The crane sits quiet and idle at the Metrotower 3 construction site near Metropolis at Metrotown, but that is expected to change in January, according to Gordon Wylie, director of development for Ivanhoe Cambridge.
"We're able to proceed on a purely speculative basis right now," Wylie said in a phone interview Monday, adding that market conditions have made it possible to start work on the project once again.
Construction on the third office tower at the Metrotown office complex began in August 2008 but stalled when the company could not get a sufficient amount of pre-leasing agreements for the project.
"Metro Vancouver's office leasing market has clearly rebounded: vacancy rates have dropped significantly since the end of 2010," Wylie said in a press release.
The project is pre-certified as LEED Platinum, the second highest environmental building standard, and was the first to be pre-certified in Canada, according to the release.
The parkade was completed in 2008, and the rest of the 29-storey highrise is expected to be completed by April 2014, according to Wylie.
The initial completion date of the 400,000-square-foot development was expected to be last summer.
The City of Burnaby helped by allowing Ivanhoe Cambridge to suspend building at the time, Wylie said.
"We really appreciated that," he added.
The company is now working to reactivate the building permit, reassembling the project team, and getting the crane on site recertified, according to Wylie.
"We tried to keep the site ready for a quick restart," he said, adding the project could have started up again before Christmas but it seemed better to wait until the first week of January, operationally and in terms of staff availability.
The company is paying close attention to the market, Wylie said, but is ready to continue on the project.
"We're always keeping our eye on the market, but we have to remember that this project will take over two years to construct," he said.
"But we are now com-mitted to a course to complete the building."
The company will continue its work on Metropolis at Metrotown, as well, Wylie said, pointing out the centre recently added H&M and Forever 21 stores.
Ivanhoe Cambridge is the development and management company for the office complex, which is connected to Metropolis at Metrotown.
The company bought Metrotown Centre from Manulife Financial in 2002.
Zellers will be replaced by Target in the new year, he added.
Ivanhoe Cambridge is investing $170 million in the Metrotower 3 project, according to Wylie.
