Surrey City Council approves new 25-storey office tower for Central City mall
A major office tower, the second for Central City shopping mall, has been green lighted by Surrey City Council.
In a meeting earlier this month, without any debate, city council unanimously approved Blackwood Partners’ proposal to build a 382-ft-tall, 25-storey office tower at 10045 King George Boulevard — the northwest corner of the intersection of King George Boulevard and Old Yale Road, the southeast corner of the mall property where Best Buy was previously located.
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There will be 567,000 sq. ft. of AAA office space and 16,200 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space, providing enough employment space for about 3,500 people.
Artistic rendering of the Central City II office tower at 10045 King George Boulevard, Surrey. (ZGF Architects / Blackwood Partners)
Artistic rendering of the Central City II office tower at 10045 King George Boulevard, Surrey. (ZGF Architects / Blackwood Partners)
This is the first phase of the developer’s plan to undergo a site wide redevelopment of the shopping mall — the construction of as many as 10 residential and office towers with base retail on ground level parking and other under-utilized parcels.
The tower is named Central City Tower 2, with the existing tower with SFU Surrey being Central City Tower 1.
Artistic rendering of the Central City II office tower at 10045 King George Boulevard, Surrey. (ZGF Architects / Blackwood Partners)
Artistic rendering of the Central City II office tower at 10045 King George Boulevard, Surrey. (ZGF Architects / Blackwood Partners)
In Fall 2019, city council unanimously asked the developer to go back to the drawing board to propose a taller tower with additional office space, given that the development site is located in a highly prominent corner within a central area of Surrey’s emerging downtown.
However, the developer quickly returned to city council without any changes, asserting that the office tower as proposed would be comparable in height to the recently completed residential towers across the street, and that “it is unlikely that it will be possible to secure sufficient pre-leasing commitments to support the development of a larger office tower.”
City council subsequently formally designated a new central business district (CBD) for the downtown that requires a minimum of 50% office and/or institutional space on the basis of the total floor area of new developments. The CBD is framed by 104 Avenue to the north, University Drive to the west, Old Yale Road to the south, and King George Boulevard to the east.
Model of the preliminary concept for the redevelopment of Central City mall in Surrey. (Blackwood Partners / City of Surrey)
Model of the preliminary concept for the redevelopment of Central City mall in Surrey. (Blackwood Partners / City of Surrey)
Future redevelopments on the Central City property. (Blackwood Partners)