MITCHELL ISLAND INDUSTRIAL PARK

RICHMOND, B. C.

CLIENT:  MITCHELL ISLAND HOLDINGS LIMITED

Mitchell Island Industrial Park consists of 86 acres and is all of the remaining vacant land on this industrial area located on an island in the North Arm of the Fraser River.  The property is the site of the former Western Steel recycling mill.  Following decommissioning of the steel mill and years of environmental remediation our client purchased the property to develop a modern industrial park.

Our firm was the lead consultant of a comprehensive team of engineers, contamination and habitat environmental specialists, surveyors and a variety of other specialists dealing with an incredibly wide array of issues.  Despite the extensive remediation many environmental issues still remained with respect to the contamination cleanup and a very specialized team was assembled to finally resolve these outstanding issues with a minimum expense to our client. 

As an island in the middle of the Fraser River the environmental habitat issues both within the property and along the shoreline were particularly challenging and detailed plans for environmental compensation and provision of park and habitat areas was undertaken.  Ongoing negotiations with FREMP, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the City of Richmond resolved key issues to ensure the minimal loss of useable industrial land while providing innovative solutions to the compensation challenges. 

Efforts to satisfy the needs and requirements of end users required that we deal with issues of docking and loading on the foreshore, fill requirements, relocation of B. C. Hydro transmission lines, resubdivision and redesign of roads and utilities while meeting important closing dates and municipal approval timetables.

Throughout this process we also worked to create a unique program to reduce the municipal taxes on portions of the property to save hundreds of thousands of dollars while the park was developed over time.