The Post | 67m | 27 fl | Completed

[red-paladin]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

So with this taking up a whole city block it will only be 416,000 square feet? That's sad

That's just the Amazon portion. There will be 200,000 sqft of retail too.

In addition to Amazon’s space, there will be approximately 200,000 square feet for retail, which will include restaurants, a grocery store, entertainment, fashion, and convenience stores.

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/amazo...-redevelopment

[osirisboy]

Ah ok

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

That's just the Amazon portion. There will be 200,000 sqft of retail too.


http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/amazo...-redevelopment

Not just the 200,000 of retail - the Quadreal announcement say "Amazon will occupy 35 per cent of The Post’s 1.13 million square feet.". So presumably Amazon have the Georgia office tower, and the other tower is still to be leased. (or announced).

[SpongeG]

Amazon are also taking office space on dunsmuir which will open in 2020.

So this will all be office space? they dropped the residential?

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Amazon are also taking office space on dunsmuir which will open in 2020.

So this will all be office space? they dropped the residential?

That's what it looks like. Office and retail. No revised rezoning on the City's website yet.

[SpongeG]

nice. Would be nice to see a proper sized whole foods downtown, I wonder if that will be the grocery store. The whole foods on Robson is just so small.

[rofina]

Fantastic news for our City!

Vancouver is truly starting to join the bigs.

Exciting/Scary times.

Now would be a great time for some forward looking leadership on ambitious infrastructure projects that the city will surely need over the coming decades.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by rofina

Fantastic news for our City!

Vancouver is truly starting to join the bigs.

Exciting/Scary times.

Now would be a great time for some forward looking leadership on ambitious infrastructure projects that the city will surely need over the coming decades.

I agree.. I spy with my little eye some parking structures nearby that should get redeveloped. Maybe something more techy?

[osirisboy]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Not just the 200,000 of retail - the Quadreal announcement say "Amazon will occupy 35 per cent of The Post’s 1.13 million square feet.". So presumably Amazon have the Georgia office tower, and the other tower is still to be leased. (or announced).

Hmm. That still seems low. The Telus development, office and condo was something like 980,000 sqft and that was on less than half the block

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

The story from Techvibes, with an additional rendering:

Amazon Announces Plans to Expand Vancouver Tech Hub and Create 3,000 Additional High Tech Jobs

Anyone here extremely excited that they have decided to redesign the retail portion to look like a mall than what they had in the previous rendition? Well, Vin is a happy camper: at least someone is listening. Now if only they can also have an underground portion to link with Telus Garden, Vancouver Centre, the Holborn block (Bay parkade) and Pacific Centre mall.

Originally Posted by rofina

Fantastic news for our City!

Vancouver is truly starting to join the bigs.

Exciting/Scary times.

Now would be a great time for some forward looking leadership on ambitious infrastructure projects that the city will surely need over the coming decades.

Yes, it is very exciting. Unfortunately we can only do this with heritage warehouses that happen to be located downtown. Don't think the City would accept something like this for a new structure. First of all, they would think this is "NOT HUMAN SCALE".

[djh]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

That's just the Amazon portion. There will be 200,000 sqft of retail too.


http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/amazo...-redevelopment

Sooo...99% chance the grocer's will be a Whole Foods, then!

That part of town really could do with a Whole Foods. The only other one in the downtown peninsula is on Robson Street near the West End, so having one here would give various nearby competitors a run for their money (everything from Urban Fare to T&T to Costco).

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Vin

Anyone here extremely excited that they have decided to redesign the retail portion to look like a mall than what they had in the previous rendition? Well, Vin is a happy camper: at least someone is listening. Now if only they can also have an underground portion to link with Telus Garden, Vancouver Centre, the Holborn block (Bay parkade) and Pacific Centre mall. **1.
Yes, it is very exciting. Unfortunately we can only do this with heritage warehouses that happen to be located downtown. Don't think the City would accept something like this for a new structure. First of all, they would think this is "NOT HUMAN SCALE". **2.

*1. Yes, it would be nice to link up parts of downtown Vancouver with an underground pedestrian systyem. I'm not advocating THE PATH in Toronto, or Place Ville Marie.
But that argument that it will 'deaden' the street level life isn't relevant here, as it would be around alberni or Robson, where street level life is integral to the "well being" of the city.
This part of Vancouver is largely built-out office complexes, and though we don't have the harsh long continental winter to justify it, the relentless winter rains are nice to get out of.

*2. As for the city fathers claiming that a new such structure would not be "HUMAN SCALE" is, IMO, partly because Vancouver is only just starting to become a true 'big city' city.
People like that "small town" feeling that it has always had until now; plus a lot of the policymakers are from small towns themselves (Geoff Meggs is such), and don't 'think big'.
For many, -and I make no value judgements here - Vancouver is better with a "quaint" small city feeling, than bowing to become a big metropolis; it isn't yet, but is on the road to being.

