Lots of Land available; but few sales so far ... that we know of!

The three areas of Prince Rupert that were offered up for sale for
developers one year ago today

It's a Happy First birthday for the City of Prince Rupert Land Rush launched in 2022.

The civic initiative of putting up a large volume of property lots up for sale was introduced just one year ago, the theme of the time from then Mayor Lee Brain was one of excitement for what was hoped would be rush of property development to help to resolve some of the community's housing issues.

As we outlined one year ago, the initial offering included three vast tracts of available land some off of 11th Avenue East, an area of land off of Alpine Drive on the west side of the city and a large parcel from Frederick to the Industrial park.

The focus at the time was to spur on new development and provide dividends from sales of land to Prince Rupert Legacy Inc.

New development not only will benefit the community through providing new housing options as well as locations for industrial development, but it will also provide additional tax revenue to the City, and sales revenue to Prince Rupert Legacy Inc – which can then be transferred to the City as annual dividends for infrastructure renewal and revitalization projects. -- From the City of Prince Rupert prospectus on available land of march 2022

So far, one year later, we have not heard from City staff or council how the land sale is moving along and if indeed some dividends have been realized from Prince Rupert Legacy Inc.

The Big Land sale of March was not the last of the big land announcements from 2022.

Just before he left Office, Mayor Brain and City Manager Rob Buchan had hailed the agreement to sell land at Seal Cove to be developed for housing. 

That a deal with KeyCorp Development a Vancouver Island based land developer, the proposed housing from November of 2022 providing for the prospect of 75 market house units with 300  more to come as part of a four phase process of development.

As of today, the property still resembles more of a quarry than a construction zone.

The Seal Cove location that has been tapped as a potential area
for housing development in Prince Rupert

With Housing still a pretty pressing issue for the community and the city still anticipating a surge of newcomers to take on jobs at port related facilities, it probably is time for an update on how any of the land projects of 2022 are coming along.

Items of note related to civic planning can be explored here.

More notes related to Housing can be reviewed from our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.