The Post finds its footing as downtown Vancouver's newest anchor

The Post's Homer Street retail atrium (left) and Amazon's latest office space in the upper levels of the South Tower (right). (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The single largest retail space addition to downtown Vancouver in more than two decades officially opened to the public late last week at The Post.

During the grand opening of the flagship Loblaws City Market grocery store, a lineup snaked the sidewalks around the city block-sized building, and by 3 pm, the new Starbucks in the publicly accessible Homer Street retail atrium was completely sold out of product — even though they were prepared for the opening.

“Anecdotally, those that live in the neighbourhood have been talking a lot about how desperate they need a full-service grocery store in the neighbourhood, so we’re very excited about Loblaws City Market opening within the heritage podium,” Chrystal Burns, the executive vice president of Canadian retail for Quadreal Property Group, told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview.

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The Post, the redevelopment of Canada Post’s industrial-sized processing centre, includes about 185,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant uses spread across the first three levels of the heritage podium.

The Homer Street atrium, spanning almost the length of the city block, is a three-storey vaulted ceiling space that provides a circulation area and main entrance into the businesses, including the 45,000 sq ft Loblaws City Market on the second level and the 35,000 sq ft Evolve Strength fitness gym on the third level.

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Inside the Homer Street atrium of The Post, February 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Inside Loblaws City Market at The Post, February 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

In addition to the now-opened Starbucks, the atrium itself is further activated by two food and beverage tenants within bar-like island spaces, with smoothie/bowl bar Oakberry expected to open in Spring 2024 followed by Deville Coffee in Summer 2024.

As well, in Summer 2024, bubble tea cafe Gong Cha will open an additional location in downtown Vancouver on the Hamilton Street side of the building — opposite of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Also later in 2024, Brazilian steakhouse restaurant Fogo de Chao will open their first Canadian location on the north side of the complex, fronting The Post’s West Georgia Street plaza.

However, there is currently no update on the major food hall located on the Hamilton Street side of the building. Surrey-based The Joseph Richard Group was named in 2021 as the operator of the 26,000 sq ft food hall on the main level, but the company has since indicated it is experiencing major financial issues.

Inside the Homer Street atrium of The Post, February 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Inside Loblaws City Market at The Post, February 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Public art is another major design component of The Post, with the multi-storey tall crests from the building’s Canada Post past fully restored and illuminated nightly on the West Georgia Street frontage. On the building exterior on Hamilton Street near the West Georgia Street plaza, the 1955-created The Postman carved granite art piece by Paul Huba has been fully restored.

But the largest cluster of public art will be found indoors within the Homer Street atrium. Just in time for last week’s opening, a large heritage mural by Orville Fisher from the building’s former Canada Post era is now prominently positioned on the south end of the atrium. It depicts the different modes of transportation used for mail delivery in the 1950s.

Towards the centre of the atrium on the bank of escalators, some of the mailboxes previously found at the Canada Post public service office at the northwest corner of the building have been reinstalled as public art as an additional reminder of the building’s past uses.

However, the atrium’s final finishing touches — perhaps the space’s most impressive features — through the installation of extensive public art are still to come.

Burns says the atrium will be the new permanent home to the 22 vintage neon lights originally restored for the Museum of Vancouver’s years-long Neon Vancouver Ugly Vancouver exhibition. The Post was originally set to receive three neon lights from the exhibition, but a decision was made in 2022 to move the entire heritage neon light collection to the complex to allow the public to enjoy the many lights in a new way for many years to come. The neon lights will be suspended from the ceiling, and installed onto the large wall surfaces.

Inside the Homer Street atrium of The Post, February 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

With ample seating found in the space, the atrium is intended to be an inviting place for the public to gather and linger, all the while activated by the various food and beverage offerings found on the ground level and the foot traffic generated by Loblaws City Market — which also offers significant in-store dining options designed for the convenience of office workers and other visitors — and Evolve Strength, with the vintage neon lights as a placemaking attraction.

“With 130,000 workers in our catchment and another 130,000 residents in the entire downtown peninsula, it’s imperative to guarantee that the downtown population has seamless access to goods and services,” Joshua Davidson, the director of operations for Downtown Van (the local business improvement association for downtown Vancouver), told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“The long queues before the grand opening of Loblaws demonstrates how excited downtown residents are about this opening. Witnessing Amazon employees bustling in and out of the Post building, a long-awaited project, has been wonderful. Under Quadreal’s guidance and vision, The Post’s site and historic role in our economy are mirrored in its anchor tenant, the jobs it already supports, and its continued role in delivering goods and services to our growing downtown community.”

The concentration of retail/restaurant businesses at The Post is also supported by the critical mass of Amazon office employees in the upper levels of the building.

Amazon has leased the complex’s entire office component of 1.1 million sq ft, with the company beginning its progressive move into the South Tower — representing about half of the office space — starting in September 2023.

Last week, Amazon’s final move into the remaining upper floors of the South Tower began.

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Interior of the upper levels of Amazon’s office space in the South Tower of The Post, January 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

“The Post provides an exceptional space for our teams to invent on behalf of customers while creating a centre of energy for our Vancouver Tech Hub. Amazon began our progressive move-in to The Post’s South Tower last September, and it will be fully occupied with Amazon teams within the next few weeks,” Amazon spokesperson Kristin Gable told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“The building’s workspaces were designed as agile neighbourhoods that encourage team collaboration while giving employees a variety of ways to work – from spontaneous breakout areas to spaces where they can double down and focus. There’s a fantastic energy throughout the building as employees discover their new surroundings.”

She says the 21-storey South Tower is topped off with special indoor common areas and amenities that offer the ideal environment for team collaboration, as well as outdoor amenity spaces on the tower rooftop, including a dog park as an amenity feature for the dog-friendly Amazon workspace.

Extensive wood and even real lush plantings — a key feature found at Amazon’s headquarters — are key interior design elements for the indoor common areas found at the top of the South Tower.

Interior of the upper levels of Amazon’s office space in the South Tower of The Post, January 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

A timeline for furnishing the complex’s remaining half of the office space in the North Tower for Amazon workers has yet to be established.

Not only does the building provide the area with a new critical mass of thousands of office employees solely from its sheer size, but Amazon is also seeing its space utilized through its corporate policy of requiring office workers to come into the workplace at least three times a week. This, in turn, supports not only the retail, restaurants, and services found within the building, but also other businesses found in the surrounding area.

With the progressive occupancy of the office space and the opening of major new businesses, The Post is providing downtown Vancouver’s Central Business District with an eastward expansion by providing a new gravitational node — an additional anchor of activity.

Interior of the upper levels of Amazon’s office space in the South Tower of The Post, January 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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