Vancouver’s industrial vacancy rate hit 3.8% at the end of 2025, the highest level in a decade, according to a Newmark report covered by Connect CRE Canada. That number sounds dry until you’re the architect or contractor trying to find affordable, well-located space in this city. Port Town, the small pocket of East Vancouver wedged between Commercial Drive and Woodland Drive along Franklin and Powell Street, is one of the few places where that squeeze hasn’t fully hit yet. It’s also become one of the more interesting places in Vancouver for a design or construction business to plant a flag. Here’s why.
What Is Port Town, and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?
Port Town was Vancouver’s first and busiest industrial area, built around the working port, mills, and refineries that gave East Vancouver its early economic identity. For decades it stayed exactly that: a working industrial pocket, unglamorous and functional. That’s changed over the past several years.
The area is now home to the highest concentration of craft breweries in Canada, alongside coffee roasters, restaurants, and a growing list of design studios and creative businesses operating out of converted industrial buildings. Locals have taken to calling the brewery cluster “Yeast Vancouver,” a nod to how much the neighborhood’s character has shifted without losing its industrial bones. The zoning is still light industrial, which turns out to matter a lot for who ends up choosing to work here.
From Industrial Backwater to Design & Build Hub
Here’s where it gets interesting for architects, contractors, and designers specifically. Port Town’s revival hasn’t just brought in breweries and restaurants. It’s attracted architecture and design firms looking for character space at a price Downtown or Mount Pleasant can no longer offer, alongside the trades and contractors who’ve always had a natural home in light industrial zoning.
That mix isn’t an accident. Light industrial zoning permits exactly the blend a design & build business needs: studio and office space alongside room for material storage, vehicle access, and the kind of practical infrastructure a Downtown office tower simply can’t provide. As a result, Port Town has quietly become a place where the entire design & construction supply chain, architects, contractors, tradespeople, and the service providers who support them, can operate within walking distance of each other.
The evidence is already on the ground. Motiv Architects runs its practice out of a storefront studio in the neighborhood’s Hamilton Bank Building, and Studio Roslyn, a full-service interior design and creative consulting studio named 2022’s Emerging Interior Designer, operates out of the same building. Neither firm chose Port Town for the breweries. They chose it because character industrial space at this price point, this close to Downtown, is genuinely hard to find anywhere else in Vancouver right now.
Why Design & Construction Businesses Are Choosing Port Town
Central Without the Downtown Price Tag
Port Town sits about 10 minutes from Downtown Vancouver, 15 minutes from Burnaby, and 10 minutes from the North Shore, with easy access to the Trans-Canada Highway. For a contractor running between job sites across the Lower Mainland, that central position beats a Downtown address that’s harder to leave in a work truck.
Zoning That Actually Fits the Work
Unlike a converted office floor, light industrial space accommodates the physical reality of design & construction work: material samples, equipment, deliveries, and vehicles. Beyond that, the mix of studios and trades in the same few blocks creates the kind of informal, everyday overlap that turns into referrals, something a generic office park never manages to replicate.
Getting In Before the Squeeze Gets Worse
With citywide industrial vacancy at a decade-low availability (that 3.8% figure again), pockets like Port Town that still offer a mix of space types and price points won’t stay under the radar forever. Businesses that establish themselves here now are positioning ahead of a market that Newmark’s research suggests is only going to get tighter for well-located space through 2026 and into 2027.
How Port Town Compares to Mount Pleasant, Railtown & False Creek Flats
Port Town isn’t the only East Vancouver pocket going through this shift. Mount Pleasant’s industrial area has drawn a wave of digital and creative businesses over the past decade, and False Creek Flats has become a hub for galleries and studio space near Main Street. Both are real alternatives, and both have gotten noticeably more expensive and more competitive as a result of that attention.
Port Town has stayed comparatively under the radar. It doesn’t have Mount Pleasant’s tech-driven density or Railtown’s polish, and that’s precisely the appeal for a design or construction business that needs functional space over a flashy address. You get proximity to the same creative energy driving demand in those other pockets, without paying the premium that comes with being the obvious choice.
What’s Actually in the Neighborhood (Beyond the Breweries)
The amenity layer matters more than people expect when they’re choosing where to base a business. It affects whether your team actually wants to come into the office, and whether a client walkaway meeting turns into a coffee down the street instead of a straight drive home. Port Town’s everyday roster includes:
- Parallel 49 Brewing, JJ Bean’s original roastery, Pallet Coffee Roasters, and Resurrection Spirits and Odd Society Spirits for after-hours or client wind-downs
- Straight & Marrow and a growing list of independent restaurants and cafes within walking distance
- A working mix of auto shops, fabrication studios, and design offices that reflects the neighborhood’s industrial identity rather than erasing it
None of this is incidental to a design & build business. Clients notice when a meeting happens somewhere with actual character instead of a beige boardroom, and teams stay longer at businesses based somewhere they’d choose to spend time anyway. Beyond that, a neighborhood with this much foot traffic among creative and trade professionals turns into an informal referral engine on its own, the same dynamic CoFunction tries to build deliberately inside its own community.
Getting to Port Town: Access From Downtown, Burnaby & the North Shore
Port Town sits in East Vancouver at 1937 Triumph Street, with street parking and bike storage available on-site. For a business that depends on client visits, job-site trips, and supplier deliveries, that combination of central access and practical parking is harder to find than it should be in this city.
Why CoFunction Calls Port Town Home
CoFunction Workspaces is purpose-built for the design and construction industry, and Port Town wasn’t a random pick. The neighborhood’s mix of industrial practicality and creative energy mirrors exactly what the coworking space was built to support: architects, contractors, interior designers, and the service providers around them, working in proximity instead of isolation. Members get the benefit of Port Town’s location and character alongside a curated community built specifically around the same industry the neighborhood has quietly become known for.
Architects specifically will find a natural fit here too. CoFunction’s coworking space for architects page covers what the space offers beyond the neighborhood itself.
FAQ
Where is Port Town in Vancouver?
Port Town is a pocket of East Vancouver centered around Franklin and Powell Street, roughly between Commercial Drive and Woodland Drive, close to the working port that gave the area its name.
What businesses are in Port Town?
Port Town has the highest concentration of craft breweries in Canada, along with coffee roasters, restaurants, auto shops, fabrication studios, and a growing number of architecture, design, and construction businesses operating out of converted industrial buildings.
Is Port Town a good location for a design or construction business?
Yes. Its light industrial zoning accommodates the practical needs of design & build work (storage, vehicle access, studio space), it sits centrally between Downtown Vancouver, Burnaby, and the North Shore, and it’s home to a growing cluster of design and construction professionals who informally refer work to each other.
How do I get to Port Town from Downtown Vancouver?
Port Town is about a 10-minute drive from Downtown Vancouver, with easy access to Burnaby, the North Shore, and the Trans-Canada Highway. Street parking and bike storage are available in the neighborhood.
Conclusion & Next Step
Port Town’s shift from working industrial pocket to design & build hub didn’t happen by accident. Central access, practical zoning, and a genuine cluster of design and construction professionals make it one of the more interesting places in Vancouver to base a business right now, before the city’s tightening industrial market makes that harder to do.
Book a tour of CoFunction Workspaces and see Port Town for yourself.
