seen similar plans in other cities across the globe that are doing the same thing, but what people might not know about this area is that there's also a vibrant arts and culture community there. So how does this plan kind of knitted all together.

0:06:25.4 [ELEENA]:Yeah, and I think what's so great about the plan is the diversity of businesses that will be down there, building on who are already there, and the diversity of jobs are very technical jobs, creative jobs, and a lot of these jobs and businesses, they need space that were very specific to them, and needs to be noisy and be able to be creative in those spaces. And although it's much cleaner than maybe it was 100 years ago, industrial space is still something that means to be versatile. So I think the commonality of a lot of these organizations is that that ability for that type of space, but it often needs to be nuanced as well, so the proximity of St. Paul’s is obviously building out of the life science and the biotech community in addition to being close to academia, bring that creative space, those arts with Emily Carr VCC down there, and underpinning a lot of this is technology, we see technology as a cross-sector rather than a sector in its own right, so having those clusters that can work with each other that can support each other and build off and the tone I can move around, investment can have around.

0:07:43.6 [ELEENA]: It's really crucial.

0:07:44.7 [BRIDGITTE]: Yeah, I'm glad you said that about technology, because I think there is an understanding now more than ever, that every company needs to be a technology company, and every organization is accelerating their technology to ensure that keeping up with all of the advances that are happening. When we think about the False Creek flats though, one of the things that comes to mind, of course, is the industrial land shortage that is acute in our region, so how does this parcel of land help to address that?

0:08:20.5 [ELEENA]: Yeah, basically, the area today has a significant number of jobs and businesses, however, there isn't much industrial land in Vancouver and there is a growing need, so then we have to... densify things, 7% of lands is industrial, is surprisingly low. It used to be 10, it's actually been eroded over the last time, a decade, and..

[Bridgitte]: maybe if I could that the norm or maybe the benchmark and many other cities is around 10 or 12%, so that gives listeners an idea. When you're talking about 7%, we are below the average in many, many cities.

[Eleena]: Very much so, and we do have to zoom out and look at ourselves as a region, there is industrial lands out there in different parts of the region and much bigger proportion. However, for a really resilient and diverse city, want those businesses there in industrial lands to be close to the city, we're talking 15 minutes, cities where people get to their work and live or get their services. You do need a healthy amount of industrial land, do you need them for car repair, somewhere you can locate your waste services that some core services like salt have to be in those industrial land, so you don't wanna be reliant on getting a cross bridges or highways in those circumstances.

0:09:35.9 [ELEENA]: So the industrial lands are super important. They're not there too few in what we've got. So the False Creek flats plan really is looking at densifying that space, it's looking at stack multi-use industrial spaces and how we can develop that and be anywhere, it's very connected to the port and transport nodes, which is crucial in being able to get stuff in and out, especially if you're thinking, waste or circular economy, being connected to the global trade and supply network as well, so we have to protect them. We have to grow them through densification. It'd be great to be able to grow them in other places as well, for example, Southwest Marine drive is great, South vancouver a great example of another space for industrial (purpose).

0:10:22.6 [BRIDGITTE]: Now we know that in regards to the False Creek flats, that there is a ton of potential, and you've just outlined... You know why it's an important parcel then but on the other side of the coin, we also know that there are significant challenges with just affordability around land, affordability costs for businesses. So in the planning for this area, what is the Vancouver Economic Commission's position and what are the recommendations to ensure that this area attract startups and has a lot of those small media businesses make it affordable to be able to be in this region and to be in this but that's a parcel land...

0:11:03.6 [ELEENA]: Absolutely, I think number one is protecting it and growing it, there's more of it that it does support affordability. I know there's a lot of talk about including housing within industrial space, and I personally stand by the city's policy where we need to protect this as industrial space, it's not great to have housing co-located, we do need more industrial, so having housing on the periphery, 15 minute walks, really, really close to it, and protecting it so we can grow hopefully to a 10% industrial space is super important.

0:11:37.3 [BRIDGITTE]: And some of the people we've been speaking to, have been advocating for more of a mix of the residential, so that is going to be part of how you balance what the development looks like...

