Produce distributor Discovery Organics has moved to Burnaby, B.C., from its long-time location in Vancouver.

Discovery recently purchased a 12,000-square-foot warehouse in Burnaby’s Riverbend district and moved there in May, according to Business in Vancouver.

The company’s new base is located at 5628 Riverbend Drive.

Discovery vacated a larger (25,161 sf) leased location on the southeast corner of Malkin Avenue and Chess Street in an area known as Produce Row, within Vancouver’s Chinatown district.

“Staying on Produce Row was becoming pretty economically unsustainable, just with the rent increases and the development happening around [the new] St. Paul’s Hospital [project],” Brody Irvine, a Discovery co-owner, told BIV.

Situated near Marine Way, the new location also offers Discovery closer proximity, and quicker access, to major highways and other modes of transportation for shipping purposes.

Discovery was concerned about the City of Vancouver’s long-discussed plan to replace the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts with a new nearby arterial route that would have made it more difficult for large trucks to access the Malkin Avenue location in the future, BIV reported.

In an interview with BIV, Pete Fry, a Vancouver councillor, called for the city to examine ways to develop a new produce-distribution hub.

“We should really look for a purpose-built produce terminal that leases out space to different operators so it’s one centralized hub, in the interest of food security and resiliency for the city of Vancouver,” he told BIV.

Fry told BIV that more distributors are likely to leave Produce Row due to land prices that tripled between 2015 to 2018 and are expected to rise further due to the new St. Paul’s Hospital project.

Avison Young is listing Discovery’s former location for lease. Russ Bougie and Kyle Blyth, principals based in Avison Young’s Vancouver office, are co-ordinating the listing.

Photo: Discovery Organics