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With 25 years of experience in the British Columbia and national markets, Scott achieves quick and efficient resolutions for clients on tough and high profile deals
Scott Smythe is a Partner in the Real Property and Planning Group in the Vancouver office. His practice is focused on commercial real estate and related corporate matters, with a particular emphasis on development, acquisitions and dispositions, structuring, leasing, financing and corporate reorganizations. His extensive work and experience with major real estate investors, developers, landlords and tenants throughout Canada helps clients navigate the real estate market and manage risk.
Scott’s recent experience includes acting for:
Acquisition and Dispositions
- the purchaser of the Bentall Centre office tower complex and, subsequently, for the vendor of the complex (the two highest value office transactions ever in BC)
- the purchaser of the Oakridge Centre shopping mall in Vancouver
- the vendor of the St. Paul’s Hospital site in downtown Vancouver
- the purchaser of the Canada Post building in downtown Vancouver (the highest value transaction in BC in 2013)
- an international retailer on its $70 million acquisition of an office building for its corporate headquarters
- a private equity fund on multiple acquisitions and dispositions of major industrial, retail, apartment and office properties in all four Western Canadian provinces
- the purchaser and, subsequently, the vendor, of the 46-acre Icon Business Park in Calgary comprising 765,000 sf of office and industrial space
- the vendor of the Morgan Crossing Shopping Centre in Surrey
- the vendor of the Ottawa Marriott Hotel
- various local developers on the acquisition of development sites
- a BC land trust on the acquisition of ecologically sensitive properties on an ongoing basis
Leasing
- the landlord on the lease of over 1,000,000 square feet of office space to Amazon (the largest office lease transaction ever in BC)
- various landlords on leases to grocery store tenants (including Whole Foods, Loblaws, Sobeys, Overwaitea and Stong’s) in a variety of development settings
- the landlord on the lease-up of 765,000 square feet of office and industrial space within the Icon Business Park in Calgary
- landlords on leases and complex redevelopment arrangements involving anchor department store tenants (such as Hudson’s Bay Company)
- the landlord on all leases, including multiple anchor leases, within the Meadowtown Shopping Centre in Pitt Meadows
- the landlord on numerous retail leases with a range of tenants such as Winners, Michael’s, Gap, Old Navy, H&M, Starbucks, Cineplex, Rexall, London Drugs, Overwaitea, Vancity, HSBC, Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, CIBC, Nordstrom, Sport-Chek, PetValu, Jysk, BC Liquor Distribution Branch, Tim Horton’s and Suncor
- pension fund landlords (and their asset managers) on many hundreds of lease transactions in office towers, shopping centres and business parks
- a national cold storage company, as landlord and tenant, on the leases and subleases of various facilities across Canada
- an international retailer on numerous retail lease transactions across Canada and internationally, as well as its lease of an entire office building in Vancouver
- the tenant of seven floors of office space (135,000 sf) within the Marine Gateway office building in Vancouver
- acting for the landlord on all major leases to tenants within the new Vancouver Centre II development at Georgia and Granville Streets in Vancouver
Development
- the major, multi-phase retail/office/residential redevelopment of Oakridge Centre in Vancouver on an ongoing basis
- the Sapperton Green development in New Westminster on an ongoing basis
- the development of Northwoods Village in North Vancouver (awarded “Best Retail Development” at the 2018 NAIOP Awards)
- the master-planned, multi-phase Gilmore development in Burnaby on an ongoing basis
- the developers of several master-planned communities in New Westminster and Richmond
- the developers of numerous residential, commercial and mixed-use development projects and the associated sales of thousands of strata lots
- a joint venture developing a major new business park in Abbotsford
- Vancouver Airport Authority on various matters related to the development of the Vancouver International Airport
Industry presence
Scott is the co-author of McCarthy Tétrault’s Annotated British Columbia Strata Property Act, published by Carswell in April 2002 and updated annually. He is the co-author of chapters in each of the Continuing Legal Education Society’s Commercial Leasing - Annotated Precedents, Real Estate Practice Manual and Annual Review of Law and Practice publications. He is also co-editor of Real Estate MATTERS, a periodic publication of the Real Property and Planning Group, and a regular contributor to The Lay of the Land, a national Canadian real estate blog.
Scott has presented at numerous real estate industry seminars and conferences.
In 2017, Scott was appointed as a director of the Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia. He is a past Chair of the Real Property Subsection of the Canadian Bar Association (BC Branch) and a member of the Law Society of British Columbia.
Scott joined the firm in 1996. He received a BA (Honours) in 1990 and his LLB from the University of British Columbia in 1995. He was called to the British Columbia bar in 1997 after clerking for the British Columbia Court of Appeal.
Prix et distinctions
Chambers Canada
Band 1: Real Estate - British Columbia; Listed as a leading lawyer in the area of real estate for British Columbia in the 2022 publication, and has appeared in that publication since 2016.
The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory
Leading lawyer: property leasing and property development
Best Lawyers in Canada
Listed as a leading lawyer in the area of real estate law in the 2022 publication, and has appeared in that publication since 2014.
Acritas Stars
"Stand-out lawyer"