The Squamish Nation is planning to develop an 11-acre plot at the foot of Vancouver's Burrard Street Bridge.
The band hopes to build a multi-million dollar complex for business and government offices as well as rental housing.
"What we're looking at is the highest and best use for that piece of property," Chief Gibby Jacob of the Squamish Nation told CTV News. "Basically our mandate is to look at the best return for the use of the land."
"We have 3,600 citizens of the Squamish Nation. Sixty per cent are under 25. In the next 20 to 25 years our population will double. Our own source revenue from leases and our businesses has pretty much plateaued. If we don't develop, what we're setting up for our future is not a very good scenario."
Planning is still in its early stages, but one idea is to have a building behind the Molson brewery and a tall tower between the Burrard Bridge and Whyte Avenue.
It's a plan that's getting mixed results from people who live and work nearby.
"It makes me feel terrible. I like the little bits of woods that there are in Vancouver," resident Anita Demeo told CTV News.
"This land was not originally our land," said Christopher Gaze of Bard on the Beach. "And I think there are opportunities for the First Nations to have something of what would be of enormous benefit to them."
This isn't the first time one of the band's projects has stirred debate. Last year, the Squamish Nation installed a three-metre high by nine-metre wide billboard at the south end of the Burrard Bridge, a move that upset many locals.
Since the land is traditional territory, the band does not need approval from the city to move forward.
Jacob says the Squamish Nation wants to work with the city and locals.
"We're not going to go in there and be bad neighbours," he said. "We will certainly take into account the voices of the municipal government."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
