Fraser Health Authority, Long-term Facilities Plan & Headquarters

C&W has been retained by Fraser Health Authority (FHA) as its preferred real estate service provider since 2003, over the past 19 years acting in a range of advisory and consulting roles and on countless transactions, notably FHA’s corporate headquarters lease at Central City. The team initially led a consolidation of several administrative offices into a single facility at Central City resulting in space and cost efficiency and the implementation of a new workplace model at the time. In 2010, C&W identified a strategic opportunity to further consolidate FHA’s leased portfolio leading to the termination of JP Morgan’s lease, securing a 188,000 sf well-below market base rent deal. 

At the beginning of 2020, FHA engaged the team to lead a comprehensive review of its leased and owned portfolio to develop a new long-term facilities plan leading up to the Central City expiry. Following numerous strategy sessions and report deliverables, collaboration with FHA real estate team leads, stakeholder engagement, Ministry of Health and Health Care Protection Program alignment and final board presentation, the long-term facilities plan was established with a key component being the potential extension or relocation of FHA’s 226,000 sf Central City lease. 

C&W is actively negotiating on FHA’s behalf and, due to its commitment to client confidentially cannot disclose further details. However, the following are previously completed and disclosed components of the process outlining the services the team provided: 

• Developing a strategic long-term facilities plan for board presentation, including the following advisory services: market analysis and forecasting, comprehensive portfolio review and cost projections, portfolio alignment and consolidation recommendations, capital projects review, lease vs. purchase analysis, residual value and proforma analysis, and demographic analysis.    

• Providing transaction services to support the execution of the long-term facilities plan including office tenant representation, retail tenant representation, industrial tenant representation, strategic land acquisition, and surplus land disposition.

• Strategic portfolio alignment: extending/terminating leases to align with consolidation strategy.

• Supporting an at-capacity real estate and facilities team with the management of numerous small-to-mid-sized clinical leases across Metro Vancouver, often providing advisory and transaction services free of charge and not tied to landlord compensation.

• Identifying off-market opportunities to develop a leveraged process.

• Leadership of a competitive RFP process.

• Leadership of 226,000 sf complex headquarters lease negotiation.