0:11:48.8 [ELEENA]: Yeah, and I would be more inclined giving it 7%, this specific parcel, let's think mixed industrial rather than mix of industrial and housing, but keep housing close-accessible, walkable rights on the periphery.

0:12:02.8 [BRIDGITTE]: And that would be areas like Olympic Village and some of Mount Pleasant in some of the areas right around there.

[Eleena]: Absolutely.

[Bridgitte]: So what does that look like then in developing it, what decisions are being made to come to some sort of firm decision around the mix on residential and industrial.

0:12:22.4 [ELEENA]: My understanding, close to this piece, but my understanding is the city is standing firm at the moment on having a mixed industrial, rather embedding the housing into it, but looking at that transform knows the access to housing on the ferry, and we support that just because industrial is so low and it's sacred and needs to be densities.

0:12:43.4 [BRIDGITTE]: What is the economic commissions vision around this low carbon zero carbon economy, and how does the false create flats factor into that?

0:12:51.9 [ELEENA]: That's a great question. So our vision, I guess, or role, again, is to build long-term resilience in the economy, so we're less about providing direct economic services to businesses, for example, like permitting... That's elsewhere within the city group, we think we're focused on building capacities that we can mitigate, again, is climate, we can grow jobs for all for this prosperity for all regardless where you're entering the employment or where you are in what stage, and also that indigenous economic prosperity, which we have components of the cities on drip stress approved last year is components that relate to the economy that BC will be taking on, and really with all those things... Or they were not focused on the flats, is a hyper relevant to the flat, so the just transition of moving people into different jobs and more technology-focused jobs and those jobs of the future, we have a program that is working on that landed immigrants and new comers to Vancouver, there is mass talent shortages across every single sector in Vancouver, people need to come to support that, and again, that exasperates housing and fingers crossed that Vancouver plan – Broadway plan is gonna mitigate some of that.

0:14:11.7 [ELEENA]: But one of our roles is really help as people understand the local market, be tapped into the right employees and those employers kinda capture... Those people are able to employ them in the best way, so there's a number of programs that do... Climate is at our hearts, we've been doing that for 20 years. So in relation to, I guess, an illustrative example of that is, again, not on the flat, but very much in the industrial is we've been... We have a flagship program called Project Greenlight, and it's kind of like a dragon stands, we have member organizations and we have to give them some shoutouts but thank you QuadReal, NewWest amongst others and they come up, and the city Vancouver, and they come up with a clean tech challenge. So the city of Vancouver, one of those was waste, so we look down at the south Vancouver, we've got a zero waste demonstration site that's been established, we conducted like a dragon's den process to get innovators to be able to demonstrate zero-way solutions on a city asset and that is happening and it's an industrial space and it will address the city's waste challenges.

[Bridgitte]: So it really filters across all of the projects that would be happening in the city and the core of the focus of the economic commission.

0:15:38.6 [BRIDGITTE]: As we wrap up our conversation on the False Creek flats, maybe looking out and thinking about the timeline is, What is the VEC’s vision for the false flats and how long do you think it's going to take until we get to that point.

0:15:54.4 [ELEENA]: It's a great question. Vision is to basically have a low carbon zero carbon economy centered within the flats of just having a diversity of businesses that are covering everything from technology to life sciences, creative, these types of organizations need a home and having a really vibrant area to be employed and to run your business and to be able to stay there for the long term would be my vision.

0:16:25.9 [BRIDGITTE]: And what do you think the timeline is? If we were sitting here, let's say a decade from now in, would we say that it has been fully developed, are we talking about a decade? Are we talking about a couple of decades? What do you think about that?

0:16:39.1 [ELEENA]: I'm rose tinted glasses, so I got speak for decade and cross my fingers and toes. Yeah.

0:16:46.1 [BRIDGITTE]: Alright, well, maybe we'll pick up the conversation a decade or so for both of us. Thanks so much, Eleena. That's Eleena Marley, the CEO of the Vancouver Economic Commission.