Nevertheless, the writing is on the wall, and over the next ten years or so, IMO Vancouver will bump up up into another league, not Toronto or Houston, but big nonetheless.
This all reinforces what you were saying, and will be very noticeable in a decade. I think that is largely why good infrastructure of all types is so necessary to build ... now.
(and thank you, Rofina, you summed it up concisely; I'm just elaborating on what VIN said)

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Hmm. That still seems low. The Telus development, office and condo was something like 980,000 sqft and that was on less than half the block

The condo and office were on more than half the block - it was all of Richards Street except the Kingston Hotel, and 100 feet of Seymour Street. The 980,000 number includes the new addition of 37,000 sq. ft. on top of the existing office on Seymour. The new office on W Georgia is 500,000 sq ft in total. The condo tower, which has 46 floors so is way higher density than the Post will be is 391,000 sq. ft. of residential and around 60,000 sq. ft. of office. The original rezoning report with the numbers is still available, although there was a later revision to reduce the condo retail and substitute more office space.

That entire Telus block (including the Avigilon and Kingston buildings) has 1.46 million sq. ft. including the 46 storey residential tower, so 1.13 million on the Post Office seems to be correct.

The original post office design had parking above grade as well as below; it's not clear if the new version still proposes that. (Maybe not, which might be why the retail can be opened up with the big atrium design).

[officedweller]

The Georgia façade looks okay - there appear to be mullions that mimic a type of grid - so that works well with the heritage grids below.

Agree that the indoor space shown looks better than what was planned
- BUT I'm not sure how much of that space is "public mall" or "Amazon lobby / employee space".

[MIPS]

So reading the article, the last-mile distribution center they were proposing was scrapped?

[city guy]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

The story from Techvibes, with an additional rendering:

Amazon Announces Plans to Expand Vancouver Tech Hub and Create 3,000 Additional High Tech Jobs






Source: https://techvibes.com/2018/04/30/ama...uver-tech-hub#


Here is another rendering found on Daily Hive:


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/amaz...-redevelopment

still looks banal to me

[osirisboy]

It would be nicer if the additions (it's hard to call them towers) would incorporate something from the original post office. They just seem like two glass boxes plunked down on top.

And the city has to reexamine the ridiculous view comes. Maybe the next council will be more open to that.

[rickvug]

There is a rumour comment on Reddit that I think deserves to be cross posted here for discussion. See https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/c...about/dy87hdv/. The commentator has really started to put the pieces together. I added my own fairly lengthy summary on this same thread (in the quoted text).

I think this is part of something really big for the city that most haven't clued into just yet. There's so much redevelopment that's going to happen along Georgia, starting at The Bay and reaching all the way to the waterfront, spilling out into the new NEFC neighbourhood. Sure, there's a lot of rumour and speculation in this thread. A good portion of it might not happen but ultimately the writing is clearly on the wall. With Amazon and the viaduct removal as the catalysts the transformation could happen very rapidly. This will be Vancouver's South Lake Union transformation.

username0121 17 points 12 hours ago*
This is the tip of the iceberg. Rumours are that this is part of a major Amazon campus at the east end of Downtown Vancouver. Almost everything between Georgia and Dunsmuir from Richards to Beatty, and possibly down into the new False Creek north development. Potential for well over 10,000 employees - whether it is HQ2 or not.

myporcupine 5 points 8 hours ago
Any sources on that? First I've heard of it. I can't see the Queen E Theatre going anywhere.

username0121 10 points 8 hours ago
No sources that I can refer you to. Just a network of industry folks. There was a mad dash by two separate developers to get developments approved. Developer A then went mysteriously silent. Developer B did get their development rushed through by saying that it had to be complete ASAP for a potential sole-occupant (20+ storey tower). They are even building it out of steel to expedite construction.

Developer A is who this thread is about (The Canada Post building), and Developer B has started construction on their building and publicly states they do not have a key tenant. If they don't have a key tenant, why aren't they even advertising the space for lease? Today, no commercial builder would build such a space at that end of downtown without at least one key tenant signed, and would certainly be pushing the leases!

WRT the Queen E (and Playhouse), I would also add into that mix the replacement Vancouver Art Gallery. I think we'll see a massive new arts complex built at the vacant Larwill Park site that incorporates the Queen E Theatre, the "Amazon Playhouse", the new Vancouver Art Gallery, with Amazon offices and condos in towers above it. Amazon would provide some much needed funding for the VAG and naming rights on one of the theatres. The wins? An amazing neighbourhood ecosystem with Amazonians feeding the arts, a situation that is aligned with Amazon's values that supports the "campus cluster", and the entire city will get some pretty amazing arts facilities.

Of course, this frees up the land you were concerned about on which the Queen E and Playhouse sit... which of course would be developed into more campus buildings and condos.

