The Vancouver Business Thread

[jlousa]

I wonder if the H1B visas are transferable.... such that Microsoft could ship some of the Canadian workers it has in Redmond back to Canada freeing up those visas for other foreigners.

[WBC]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

^ I have heard anecdotal evidence that it is quite common for people in the city's programming/computer science/web development sectors to leave established firms to work from home/cafe/shared workspace as either a freelance sub-contractor or as an employee of a company with no physical presence in the city. I know someone who left a large software firm in Vancouver to start up his own side business of making back-end software for municipalities while also working for a firm that is deliberately spread around the world so that work can be performed 24/7. A person like that would appear to drop off the face of the earth when they leave the established business with a physical address, but in reality he's probably making the same or better money, started up one company that's doing well while simultaneously working for another, all out of his home office and the local coffee shop. It's easy to overstate the prevalence of this type of person in our local economy based on anecdotal evidence, but it's also easy to ignore them because they aren't leasing office space for their new companies or working for an established company with a local address.

I completely agree. My company had downsized office space downtown from 4 floors to 2 in the past 5 years for that very same reason. Telus workers work from home as well...I know of many more who either have no physical presence in the city or have downsizes their real estate significantly...

I think that working from home will have a significant effect on future commercial real estate, transit and education (universities seem to be a bit behind times as usual with this concept, although they have always had distance ed courses). In fact I have read some articles that indicate that in the States the overall growths of people telecommuting is outpacing growth in public transit.

Thus, I find the current growth in Vancouver downtown commercial real estate a bit puzzling...But then again it could be that my anecdotal evidence is just too...anecdotal?

[spm2013]

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[spm2013]

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[Klazu]

Originally Posted by PaperTiger

The Richmond development center moved to Vancouver. The employees hated the suburban location and lack of transit.

I would hate to commute to some tech park in Richmond as well. Many young people in the high-tech industry today can afford and will want to live Downtown and tech parks don't fit that picture. Even in Silicon Valley many people live in San Francisco, even though commute between valley and city is horrendously slow.

I am all pro for de-centralizing jobs inside metropolitan areas, but it needs to happen around transit hubs. These car-dependent tech parks should all be closed down. Attracting talent will be much easier in Downtown.

[spm2013]

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[Klazu]

Originally Posted by spm2013

Isn't Bellevue/Redmond essentially a tech park that just grew enough mass to develop their own city centre?

It is, but it is fairly well served by transit and is not car-dependent (despite a Freeway running through it). Downtown Bellevue is just a stone's throw away and people living there can easily ride their bikes to work.

I have been driving around the MSFT campus area and it is a very nice (as is almost all of Bellevue / Redmond. I am pretty sure lots of their employees live in the immediate area nearby the campus, but I might be wrong.

Even when nice, I would still personally prefer Amazon and them building their headquarters in three new skyscrapers in Downtown Seattle.

[casper]

Originally Posted by s211

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.

If I remember the news articles correctly from when the Richmond office was setup it was a case of Microsoft have a fair number of Graduate Students from overseas that they sponsored into US universities to do graduate degrees when they graduated they were not permitted to stay in the US due to quotes on some type of visa.

Canada at the time was quote happy to accept highly qualified individuals who were trained in US universities with a US multinational sponsoring them into the county and guaranteeing them a job.

Microsoft has been here before. Back in the 90's they purchased a Vancouver company that developed a mail program (Originally Microsoft Mail that evolved into Outlook and Exchange) for a number of years they retained the Vancouver office, eventually moving it all back to Seattle.

Here in Victoria they had a game development studio until just a few months ago when they shut it down.

Microsoft has a bit of track record of being here for a while, leaving then a few years coming back with a slightly different focus.

[PaperTiger]

Originally Posted by spm2013

They also seem to have offices at 840 Cambie and 858 Beatty. Maybe they'll give up the Cambie Street offices when they move?

And re: the immigration issues:



http://www.netnewsledger.com/2014/05/02/new-microsoft-hub-in-canada/

According to this article they definitely will.

