The Vancouver Business Thread

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Thanks for the background. I have been watching this go up for few weeks now. It is very visible on North Shore, so I wonder why nobody complained it ruining the view of the mountains.

Few photos of the new shipyard crane from today.

[Genauso]

Thanks for sharing your big photo hike today Klaus.

Wow this piece looks pretty; a lovely big blue crane which is mounted with a smaller vibrant orange crane. It puts the $97,600 Main St poodle to shame.

[Genauso]

Coastal Contacts Staff Meet Their New Boss

Essilor of the Americas president John Carrier visits Vancouver to meet new staff as the French optical company closes its acquisition of Coastal Contacts

The $430-million acquisition of Vancouver’s Coastal Contacts by French optical giant Essilor International closed today, and John Carrier, president of Essilor of the Americas was in town to meet with Coastal staff. BCBusiness caught up with Carrier to ask him about the integration of Coastal’s staff of 625 with Essilor’s global workforce of 51,000.

...

Q: What was your message to Coastal Contact employees?
One important part was to tell them that we are choosing to keep the headquarters here in Vancouver. As you can imagine, Essilor is solicited by cities and countries around the world to bring an important division of our business to multiple countries. But we have ties with Canada that go way back. We think this is going to be a good place for us to conduct this expansion from.

Q: What expansion are you referring to?
We are thinking about new geographies. The optical market is under-served in many countries that have a large and growing economy, but reaching the people who need vision correction or vision protection in some of those countries is tricky. We think that e-commerce is a great way to speed up access to vision correction and vision protection in some parts of the world.

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[zahav]

Surprised no one has posted this yet! Its a great addition in a good project, and lots of jobs!

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/05/01/microsoft-to-open-new-centre-in-vancouver-400-new-jobs/

[spm2013]

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[officedweller]

Metro, industry in dispute over right of way for railway
A dispute over a half-kilometre-long railway on Annacis Island is brewing between the island's industrial tenants and Metro Vancouver.

By Vancouver Sun
May 2, 2014

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The battle centres around a 1.2-acre section in the northwest corner of Annacis Island, which is already a bustling railway hub, with two rail lines running north and south along the island. Southern Railway of B.C. wants to buy the statutory right-of-way on that parcel for $2.2 million to build a 584-metre track and connect the two existing rail lines.

The move, said railway CEO Frank Butzelaar, would improve goods movement along the tracks, which were built in the 1950s for 5,000 rail cars, but now see 35,000 cars per year.

It would also expand the supply chain and create hundreds of jobs on the island.

The railway has already received Transport Canada funding for the plan, he said, while steel companies are setting up on the island with visions of tapping into the liquefied natural gas market. Without the connecting rail, Butzelaar warns, those jobs are likely to go offshore.

http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=29f7b895-8086-4435-82c8-8d529ef0c670

[spm2013]

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[officedweller]

Thanks!

[cairnstone]

Originally Posted by zahav

Surprised no one has posted this yet! Its a great addition in a good project, and lots of jobs!

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/05/01/microsoft-to-open-new-centre-in-vancouver-400-new-jobs/

Should we start the count down clock on how long the office will be open. Microsoft did this back in 2007 in Richmond. They lease a few buildings on 6 road from bentall with an option to lease the whole park. Several tenants had there leases bought out and had to find new spots to call home. At the time it was supposed to rival there Washington campus with upwards of 4000 employees. I believe there is only a few employees here most were phased out or transferred south ounce they got immigration issues solved.

[Klazu]

This is already last week's news, but they did sign this expensive lease for 11 years, so I take that as a positive sign of their commitment this time.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by cairnstone

Should we start the count down clock on how long the office will be open. Microsoft did this back in 2007 in Richmond. They lease a few buildings on 6 road from bentall with an option to lease the whole park. Several tenants had there leases bought out and had to find new spots to call home. At the time it was supposed to rival there Washington campus with upwards of 4000 employees. I believe there is only a few employees here most were phased out or transferred south ounce they got immigration issues solved.

Are you sure it was immigration and not the economic recession? Or quick changes in the C$?

You can make up any story you like, but don't spout it off like fact when you truly don't know.

[jlousa]

It's well known that they opened the Richmond location at the time to deal with immigration issues down in the states, the cap on H1B visas required them to bypass the US and open up here. I'm sure it still plays a factor today.

[s211]

Originally Posted by jlousa

It's well known that they opened the Richmond location at the time to deal with immigration issues down in the states, the cap on H1B visas required them to bypass the US and open up here. I'm sure it still plays a factor today.

It was, but in the post-2008 aftermath, Microsoft also discovered there were lots of out of work Americans they could hire, instead of having to rely on Vancouver as a holding pen for foreign staff they wanted to import.

[spm2013]

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[PaperTiger]

Originally Posted by spm2013

Well it's a fact as one of the reasons for opening it.

And re: the C$ from Microsoft



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technolog...ouver-development-centre/article1060791/



http://www.workpermit.com/news/2007-07-1...oftware-development-centre-vancouver.htm

Anyhow, they do have an 11-year lease so unless they sublease it to some ESL school I think we can give them the benefit of the doubt that they're in it for the long-term.

PS. The Richmond development centre has 300 employees from 45 countries.

The Richmond development center moved to Vancouver. The employees hated the suburban location and lack of transit. It is now located in the former Pivotol / Vision Critical building at the north end of the Cambie bridge.

[spm2013]

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[LeftCoaster]

No I don't think there is.

This Microsoft move into PC is very much permanent and has a strong capacity to continue growing. As was pointed out in the 725 Granville thread Vancouver has a great pool of talent. That combined with Vancouver's proximity to Seattle make a large presence here quite attractive.

Moving into expensive downtown office space with great amenities and very prominent signage is a sign that Microsoft is here to stay and has big visions for Vancouver.

[seaJ]

It's a present from us here in Seattle for your supporting our Seahawks during the Superbowl. If you do it again next year we might throw an Amazon field office your way.

[LeftCoaster]

You already did, 150,000 sq ft at the Telus development

Go Seahawks! (in the NFC of course)

[spm2013]

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