Newly built office tower in downtown Vancouver adds tenants

Exterior of Vancouver Centre II office tower with the 29th floor skyline rooftop outdoor deck shown (left), and the "Spawn" salmon sculpture by Douglas Coupland in the lobby atrium (right). (GWL Realty Advisors)

As of this week, the new Vancouver Centre II office tower is now 82% leased, after securing additional tenants to fill some of the remaining vacant office space.

The 33-storey office tower with 370,000 sq ft of premium AAA office space was completed in late 2022, but its leasing activity was an outlier amongst the newly completed projects within the years-long office building boom in downtown Vancouver that first began before the pandemic and recently came to a conclusion.

The building — located at 733 Seymour Street as part of the Vancouver Centre complex, directly served by SkyTrain’s Vancouver City Centre and Granville stations — saw a higher proportion of its office space vacant upon completion, compared to other new projects elsewhere in the city centre that saw higher rates of pre-leasing.

Vancouver Centre II office tower. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Vancouver Centre II office tower. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

According to GWL Realty Advisors, the newest tenants are Grant Thornton LLP, which will lease 30,000 sq ft on the 19th and 20th floors of the tower. This is in addition to the recent additions of Pan American Silver (30,175 sq ft) and Transca Real Estate Development (4,286 sq ft).

These companies join the existing tenants of Kabam Games, PI Financial, Owen Bird Law Corporation, Sandstorm Gold, and TSX Venture Exchange.

“GWL Realty Advisors is thrilled that Grant Thornton has chosen Vancouver Centre II,” said Robert Kavanagh, the senior vice president of GWL Realty Advisors, in a statement this week. “With its exceptional tenant amenities, advanced technology infrastructure, and direct connection to two transit lines, it’s no surprise that Vancouver Centre II has attracted tenants from a wide cross-section of industries, including business consulting, real estate, mining, and tech.”

Mark Iwanaka, the managing partner for the South Coastal BC division of Grant Thornton, added, “Our new office will offer a collaborative workspace for our colleagues and a welcoming atmosphere for our clients. We’re delighted to continue to support local businesses and a thriving economy here in Vancouver.”

Exterior of Vancouver Centre II office tower with the 29th floor skyline rooftop outdoor deck shown. (GWL Realty Advisors)

Entrance into the underground Vancouver Centre Mall from the lobby atrium of Vancouver Centre II office tower. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Vancouver Centre II includes an expansive skyline outdoor rooftop terrace on the 29th floor and various fitness facilities for tenant use, and it won the 2023 Realcomm IBCon’s Digie Award for the Most Intelligent Office Building. The lobby also provides a new additional entrance into Vancouver Centre mall, which directly links to the ticketing concourse of Vancouver Centre Station.

The tower was developed by GWL Realty Advisors (GWLRA) on behalf of the project’s owners, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and The Canada Life Assurance Company, which pursued the project as a long-term investment.

GWLRA is the real estate investment subsidiary of the Great-West Life Assurance Company, one of Canada’s largest private insurance firms.

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