Not only is Surrey geographically the largest city in Metro Vancouver at 317.2 square kilometres, it also contains nearly half of the region’s mixed employment land, at 46 per cent.
Surrey currently has eight business parks, in Campbell Heights, South Westminster/Bridgeview, Port Kells, Newton, Cloverdale, Rosemary Heights, and the Highway 99 corridor as well as the Douglas industrial area.
The city has a total of 2,534 hectares (6,261.5 acres) of industrial land, with 365 hectares (901.9 acres) of that vacant land yet to be developed. This, according to the City of Surrey website, means Surrey has the largest portion of Metro Vancouver’s developed land (20 per cent) and also Metro’s biggest greatest share of vacant land, at 29 per cent.
It's also Canada's only city with two land border crossings.
According to the City of Surrey’s Economic Strategy 2024: A Roadmap to Realizing the Opportunities of Tomorrow, industrial land is in short supply in this region and it cites a Colliers International statement indicating that while a “healthy” vacancy rate for such land is between three per cent and five per cent, Metro Vancouver’s stood at 1.4 per cent at the end of 2023 and Surrey’s rate was 1.7 per cent.
To that end, Surrey has resolved to bring more industrial land online and make its policy to support “high-intensity” use of industrial-zoned land.
According to a backgrounder provided by the City of Surrey, there are 113 importing and exporting businesses operating here, and its manufacturing sector – comprised of roughly 960 businesses – employs more than 23,500 workers.
This content is part of the Surrey Economic Development 2025 magazine, produced by Surrey Now-Leader, the Surrey Board of Trade and the South Surrey & White Rock Chamber of Commerce. You can find the full e-edition here.
