City of Vancouver taking over WildBrain's 77,000 sq. ft. animation studio office | Daily Hive

City of Vancouver taking over WildBrain's 77,000 sq. ft. animation studio office building

WildBrain Studios at the "Fifth by Cressey" building at 380 West 5th Ave., Vancouver. (Evoke International Design)

One of Vancouver’s major animation studios is preparing to leave its Mount Pleasant home after a decade, with the City of Vancouver now set to become the tenant of the entire office building.

Vancouver’s municipal government has confirmed to Daily Hive Urbanized that it has signed a lease for 380 West 5th Ave., the current home of WildBrain Studios, with City staff expected to begin moving into the property at some point in 2027.

“The City has signed a lease for 380 West 5th Avenue with occupation planned for later in 2027. Plans for staff work locations are still being determined,” the City said in a statement to Daily Hive Urbanized upon inquiry.

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The modern office property, located at the southeast corner of the intersection of West 5th Avenue and Yukon Street within the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area, is known as “Fifth by Cressey.” The five-storey building with about 77,000 sq. ft. of tech-oriented office space was developed by Cressey Development Group and completed in 2016.

It is located immediately east of Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) Cambie Street headquarters building, and about a four-minute walk east of SkyTrain’s Olympic Village Station.

380 West 5th Avenue Vancouver Cressey WildBrain Studios

WildBrain Studios at the “Fifth by Cressey” building at 380 West 5th Ave., Vancouver. (Google Maps)

The company previously described the facility as including production and collaborative spaces, a theatre, fitness gym, library, rooftop patios with BBQs, community garden, and other employee amenities. The overall building was designed by architectural firm Arcadis, while Wild Studios’ interior design and specifications were conceived by Vancouver-based Evoke International Design.

WildBrain Studios confirmed to Daily Hive Urbanized it will be downsizing its spatial requirements at another location before the end of 2026. The company did not disclose the location or size of its future Vancouver studio.

“Due to the hybrid work model, we no longer require a space of this size and will be moving to a facility more aligned with our needs later this year. Our studio remains busy with multiple projects in production,” a WildBrain Studios spokesperson told Daily Hive Urbanized upon inquiry.

The company’s departure will mark the end of a tenancy that stretches back to the building’s completion.

WildBrain Studios was previously known as DHX Media, which originally pre-leased the building — before it reached completion. The new facility brought together employees who had previously worked out of separate Vancouver locations. DHX Media subsequently changed its name to WildBrain Studios in 2019.

WildBrain Studios at the “Fifth by Cressey” building at 380 West 5th Ave., Vancouver. (Evoke International Design)

WildBrain Studios is the Vancouver animation production arm of the Toronto-headquartered company focused largely on children’s and family programming and brands.

The Vancouver studio works with major entertainment companies and streaming platforms, including Disney+, Apple TV+ and Netflix, and has produced series such as The Snoopy Show, Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City, Ninjago, Sonic Prime, and Yo Gabba GabbaLand!, among other children’s and family programming. WildBrain’s broader portfolio also includes well-known franchises such as Teletubbies, Inspector Gadget, and Degrassi.

However, WildBrain Studio’s move to a smaller Vancouver studio also follows several years of significant changes across the company and the broader animation industry.

More recently, the company has undertaken a series of strategic changes, including exiting its Canadian television broadcasting business and selling its 41 per cent of its stake in Peanuts Holdings LLC, which holds the Peanuts (Snoopy) intellectual property, to Sony for $630 million, according to the company’s March 2026 announcement on the sale’s closing. The company is also reorganizing parts of its business and pursuing “automation initiatives” to reduce administrative costs, improve efficiency, and increase profit margins over the long term, according to the company’s 2026 fiscal year outlook.

Sony Pictures Imageworks’ global headquarters office in Vancouver also recently relocated from their longtime location of 74,000 sq. ft. above the former Nordstrom space at CF Pacific Centre mall to a 52,000 sq. ft. space above Loblaws City Market at The Post.

