Free retail space offered at downtown Vancouver office complex | Daily Hive

Bentall Centre office towers in downtown Vancouver. (Hudson Pacific Properties)

The property owner of the largest office complex in downtown Vancouver has launched the Buy B.C. Initiative — a program that offers half a year of free commercial retail space to select local small businesses to help them grow and reach new customers for their products and services.

This program will provide small businesses with six months of rent-free retail space within The Shops, which is the underground mall within the Bentall Centre complex.

The provided retail unit will range from 300 sq. ft. to 600 sq. ft.

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The Buy B.C. Initiative aims to support entrepreneurs and startups by providing them with exposure to a high-traffic pedestrian location, without the burden of rental costs, while their business gets established.

With escalating business costs, including rising commercial rents, securing a physical brick-and-mortar space — the next step to evolve from an online-based business, for example — can be a significant challenge for many startups.

To carry out this program, Hudson Pacific Properties, the owner of the complex, has partnered with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT) and Downtown Van (the local business improvement association for downtown Vancouver). In addition to rent-free retail space, the small businesses will receive marketing and promotional support through Bentall Centre and GVBOT, and networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs and retailers.

Applications for the program opened this week and will close on April 2, 2025, at which point a week-long application review and business selection process will begin. To be eligible, businesses must be registered and incorporated in B.C.

The successful applicants will be chosen by April 9, 2025. The intention is to begin the program’s six-month, rent-free period on May 1, 2025.

Retail space at The Shops at Bentall Centre. (Hudson Pacific Properties)

This is part of Hudson Pacific Properties’ new approach to Bentall Centre, which it jointly acquired in 2019, and includes a strong focus on community outreach. Ever since, the company has been making major new investments into the complex, including new and improved shared amenities for office tenants, new publicly accessible spaces at street level, and new and improved restaurant options, with last month’s opening of the Central Bentall restaurant within a brand new street-level commercial unit being the latest addition.

There are also longer term plans to build more office space and modernize The Shops, which boasts a direct entrance into SkyTrain Burrard Station.

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