Will Former Expo Lands Finally be Developed?

Will the Plaza of Nations plot of land be finally developed?

Remember Expo 86? Way back when a part of Vancouver's False Creek area was the site of an exhibition featuring pavilions of countries around the world presenting their views of the future in transportation and communication?

We wandered around the various pavilions, traded pins, collected stamps and it was a fun carnival atmosphere for about five months.

After that an area called Plaza of Nations near BC Place was left dormant, save for a few dance parties I attended in the tall glass building in the 1990s. The site was the equivalent of four city blocks. And then nothing happened.

Leong's previous plans for Plaza of Nations

Last week there was a sudden spark of interest when developer Concord Pacific floated the idea of developing the empty land just east of Plaza of Nations to Science World, with a dozen condo towers as high as 65 stories together with various amenities. 

While it all sounds exciting, it may take a while for it to be realised, with the city having to do soil remediation before any construction begins on the site.

And then today it turns out the Plaza of Nations site has a new owner, after Singapore billionaire Oei Hong Leong sold the land to a developer called Northchild Group for an undisclosed amount, thought it is believed to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Leong had bought it from Li Ka-shing for C$40 million in 1989.

Plaza of Nations has been assessed to have a value of C$412 million, but if Northchild successfully develops it, the area could be worth well over C$1 billion.

However, not much is known about Northchild, except that it is owned by Yang Weichang, who had been a minority shareholder of Plaza of Nations since 2017. Yang's daughter, Yang Miao, is the director of Northchild Developments and Northchild Holdings.

Concord Pacific's ideas for land next to Northchild

Vancouverites are tired of seeing empty land being neglected, in part because of red tape at City Hall for permits, and also developers just biding their time so that the property value of their land increases.

City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Young hopes Concord, Northchild and the province, which owns BC Place, will work together to create an area that is liveable and viable for Vancouver.

It's been almost 40 years since Expo 86... surely it's time to do something with these massive tracts of land?