Invest

Live in the mountains.  Do business with the city.

Metro Vancouver was Canada’s fastest growing city economy in 2015.  As it grows, Vancouverites are increasingly looking east for more affordable lifestyle opportunities and Hope is the next community in the path of development through the Fraser Valley.

Located at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley, Hope embraces the lifestyle of a small mountain community.  Hope is transitioning to a service-based economy, providing an inviting place for young families and retirees with plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation and tourism.  Hope’s intimate and stunning mountain settings allows one to feel alive and connected to nature, the community, and oneself while maintaining comfortable access to big city amenities.

Hope sits at the confluence of the Fraser and Coquihalla rivers, the junction four major highways, and between the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways.  We have a regional airpark and a private heliport.  Hope is a prime location for distributing and exporting goods.

 Hope has…

• A primary trade area of 10 000+
• Highway traffic of nearly 7 million vehicles annually
• A 2.5+ million market within a 2 hour drive
• One of the province’s busiest visitor centres with over 47 000 visitors in 2016
• High speed fibre optic internet

Fibre Optic Internet

Hope is a pilot community for Telus high speed fibre optic internet service.  The upload and dowload speed of this new fibre optic network is 150mbps.  Currently, less than 10% of the world has access to a fibre optic network, giving businesses in Hope a competitive advantagehop.

Fibre optic networks have unlimited wireless capabilities and are not as vulnerable to service disruption because the lines are buried.  There is also no slow down during peak demand periods because of the amount of data a single fibre optic strand can carry.  This means that you can do more uninterrupted business than ever before.

Targeted Sectors

A number of sectors have been identified as investment opportunities in Hope.  More detailed information on some target sectors, zoning bylaws, and a site selection tool can be found under the Invest tab at the top of the page.

Commercial, Retail, and Film

With a primary trade area of 10 000 people and nearly 7 million cars passing by Hope annually, the following retail trends have been identified as areas that will evolve in the near future:

• Local convenience goods and services trade area for a catchment for residents and visitors
• Convenience stop for regional traffic to and from the Lower Mainland by virture of Hope’s strategic highway location
• Niche regional day trip and overnight tourism destination which would require attraction of new interest and investment in developing uses and supporting amenities that can properly leverage the area’s considerable natural beauty, recreational opportunities, and history.

Virtual Commuter, Tech Entrepreneur, and Home-Based Business

Hope has a higher than average number of self-employed workers (18%) compared to the rest of British Columbia (13%).  Our location adjacent to larger centres is well-suited to entrepreneurs in the creative and professional class who are looking for a high quality of life in addition to easy access to a large market share and large client base.

The District of Hope has a 95 000 person market share within 55km and a 2.2 million person market share within the Metro Vancouver area (170km).

Light Green Industry

Hope is ideal for small-scale industry and micro-manufacturers, including coffee roasters, sustainable agriculture, micro-brewery, and other clean water-based industries.

We have a low cost industrial and residential land base relative to the rest of the Fraser Valley, affordable occupancy costs, and a superior quality of life.  Despite our rural setting, we have strong transportation infrastructure to distribute goods from Hope to the Lower Mainland, Interior, and Pacific Northwest (Washington State).

Agrifoods

Hope’s agricultural land is made up of relatively small parcels.  As such, Hope is conducive to innovative, small-footprint agriculture practices and/or urban agriculture techniques.  The major advantage for agrifood producers in hope is that the price per hectare of land designated for agriculture is lower than much of the rest of the Fraser Valley.  This allows urban agriculturalists to move east out of Metro Vancouver and plant their roots in Hope.

Easy access to major transportation networks also ensures that agrifood prodcuers are not limited to the local market and can easily get their products to market in the Fraser Valley, Interior, and Washington State.

Getting Started…

If you are interested in starting a business or moving your business to Hope, we encourage you to make contact as soon as possible.  You can also check out the links to important development documents on the right-hand side of this page.

For business climate information, development resources, and to organize introductions, you can contact the economic development staff at AdvantageHOPE.

For information on site development, zoning, access, servicing, taxes, permits, and licenses, you can contact the District of Hope Planning and Development Department and arrange a meeting.

It’s all about location