First Nations’ Land, 99-Year Lease Transaction for Residential Development

G-Force Group was engaged jointly by several owners from a First Nation in Metro Vancouver to list, market and negotiate pre-paid, long-term leases with a developer who will develop multi-family housing on their properties. G-Force drew upon its creative real estate transaction experience and its knowledge of the creation of new communities at the municipal government level. In this case the local government was working through the early stages of establish the required infrastructure to allow development to proceed which was critical to protecting the sale process for the multi-family residential project. G-Force has helped both the vendors and buyer understand and manage these risks.

G-Force also advised the Owners on the terms and conditions of the lease agreement, and their marketing and negotiating strategies. One challenge of this transaction was determining the amount of the lease price since it could not be determined satisfactorily because the final property size and number of units in the development, and the off-site servicing and certain other costs were unknown at the time. G-Force addressed this challenge by having the parties agree to determine the lease price on the basis of a formula that will incorporate numbers for specific elements when they become known to produce a final selling price that will be subject to the Owners’ approval. The property is currently under contract.