Construction begins for 510 Seymour Street office building

The southeast corner of Seymour and West Pender streets is about to receive a major overhaul with the construction of a new office building by Vancouver real estate developer Serracan: site preparation for demolition of the existing structure has begun at 510 Seymour Street.

It is designed by Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and consists of 82,000 square feet of building space, including 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, over 10 storeys. The project is aiming for a 2016 completion and LEED Gold Environmental Certification.

The building is smaller than most of the new office space projects proposed or currently being built in the city during the largest office building boom in decades, but it has taken a communal and collaborative approach – a new semi-spin on co-sharing spaces – to attract young, high-quality tenants.

The construction process has only just begun, but the building is already 90 per cent leased. Two major tenants are slated to occupy the majority of the space: Adler University, a graduate school for psychological studies, is taking up 30,000 square feet over the first five floors and Onlineshoes.com is occupying 24,000 square feet over three upper level floors. Both tenants are committed for the long-term having signed 15-year long contracts for their spaces.

510 Seymour Street’s signed tenants had a say in determining the type of amenities that will be placed into the building, to the extent that the building will now have more amenities than some of the city’s largest office developments. It will include amenities such as a full kitchen, lounge area, yoga room, fitness centre, bike parking and showers.

There will even be a two-level underground parking garage, and access will be through a unique vehicle elevator given the building’s small footprint. The only other building in the city to possess a mechanical parking system is 838 Hastings Street, also known as Jameson House.

It is also one of a number of office developments planned for Seymour Street’s revitalization – a list of projects along the street that includes the proposed 32-storey office tower at the Vancouver Centre Mall parkade and a 25-storey tower at West Hastings Street.

The largest of the new office buildings will be the 500,000 square foot TELUS Tower at West Georgia and Seymour streets, which is scheduled for a spring 2015 completion. The 22-storey building will become the new national headquarters for TELUS as well as the offices for Amazon Canada and major law firm Bull Houser.

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Image: Serracan Properties

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Image: Serracan Properties

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Image: Serracan Properties

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Image: Serracan Properties

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Image: Serracan Properties

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Image: Serracan Properties

Feature Image: Serracan Properties