Sneak peek inside: The Post in Vancouver nears completion (PHOTOS)

Sneak peek inside: The Post redevelopment in downtown Vancouver, now nearing completion (PHOTOS)

Nighttime lighting on West Georgia Street highlighting the restored heritage crests. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

After more than four years of construction, The Post complex in downtown Vancouver is almost complete.

Most of the fences surrounding the city block-sized redevelopment — framed by West Georgia, Homer, Dunsmuir, and Hamilton streets — came down earlier this week, revealing up close the building’s street frontage and the work-in-progress on the interior.

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The exterior facade is now finished, with an extensive nighttime outdoor lighting system showcasing both the intricate architectural features of the retained and restored 1950s-built former Canada Post building, and the contrasting contemporary features of the heritage building’s vertical expansion with glass-skinned office towers.

The pair of multi-storey tall crests from the building’s Canada Post past, found on the West Georgia Street facade, have also been retained and restored as a key public art feature. Both crests are brilliantly illuminated at night, and surrounded by an array of special lighting that offer the appearance of blue gems — an added finish that highlights the heritage building’s punctured hole features around the crests.

Below the crests, the surface parking lot that previously fronted West Georgia Street is now a terraced public plaza, which will be activated by retail, restaurants, patios, and entrances into the office spaces.

the post vancouver construction february 2023

Nighttime lighting on West Georgia Street highlighting the restored heritage crests. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Nighttime lighting of the West Georgia Street plaza. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2022. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

West Georgia Street plaza. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Construction crews are now in the process of completing the interior, including the indoor retail-lined concourse that stretches the length of the Homer Street side of the building. The various vast leased retail/restaurant spaces are cavernous shell spaces for the time being, as workers are now preparing to hand over the spaces to the tenants to allow their own contractors to begin work on building out the interiors.

Within the first three floors, the building has 185,000 sq ft of retail, restaurant, and service spaces — the single largest net gain of retail space in downtown Vancouver in two decades. This includes a 50,000 sq ft flagship Loblaws City Market grocery store, a 26,000 sq ft food hall by The Joseph Richard Group, a 35,000 sq ft Evolve Strength fitness gym, and various smaller and/or unannounced tenants.

A total of 22 vintage neon signs from Vancouver’s past will also be installed in publicly accessible spaces of The Post, providing the signs with a permanent home following their longtime exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver.

The future retail-lined concourse on Homer Street. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Artistic rendering of The Post on the second level of the retail-lined concourse on Homer Street, with the entrance into Loblaws City Market also shown. (Quadreal Property Group)

Up above, Amazon has already begun the process of furnishing its vast office spaces to its own unique specifications. Amazon is the sole tenant of all 1.1 million sq ft of the building’s office space — found within the upper levels of the heritage base podium and the two office towers. Vancouver’s single largest office building will be the home base of 6,000 Amazon corporate office workers, adding to the company’s existing office locations nearby.

Several levels of vehicle parking are also contained inside the core of the upper levels of the heritage podium.

Shell space of the food hall. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

the post vancouver interior vancouver quadreal rendering

Artistic rendering of the food hall inside The Post in Vancouver. (QuadReal Property Group)

Conceptual artistic rendering of the Food Hall within The Post in downtown Vancouver. (QuadReal Property Group)

Construction on the redevelopment first began in Fall 2018 with the demolition and gutting of the Canada Post’s industrial mail-processing floors to create new floor plates within the heritage base podium and the foundations for the office towers. The entirety of The Post complex is expected to reach completion and open in Fall 2023.

Upon being fully occupied, The Post is expected to be an immense economic engine for downtown Vancouver, with the activity of its workers and visitors providing an eastward expansion of the Central Business District’s gravity of activity.

Quadreal Property Group, which is also behind the redevelopment of Oakridge Centre, is the owner of The Post. Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership is the architectural design firm, while PCL Constructors is the lead contractor.

Homer Street frontage. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Exterior of The Post. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Exterior of The Post on Hamilton Street. Construction progress on The Post as of February 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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