Now, although I mentioned Richards to Beatty... there is also an entire block between Dunsmuir and Georgia, Richards and Seymour that is primarily owned by one group. On that land stands the Hudson Bay parkade, some empty land, and the long vacant and decrepit Salvation Army building. Lots of chatter around that little parcel too. Who knows - maybe the Amazon campus will run from Beatty to Seymour.

rickvug 1 point 12 minutes ago
u/username0121 Are you able to elaborate even a little bit on where you might be hearing this "chatter" from, how solid this is, and where you're getting the 10k number from? For what it is worth I think you're on to something really big that should be on more people's radar. Let me unpack this a bit as well.

As you stated, the office building being built at Homer and Georgia is for Amazon. This has been widely rumoured (http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/400-w...tbank-approved). It makes complete sense given these other developments right next door. That's 4 buildings clustered right together, all planned in quick succession. Here's a tally of the total office space we know about so far:

Telus Garden: 91,000 sqft
Post Building: 416,000 sqft
400 West Georgia (across from the VPL): 375,000 sqft
402 Dunsmuir Street: 150,000 sqft
Total: 1,032,000 sqft of office space (that we know of so far)

Then you have the WeWork deal for the Hudson Bay office space a block over and the possibility of the building itself suddenly being put up for sale (https://www.straight.com/news/988296...ay-be-put-sale). Then in between with the parkade and vacant buildings has been fully assembled. Then you point out the VAG lands. Note that The Post's overall size will be 1.13 million square feet (as per the Quadreal announcement ), of which Amazon is taking 35%. As a rough rule of thumb it's interesting to think of each block having 1M square feet of potential. With the possibility of entire blocks redeveloping around here Amazon could grow to 2-3M sqft of office space if they make all, or even most, of the deals being speculated about here. I'm reading that most offices have 150-350 sqft per employee so 1M sqft which roughly lines up with the 5000 jobs announced so far. 2M - 3M square feet is 10k - 15k employees. I'd potentially go even further. We're not yet considering that there are more possible development sites along Georgia such as the CBC building, the district energy building (conveniently owned by Westbank / Ian Gillespie) or the new Georgia gateway towers envisioned in the North East False Creek plan. If Amazon doesn't take them someone else is likely to do so considering that everything else in the direct vicinity is redeveloping. Within the next decade or so we're likely to see the complete transformation of this section of Georgia, with a new VAG, offices effectively pushing right out to Rogers Arena, and completely new waterfront neighbourhood at the end of it.

I know this is bullish prediction but if you read the tea leaves it's all there, even if Amazon isn't the only big player. Overall there's already a massive office building boom at the moment. Employees filling these spaces means tens of thousands of new office jobs. Most job growth has been in tech. Many skilled workers are going to move to Vancouver. That in turn will create big spin-offs and ripple effects. As a frame of reference read about how Amazon is impacting Seattle: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazo...seattle-2017-4. 30k+ Amazon employees in downtown Seattle is next level but even 1/4 of that number in Vancouver would still have an outsized impact. Based on all of this it's easy to envision Vancouver's business environment changing significantly in the next decade. We're going to transform from a mid-sized fairly laid back city to a major hub with the opportunities that come along with it. While I'm very excited about this transformation personally it will also be painful. Change in Vancouver will not be slowing down. If anything it will be speeding up.

[a very long weekend]

^ If Amazon had firm expansion plans, you'd think they'd take the second tower in this post office project, not something at the VAG site. Remember, this office won't open until 2022, so any future expansion plans would be even further out, which seems unlikely.

That said, the needle has shifted so much in the US on immigration that expansion of programs like H1B or an increase in the number of employment based green cards seems unlikely for years to come, even if the Dems control the Congress for the rest of Trump's presidency. So, it makes sense for Amazon and other companies to send all their US-educated Indians up to Vancouver and promote the exceptional ones down to Seattle or DC after a few years. Canada itself also has an impressive well of affordable talent, as the graduating Canadians and the giant number of skilled immigrants coming in every year keep salaries for highly skilled people well below what they'd be on the other side of the border where immigration controls restrict the worker pool.

Man, if Vancouver would just upzone all those inner single family home neighborhoods to get the housing even remotely affordable, the economy would probably explode into a once in a 100 years expansion, as US companies flooded in. The rents are just too high to fully capitalize on the gift the US is handing the city. Whenever the US finally liberalizes highly skilled worker visas and the demand for Vancouver collapses, it'll be because the cost of housing was too high to ever get the right sort of infrastructure/ecosystem going to make Vancouver competitive with Seattle, the Bay Area, LA, etc. Hopefully, your new council gets that, or the Province steps in and takes the toys away from baby in sandbox.

[connect2source]

Guess this project isn't actually call The Post any longer, wasn't that the marketing term for the previous concept?