New childcare centre for 180 kids set for Granville Strip | Daily Hive

New childcare centre for 180 kids set for Granville Entertainment District in downtown Vancouver

The 2024-built, four-storey commercial building at 978 Granville St., Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)

One of the largest purpose-built childcare facilities in Vancouver will be located in the core of the Granville Entertainment District in downtown Vancouver.

A new development permit application calls for the opening of a 23,500 sq. ft. childcare facility on the entirety of the top floor of the 2024-built, four-storey commercial building at 978 Granville St.

This new building is situated mid-block between Smithe Street and Nelson Street, and adjacent to entertainment venues such as The Roxy Cabaret nightclub and Vogue Theatre.

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The building’s first level is dedicated to retail/restaurant uses, while the three levels above are dedicated to office uses.

The private childcare facility will be operated by Core Education and Fine Arts (CEFA), which has 40 locations across British Columbia and has been in business for 25 years. It currently does not have a downtown Vancouver location, but it has numerous locations elsewhere across Metro Vancouver.

“CEFA Downtown Vancouver” will convert the vacant shell office space on the fourth floor into a childcare facility for up to about 180 kids between the ages of six months and five years old. The design of the facility has already been endorsed by Vancouver Coastal Health.

In contrast, the 2021-opened childcare facility operated by YMCA on the top level of the Gastown parkade has a capacity for about 74 kids, with an indoor floor area of about 10,000 sq. ft. and an outdoor play space of 11,000 sq. ft.

In addition to the indoor space on the fourth floor, the Granville Strip childcare facility will have an expansive outdoor play space on the entirety of the building’s rooftop.

This rooftop can handle the changes and extra load from additional structures and fixtures for an outdoor play space, as the building was engineered in a way to enable a future two-storey vertical expansion, creating a six-storey building. The building was designed by architectural firm Perkins&Will and developed by Bonnis Properties, while the childcare facility was designed by Hearth Architectural.

A secure enclosure will be provided for this expansive rooftop play space. There will also be secure elevator access to the childcare facility from the underground parking level’s drop-off/pick-up area.

Existing condition of the rooftop:

978 granville street vancouver cefa childcare

Existing condition of the rooftop of the 2024-built, four-storey commercial building at 978 Granville St., Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition of the rooftop:

Concept of the new childcare facility’s outdoor play space addition on the rooftop of 978 Granville St., Vancouver. (Hearth Architectural)

This location will employ about 35 full-time staff members, who will provide an enriched curriculum to the children, similar to their other facilities. The childcare facility will generally operate on weekdays only from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., outside of the busy hours of Granville Strip’s nightlife businesses.

With the office market weakened by ongoing remote work trends and broader economic challenges, there is growing interest in repurposing office spaces for alternative uses on a case-by-case basis.

This building already has a wide range of tenants.

Directly below the childcare facility, the third level of office space is completely leased to Cornerstone International Education.

The entire second level of office uses is leased to the Government of Canada for a future Passport Office. This is expected to be a years-long temporary location for downtown Vancouver’s Passport Office, as the federal government intends to perform a major redevelopment of Sinclair Centre.

On the ground level, fast food eateries KFC, Taco Bell, and Rice and Noodle opened earlier this year, and they will be joined by Pizza Garden and Parsley Berlin Style Doner-Kebab.

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