BC Investment Management Corp buys up Whistler’s Riverside RV Resort

British Columbia's biggest pension plan is investing in unexpected places, including recreational vehicle (RV) campgrounds and resorts.

British Columbia's biggest pension plan is investing in unexpected places, including recreational vehicle (RV) campgrounds and resorts.

Parkbridge Lifestyle Communities Inc., an operating division of BC Investment Management Corp., which usually invests for B.C. public-sector pensions, bought the Riverside RV Resort, a 181-pad RV resort and campground in Whistler.

The 34 acre RV resort offers a variety of different accommodations, which includes full-service winterized RV sites, partial-service RV and multi-use camping sites, walk-in tent sites as well as cabin rentals.

Parkbridge now owns 34 RV campgrounds across Canada, Lachlan MacLean, told BIV.  He is Parkbridge’s Vice-President, Property Operations.  Parkbridge’s holdings include two RV properties on Vancouver Island and one in the Okanagan purchased in 2012.

“There is more risk, because RV parks depend on seasonal traffic,” he added

Lachlan said the number of RVs being bought is increasing because they provide low-cost accommodation for vacationers. For example, a typical full-service RV site at Whistler’s Riverside Resort, the only RV campground in the ski resort community, rents for $58 per night.

“A hotel room at Whistler would be about six times more during the high season,” MacLean also said in the BIV interview.

Source: BIV