Some jobs planned for NYC's Amazon HQ2 will go to Vancouver: report

Feb 16 2019, 3:41 am

Even more Amazon corporate and tech jobs are planned for Vancouver as a result of the tech giant’s surprising decision this week to cancel its HQ2 location in New York City, which was set to see 25,000 jobs from the new headquarters.

Most of those jobs that were set to go to NYC will now go to expanding Amazon’s existing hubs in North America, including Vancouver, San Francisco, and Boston, a spokesperson for Amazon told CNBC in a report.

See also

NYC will still receive a small fraction of the new jobs as a part of an expansion of the company’s presence in the city, where it currently employs 5,000 people.

By 2022, with the completion of Amazon’s new major office at the Canada Post redevelopment, the number of people employed with the company in downtown Vancouver will increase to 5,000 — up from about 2,000 today. These numbers will grow even further due to the ripple effect from the reallocation of NYC HQ2 jobs.

Amazon pulled out its plans for NYC HQ2 over rising opposition from local political leaders and activists against the selected location at Long Island City in the Queens borough. The headquarters would have been gradually built over a 15-year period.

The other half of HQ2 slated for Arlington, Virginia, with another 25,000 jobs, is proceeding as planned.

After a year-long process that sought competitive bids from jurisdictions across Canada and the United States, Amazon announced in November 2018 it would divide the planned 50,000-employee HQ2 office into two locations in NYC and Virginia.

Amazon currently has four existing and planned office locations in downtown Vancouver, including its current presence at TELUS Garden (1,000 jobs) and future locations at the Canada Post redevelopment (at least 3,000 jobs in first phase), the new office building at 402 Dunsmuir Street (1,000 jobs), and The Exchange.

At the moment, until these purpose-built office locations are completed, the company is occupying a significant portion of WeWork’s co-working space at the Bentall complex on a temporary basis.

Amazon offices in downtown Vancouver

TELUS Garden (510 West Georgia Street): Existing; completed in 2015. Amazon space: 91,000-sq-ft.

TELUS Garden

An exterior look at TELUS Garden. (Westbank)

The Exchange (475 Howe Street): Future; completed in early-2018. Amazon space: 100,000-sq-ft.

The Exchange tower at 475 Howe Street in downtown Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan / Daily Hive)

402 Dunsmuir Street: Future, reaching completion in early-2020. Amazon space: 150,000-sq-ft.

Amazon 402 Dunsmuir

Artistic rendering of the new Amazon office building at 402 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (B+H Architects / Oxford Properties Group Inc.)

Canada Post redevelopment (349 West Georgia Street): Future; reaching completion in 2022. Amazon space: 416,000-sq-ft.

The Post Canada Post Vancouver

Artistic rendering of The Post redevelopment in downtown Vancouver. (MCM Partnership Architects / QuadReal)

See also
Kenneth ChanKenneth Chan

+ News
+ Venture
+ Tech
+ Jobs
ADVERTISEMENT