News
CIBT Education completes purchase of GEC Education land
2019-09-03 09:18 ET - News Release
Mr. Toby Chu reports
CIBT SUBSIDIARY TAKES POSSESSION OF GEC EDUCATION MEGA CENTER LAND
CIBT Education Group Inc.'s subsidiary, GEC Education Mega Center LP, has completed the purchase of land for the development of GEC Education Mega Center (EMC) in Surrey, B.C. The total land purchase price was $22.6 million, or $56 per buildable square foot, plus carrying costs and development fees. This project is well below the cost of comparable properties in the neighboring area where a property adjacent to the EMC project was sold for $106 per buildable square foot in December 2018.
EMC was originally designed to be a 55-floor, 550,000 square feet high-rise concrete mixed-use tower whose tenants would include schools, offices, hotels and market rental apartments. After extensive review, EMC has been redesigned to a 39-floor building with 404,000 gross buildable square feet, subject to approval from the City of Surrey. The revised project is designed to be a multi-purpose building of stratified micro-condos, rental apartments, commercial offices designed for educational use, and four floors of amenity space. The Company anticipates that the redesign and value engineering will create savings of nearly $50 million compared to the original budget, augmented by the recent decrease in anticipated construction and financing costs.
"We are very pleased with the efficient use of space and reduction in cost to build EMC in Surrey, B.C.," commented Toby Chu, Chairman, President and CEO of CIBT. "The City of Surrey recently announced the redevelopment of Surrey's Centre Block, over two million square feet of which will be redesigned and upgraded. The Centre Block development is less than 50 feet from our EMC site. With these newly approved developments and upgrades, we are excited with the future prospect of our EMC project."