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The release of the Metro Vancouver report comes just days after Concord Pacific Developments confirmed its purchase of the Molson Coors brewery in Vancouver, seen above.Rafal Gerszak/The Globe and Mail

The picture for crucially needed, job-producing industrial land in the Vancouver area is bleak, according to a new inventory done by the regional district.

The release of the report, which will be discussed by a Metro Vancouver planning committee on Friday, comes just days after Concord Pacific Developments confirmed its purchase of the Molson Coors brewery in Vancouver – along with already controversial plans to turn the industrial site into a mixed-use development that would also include housing.

The Metro Vancouver report says the region lost about 350 hectares of industrial land from 2010 to 2015 after it was rezoned by cities, largely for residential use. Some of the remaining 11,300 hectares are being taken up by retail, commercial, office and other uses as well, further diminishing the supply, the report says.

There are almost no pieces of vacant land big enough for major logistics centres that sort and store the thousands of containers that come through Vancouver's ports – one of the major drivers of the region's economy.

And the dream that somehow the problem can be solved by intensifying – building higher – on industrial land, as condo builders have done, is unlikely to be realized, according to the report, since most sites where that might be possible are already heavily used.

Although there have been constant warnings in the past decade about the region's loss of land for manufacturing, warehousing and other industry, Metro Vancouver board chair Greg Moore said he was still surprised by the latest inventory numbers.

"Eight-hundred seventy acres [352 hectares] in five years is a pretty staggering number," Mr. Moore said. "It does highlight that we continue to erode our industrial land."

As the squeeze on industrial land intensifies, he said, that puts pressure on agricultural land, much of which is close to where port-serving businesses want to put facilities. Metro Vancouver is organizing a regional round table this spring to look for solutions.

Robin Silvester, CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, said the region appears to be headed toward a brick wall.

"The amount of developed land is increasing and the total inventory is decreasing, despite 300 acres [120 hectares] of Tsawwassen lands that were added," he said.

Mr. Silvester said it's difficult to spot the slivers of vacant land left on the map produced in the Metro Vancouver report. And, he said, there's been increased demand from small manufacturers, which leaves fewer and fewer large sites for major logistics centres.

Industrial activity has been booming recently, resulting in more pressure to build new facilities and reducing the amount of vacant land remaining. A gathering of commercial brokers earlier this year heard stories of how many of the economic trends that could be negative for others were producing wins for local industrial activity.

Retail stores have closed? That meant there was a greater need for distribution space for online retailers. The Canadian dollar is low? Local manufacturers benefited by selling more goods abroad, resulting in a need for more space for their operations. Oil prices have plummeted? That made it cheaper to drive, leading more people to choose truck transportation – and a need for more facilities.

Metro Vancouver has been doing inventories of industrial land every five years since 2005, in an effort to gather solid data rather than relying on anecdotal evidence or even brokers' reports.

The district's regional growth strategy, which was agreed to by all 21 municipalities in 2011, focused much more energy than past plans on identifying industrial land and adding new measures to protect it. For example, a city that wants to rezone industrial land must now get approval from two-thirds of Metro Vancouver board members.

That is a hurdle that Concord Pacific Developments will have to clear for there to be any rezoning of the Molson Coors brewery site. But the plan also allows some of that industrial land to be designated as "mixed employment" land, which encourages other users to enter the picture.

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