TransLink, the regional public transportation provider, has purchased two properties next to Surrey Transit Centre. Where are the properties? 13221 76th Avenue and 7678 132nd Street. 13221 76th Avenue is a 4.94-acre property currently occupied by an industrial building that was constructed in 1961. 7678 132nd Street, is a 4.99-acre property currently home to an industrial building that was constructed in 1997.
TransLink is buying the properties from Belkorp Properties, a real-estate company founded by Morris Belkin, for a total of $85.6 million. In short, it’s over $85 million for close to 10 acres of land. As per BC Assessment, the two properties are worth $34,237,000 and $37,427,000 as of July 1, 2023.,
But what’s the purpose of this deal? Well, as per TransLink, the acquisition of the property is “to enable long-term operational expansion of the Surrey Transit Centre.” Two months before the acquisition, TransLink announced a series of cost-costing and revenue-generating initiatives “aimed at urgently addressing its growing funding gap.”
“While the financial benefits are significant, they will only partially address an impending average annual funding gap of more than $600 million that begins in 2026 after provincial relief funding runs out.”
As per the TansLink CEO, Kevin Quinn “We have worked closely with the Mayors’ Council and TransLink’s Board to take decisive action to examine our costs amidst this financial challenge. As a result, we’ve made some tough, but necessary decisions,” says TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn. “Many of the corporate programs and strategic initiatives we are scaling back played an important role in bringing riders back to our system, but now we must do whatever we can to reduce our long-term funding gap. The urgency of solving this crisis cannot be understated as we will be forced to look at service reductions at the end of 2025, should a solution not be found for our broken funding model.”
