New, hands-on owner sought to restore the landmark’s drawing power
Michael Kane
Sun
New Westminster‘s landmark Westminster Quay Public Market is being offered for sale at $11.25 million and faces an uncertain future.
“In recent years, misguided management practices have caused the Quay to lose its lustre as a Vancouver attraction,” according to listing details posted by Macdonald Commercial Realty.
“This is an opportunity for new ownership with vision and creativity to either revitalize the Westminster Quay Public Market and to recapture its must-see destination status or reposition the property for an alternate use.”
However, Mayor Wayne Wright said the building was designed as a marketplace and the city would want to maintain that kind of use.
“We would be open to some kind of revamp if it would be a plus-factor for the community but it won’t be living accommodation,” he said in an interview Friday.
“There has definitely got to be some kind of commercial and entertainment and tourism built into it.”
The 71,600-square-foot, two-storey building is billed as the only commercial waterfront in downtown New Westminster. It is located beneath the city’s SkyTrain station and Plaza 88 developments and overlooks the Fraser River.
It was built as a public market in the mid-1980s. “It was an instant success as it attracted locals and tourists alike and became one of Vancouver‘s must-see destinations,” according to the listing.
A Macdonald Realty ad in Friday’s Vancouver Sun added: “Westminster Quay was a successful public market with a wide variety of merchants and restaurants.”
The property is owned by Westminster Quay Holdings Ltd. The company’s president is listed as Jason Chien of Taipei, Taiwan.
Many tenants have left in recent years because of uncertainty about the owner’s intentions, said Dean Nakamura, general manager of the market’s bustling Paddlewheeler Pub.
“This market has no problem becoming a Granville Island or Lonsdale Quay if the new owners want to spend some money,” Nakamura said. “We’ve got 4,000 residents on the Quay who can walk here and there are so many towers going up now.”
The market’s location at the foot of Eighth St. has historically been viewed as “public space,” according to New Westminster historian Archie Miller, interim director of the nearby Fraser River Discovery Centre.
“The market is not what it was back in the ’80s, but there are still the bakeries and delis and the wonderful little restaurants and a whole bunch of localized shops that people know,” Miller said. “It would be a shame to lose that for another highrise that would block off the waterfront.”
Wright said he was the market’s first tenant as the owner of Olde World Fudge but moved out when he became mayor to avoid any conflict with his mission to try to revitalize the city.
“Over 16 years, I was there on its best days and on its poorer days,” he said. “The market has been on a downswing since it was sold about six years ago. The absentee landlord just hasn’t had the interest.”
Listing agent Eric Poon said the building would suit “an aggressive investor type that wants to take the Quay back to its former lustre and apply the strong hands-on management it had when it was very successful.”
He noted that the Quay is located at a transportation hub in the middle of the Lower Mainland and in a city undergoing $800 million worth of development.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007