Concord Pacific sets sights on Metrotown Sears redevelopment | Daily Hive

Concord Pacific sets sights on Metrotown Sears and Toys "R" Us redevelopment

Construction progress on the first phase of Concord Metrotown at Metropolis at Metrotown mall, as of December 27, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Construction on the first phase of the Concord Metrotown development is taking shape, with three towers now rising above ground level at the northeast corner of the Metropolis at Metrotown shopping mall.

Work at this site first began in 2022 with the deep excavation of the mall’s surface vehicle parking lot — situated immediately north of Hudson’s Bay, and the southwest corner of the intersection of Kingsway and Nelson Street.

This is a highly notable project as it represents the first high-density mixed-use redevelopment of the sprawling shopping mall site since the construction of the trio of Metrotower office towers, and it also marks the beginning of the long-term redevelopment of British Columbia’s largest and busiest shopping mall by various property owners.

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By the end of December 2024, construction had progressed beyond the interconnected mixed-use two-storey commercial base podium of Concord Metrotown’s first phase, reaching the first few levels of all three residential towers rising above it.

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Construction progress on the first phase of Concord Metrotown at Metropolis at Metrotown mall, as of August 20, 2022. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Construction progress on the first phase of Concord Metrotown at Metropolis at Metrotown mall, as of December 27, 2024, with the former Sears/Toys “R” Us building on the left. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

From east to west, this first phase will produce towers of 65 storeys, 45 storeys, and 33 storeys. “Sky Park,” the easternmost tower of 65 storeys, will be the tallest tower, reaching a real height of height of 755 ft — becoming Metro Vancouver’s new tallest building for at least a few years, until other taller projects in the development pipeline elsewhere in the region surpass its height

Currently, Metro Vancouver’s tallest building is Two Gilmore Place in Burnaby’s Brentwood district, which dethroned downtown Vancouver’s Living Shangri-La tower in 2023. A new 72-storey tower proposal immediately east of Concord Metrotown outside of the mall site could potentially be taller than Sky Park.

In a December 2024 interview with Daily Hive Urbanized, Peter Webb, senior vice president of Concord Pacific Developments, said he anticipates Sky Park will reach full completion in 2026.

Artistic rendering of the three towers of the first phase of Concord Metrotown, including the tallest tower of Sky Park. (Arcadis/Concord Pacific)

Artistic rendering of the three towers of the first phase of Concord Metrotown. (Arcadis/Concord Pacific)

In the meantime, he says, site preparation for the second phase of Concord Metrotown is expected to begin later in 2025. The second phase received its rezoning approvals in Fall 2023.

Immediately to the west of the first phase footprint, the second phase has both a larger land area and buildable floor area. This second phase will replace another mall surface vehicle parking lot that fronts Kingsway, as well as the former Sears and Toys “R” Us building.

The building that formerly housed Sears was built in 1954, decades before the area’s malls existed and before it became part of Metropolis at Metrotown mall. For decades, up until recently, this oldest wing of the mall also had Toys “R” Us within its basement level.

In September 2024, this longtime Toys “R” Us store directly beneath the former Sears permanently closed in anticipation of the redevelopment of this wing of the indoor mall. In preparation for the inevitable closure, Toys “R” Us opened a new replacement location within the former Bed Bath & Beyond space at Station Square in Summer 2023.

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The former Toys “R” Us store below the former Sears space at Metropolis at Metrotown mall. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Exterior of the former Sears department store at Metropolis at Metrotown mall, currently used as a Concord Pacific presentation centre. (Google Maps)

Approximate footprints of Concord Metrotown’s first phase (blue) and second phase (red) on the property formerly owned by Sears at Metropolis at Metrotown mall. (Daily Hive/Google Maps)

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Layout of Concord Metrotown, showing the first phase under construction on the east parcel (right) and the future phases on the west parcel (left). (IBI Group/Concord Pacific)

Metropolis at Metrotown has various property owners, depending on the specific site. Concord Pacific owns the nine-acre northeast corner of the mall that it acquired from Sears Canada in 2015, including the corner’s surface vehicle parking lots fronting Kingsway and the former Sears and Toys “R” Us building.

Ivanhoe Cambridge owns 35 acres of Metropolis at Metrotown — the overwhelming majority of the mall property. Metro Vancouver Regional District owns Metrotower III as its headquarters office, which was originally built by Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2013 and then subsequently acquired by the regional government in 2015.

Concord Metrotown’s second phase entails a total of five towers, including three additional towers that front Kingsway, replacing more of the surface vehicle parking — reaching 40 storeys, 49 storeys, and 58 storeys, up to 632 ft. Replacing the former Sears and Toys “R” Us building, there will be two towers on a shared commercial base podium — a 644-ft, 60-storey tower with 100% market rental housing uses, and a 47-storey 100% office tower.

The four-storey commercial podium will entail two upper levels of office space, while the lower two levels will be retail, effectively operating as part of the indoor mall, including a new indoor mall entrance that directly leads to the rest of the Ivanhoe Cambridge-owned shopping centre. Moreover, a portion of the office space on this parcel could potentially be a hotel, but the exact uses will be determined in the future.

For this second phase, work is expected to begin with the site preparation and excavation of the surface vehicle parking lot fronting Kingsway for the three towers, before the demolition of the former Sears and Toys “R” Us building for the final two towers of Concord Metrotown.

Artistic rendering of Concord Metrotown’s second phase on the west parcel. (Arcadis/Concord Pacific)

The first phase currently under construction will generate a total of 1,400 condominium homes and 30,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant uses across approximately 1.2 million sq ft of total floor area.

The larger second phase beginning site preparation later this year will create a total of over 2,100 homes, including over 1,100 condominium homes, over 1,000 secured purpose-built rental homes, and about 460,000 sq ft of office/hotel, retail, and restaurant space, including the new indoor mall entrance. The total building floor area would span over 2.3 million sq ft.

Altogether, the first and second phases of Concord Metrotown combined will produce approximately 3,500 homes, nearly 500,000 sq ft of commercial space, and a total building floor area of 3.5 million sq ft across eight towers.

In Spring 2024, following a pandemic-induced delay, Ivanhoe Cambridge revealed its revised preliminary concept for the long-term phased demolition and redevelopment of the existing indoor mall, and the remainder of the existing parking facilities.

Upon the full buildout, not including Concord Metrotown, this future mall-wide redevelopment by Ivanhoe Cambridge could generate dozens of towers, with building heights that would qualify as Metro Vancouver’s new tallest buildings today.

There would be 12,000 new homes in the first phase of Ivanhoe Cambridge’s project through 2054, plus significant new commercial spaces, including both streetfront retail/restaurant spaces and a smaller replacement indoor mall.

In the meantime, some of the mall’s newest major retail tenants entail JD Sports, which opened on the second level in the west atrium (next to Gap) in November 2024.

As well, later in 2025, Foot Locker will move into a new replacement and expanded location on the first level below the food court — replacing the former Disney Store and Sephora (temporary Decathlon pop-up shop) spaces. Foot Locker is currently found next to Superstore at the west side of the mall.

JD Sports at Metropolis at Metrotown mall. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Future new replacement Foot Locker location at Metropolis at Metrotown mall. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Future new replacement Foot Locker location at Metropolis at Metrotown mall. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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