While the animation and visual effects industry continues to face some global headwinds, Vancouver has also seen notable local expansion and investment. Disney’s Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) recently relocated its Vancouver studio from a 30,000 sq. ft. space in Gastown to approximately 40,000 sq. ft. at The Stack, while Netflix Animation Studios opened its 110,000 sq. ft. studio at the M4 office building earlier in 2026. In 2023, Walt Disney Animation Studios also opened a five-level studio in Yaletown, establishing Vancouver as the storied studio’s only location outside of its headquarters in California. Several recent major Disney animation films — including Moana 2 and Zootopia 2 — have since included a very prominent “Made in the Vancouver Studio” acknowledgement stamp in their end credits.

For the City, the lease of 380 West 5th Ave. represents a sizeable addition to its portfolio of office space outside the Vancouver City Hall campus, which is located a few blocks to the south.

Due to the spatial limitations and aging condition of existing on-campus facilities, the City leases a considerable amount of privately-owned office space, including some major spaces just beyond City Hall — such as spaces in the office buildings at the northwest (Crossroads at 507 West Broadway, directly above London Drugs and Whole Foods Market) and southwest (510 West Broadway, directly above Jollibee and Starbucks) corners of the intersection of West Broadway and Cambie Street.

WildBrain Studios at the “Fifth by Cressey” building at 380 West 5th Ave., Vancouver. (Evoke International Design)

380 West 5th Avenue Vancouver Cressey WildBrain Studios 3

WildBrain Studios at the “Fifth by Cressey” building at 380 West 5th Ave., Vancouver. (Evoke International Design)

As of 2024, as previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, the City leased about 378,000 sq. ft. of privately-owned office space, carrying an annual leasing cost of approximately $22 million that year. This included about 260,000 sq. ft. for administrative functions and 118,000 sq. ft. for non-administrative uses, including roughly 77,000 sq. ft. for the VPD’s Cambie Street headquarters within the ICBC-owned building. The City’s leased office footprint was down from a peak of about 423,000 sq. ft. in 2019.

This past spring, Daily Hive Urbanized also reported that the City had leased 52,000 sq. ft. of office space across approximately five floors of the 14-storey, 1985-built office building at 1125 Howe St. in Downtown Vancouver. This new space will replace another privately-owned office location leased by the City, with the City choosing not to renew that existing lease.

The municipal government previously confirmed that about 500 City staff will be relocated to 1125 Howe St., with occupancy expected to begin in June 2027.

“An assessment of existing City office space determined that the City’s current holdings could not accommodate the required timelines or configuration to support the City’s return-to-office policy, making leasing the most practical option,” stated the City in April 2026 in its rationale for leasing the space at 1125 Howe St.

1125 Howe St., Vancouver. (Google Maps)

vancouver city hall fifa world cup decorations

FIFA World Cup decorations at Vancouver City Hall, as seen on May 21, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Since January 2026, about 1,400 office-based City employees who are exempt or non-unionized — including many in managerial roles — have been required to work from their office workspace five days a week, ending the highly flexible hybrid and remote-work arrangements introduced during the pandemic. The policy shift was intended to encourage greater in-person collaboration and communication across City teams and departments, while also supporting productivity, mentorship, and team culture.

The City also has potential long-term plans to redevelop the broader City Hall campus — encompassing the existing civic complex south of West 10th Avenue and the vacant City-owned block at Broadway-City Hall Station to the north — with new high-density, mixed-use buildings containing substantial office, hotel, cultural, and retail/restaurant space, along with major new public plazas.

While such a redevelopment would require significant upfront capital investment, it could substantially reduce the City’s ongoing office leasing costs, create new public-serving civic spaces, and establish a major new source of annual revenue by making the municipal government a landlord for commercial office, hotel, and retail/restaurant uses. It could also provide Vancouver’s emerging second downtown with a major economic anchor and prominent public gathering place, with the City’s Broadway Plan designating Uptown/Cambie North as a central business district.

The installation of FIFA World Cup street banners on Cambie Street outside Vancouver City Hall, as seen on May 21, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

Vancouver City Hall. (Kenneth Chan)

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