Once the remodel at Pacific Centre is complete, all of Microsoft's employees in Vancouver — including those working at its games studios — will move into the Excellence Centre.

Great article BTW. They actually did a little research it seems like. rather than just parroting the press release and throwing in some half remembered facts a la Sun /Province

[spm2013]

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[theKB]

Originally Posted by spm2013

I doubt it would amount to many people (especially who would want to leave Redmond to come back for a more likely low profile job). I think Microsoft took a look at their fight with Congress over H1-Bs and made their bet.

I would also say, who would want to move back here for a considerably higher cost of living?

[cairnstone]

So how many of the Microsoft jobs are going to be new? As they are consolidating there other offices into the new building.

As for Richmond Microsoft spent a big bit of pocket change renovating the buildings plus buying out the leases. Inside the campus was a temple room and Mosque prayer rooms.

[spm2013]

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[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by craneSpotter

Petronas and Progress announce go-ahead for $9-billion LNG plant at Prince Rupert

Much larger facility to be built if Ottawa approves Malaysian giant's purchase of Canadian company

GORDON HAMILTON, VANCOUVER SUN DECEMBER 4, 2012

This might be related, but in an inverse context:

http://www.biv.com/article/20140521/BIV0...-against-unrealistic-expectations-on-lng

[Klazu]

Anyone know what is going on in the RBC Tower? Four of the upper floors are completely empty at the moment and there have been some crews working all night long. Any idea what company used to lease those floors and which new one might be moving in?

I wouldn't think RBC is occupying much of the building, despite the name...

[officedweller]

Bull Housser & Tupper used to be in the 30th floor - not sure how many floors they had (but they had 100+ lawyers at one time, so I'd think at least 3 floors).
They'll be moving to Telus Garden, but messed up their leasing arrangements, and had to move into temporary space at Robson Court until Telus Garden is ready.

[spm2013]

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[amor de cosmos]

Technology
Vancouver, the New Tech Hub
By Karen Weise
May 22, 2014

In the heart of downtown Vancouver, construction workers are installing glass facades on two office towers. One will be an engineering hub for Microsoft (MSFT), the other for Amazon.com (AMZN). Facebook (FB), Salesforce.com (CRM), and a bunch of startups with less familiar names have also been setting up shop in the city. In addition to great views in a convenient time zone, Vancouver offers U.S. tech companies world-class talent, lower salaries, and few immigration headaches.

Each year the U.S. government grants as many as 85,000 H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. In the last two years, it received so many applications that it stopped taking them after five days and held a lottery. Companies applied for about 172,500 visas in April, meaning at least 87,500 engineers, developers, and others couldn’t take jobs in the U.S. Canada welcomes any highly skilled worker who has a job offer, and salaries for tech workers are about 10 percent to 15 percent lower than in the U.S., according to Jen Geddes, a steering committee member of HR Tech Group, a networking group in British Columbia.

Karen Jones, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, says her company applied for about twice the roughly 750 H-1B visas it received for 2015. “The U.S. laws clearly did not meet our needs,” she says. “We have to look to other places.” Microsoft opened a small office in Vancouver in 2007, when U.S. visa applications for the first time quickly surpassed the congressional limit. This month it announced plans to more than double its roughly 300-employee office in Vancouver, where video games have been the focus. There, Microsoft will hire and train 400 software developers from around the world to work on mobile and cloud projects. Jones says Microsoft didn’t choose to expand in Vancouver “purely for immigration purposes, but immigration is a factor.”

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/201...s-hampered-by-u-dot-s-dot-work-visa-caps

[trofirhen]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Coming fromm Bloomberg, that's quite an accolade.
Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, it indicates a real kick-start to a newer, more important, and ultimately more diversified economy in Vancouver, something the city really needs.

[Hourglass]

Originally Posted by amor de cosmos

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/201...s-hampered-by-u-dot-s-dot-work-visa-caps

I wonder how much of Microsoft and Amazon's growth in Vancouver goes away with looser US visa restrictions. Presumably as the cost advantage and skilled workforce is there, Vancouver will remain attractive.