Leasing Commercial Space in Burnaby: What Business Owners Should Know

Burnaby's three town centres — Metrotown, Brentwood, and Lougheed — have been quietly reshaping the city's commercial landscape for close to two decades, and the pace hasn't let up. For a small business owner, tenant, or investor looking at commercial space in Burnaby, that ongoing transformation changes the questions worth asking before you sign anything.

Two very different kinds of commercial space

Burnaby's commercial inventory essentially splits into two categories right now, and each comes with its own trade-offs. The first is ground-floor retail and office space inside the newer mixed-use towers going up around the Metrotown, Brentwood, and Lougheed SkyTrain stations. These spaces tend to come with higher base rent and stricter design guidelines (storefront signage, awnings, and hours are often dictated by the strata or the building's commercial covenant), but they also come with built-in foot traffic from the thousands of residential units stacked above and around them.

The second category is older strip-mall and standalone retail space in areas like Edmonds, Kingsway, or sections of Lougheed that haven't yet been rezoned or redeveloped. Rent here is typically lower and the space more flexible, but it's worth asking directly whether the property or the surrounding block is part of a longer-term redevelopment plan. Burnaby's town centre area plans have been in place for years, and individual parcels get assembled and rezoned on their own timelines, sometimes well before a tenant's lease is up. A short-term lease with a below-market rate can be a smart move in a property like this; a 10-year lease with no exit clause is a bigger gamble.

What to check before you sign

A few line items are worth close attention no matter which type of space you're considering. Operating costs (often billed as triple-net or "NNN") can add significantly to the base rent, so ask for a full breakdown of property tax, insurance, and common-area maintenance charges, not just the headline rent-per-square-foot figure. Check what tenant improvement allowance, if any, the landlord is offering, and get a clear answer on who pays for base-building items like HVAC repairs versus your own fixtures. If the business depends on visibility or walk-in traffic, confirm your signage rights in writing, since many newer mixed-use buildings restrict exterior signage more than tenants expect. And if there's any exclusivity clause protecting you from a direct competitor opening two doors down, make sure it's actually written into the lease rather than verbally promised. For businesses that need warehouse, light assembly, or distribution space rather than street-level retail, Burnaby's industrial areas along North Fraser Way and the Big Bend neighbourhood near the Fraser River are worth a look. This part of the city has long been a hub for flex and industrial space serving Metro Vancouver, with easier highway access than many retail corridors and generally more straightforward lease structures than a ground-floor retail unit in a mixed-use tower.

Why the town centre redevelopment matters to your lease

Burnaby has been steadily densifying Metrotown, Brentwood, and Lougheed for years under its long-standing town centre area plans, with new residential and mixed-use towers continuing to replace older low-rise retail and office buildings block by block. That's good news for long-term foot traffic and property values near the SkyTrain stations, but it also means construction disruption — road closures, noise, reduced street parking — is a real possibility for anyone leasing near an active or upcoming development site. It's a fair question to ask a landlord directly: are there any approved or applied-for rezonings on this block or the one next door, and what's the realistic timeline?

Getting the right advice before you commit

None of this is a reason to avoid commercial space in Burnaby — the city's growth is exactly what makes it an attractive market for the right business. But a commercial lease is a very different document from a residential one, and the stakes of getting a clause wrong are higher. If you're evaluating a storefront, an office suite, or an industrial unit in Burnaby and want a second set of eyes on the property or the surrounding block's development trajectory, I'm happy to help you think it through.

Nader Bakhoum, P.Eng.