The former central post office in Downtown Vancouver is destined for a massive revamp, and the historic building will be redeveloped into retail and office space. Now the “Post” developer, QuadReal, has announced that the retail portion will be anchored by a large location of Loblaw Companies Ltd.’s Loblaws City Market.
CityMarket is the slightly upscale and urban brand of Loblaws, who also operate No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore and T&T Supermarkets in Metro Vancouver. They have three current City Market locations in the area — in Park Royal (West Vancouver), Lonsdale (North Vancouver) and Arbutus (Vancouver). Their location in Richmond’s Ironwood area, at the former Fantasy Garden mixed-used redevelopment, closed last year after just a couple of years in business.
For downtown Vancouver at the Post, City Market will be part of the development’s 185,000 square feet of retail space, which will also include a food hall, gym, pharmacy and dining options.
The City Market “will provide a best-in-class shopping experience at the Post, with a large-scale grab-and-go section, café, cooking classes, and fresh meat, produce and bakery items,” according to Quad Real.
The Post is a massive re-purposing of Vancouver’s onetime central Canada Post building, which was completed in 1958. The West Georgia Street historic structure’s redevelopment is large-scale and noteworthy for several reasons.
“The Post is one of the most ambitious heritage redevelopments in Canada’s history,” explains QuadReal. “It celebrates the location’s Canada Post legacy through sustainable and adaptive reuse while at the same time prioritizing the needs of Vancouver’s emerging knowledge economy. Located at 349 West Georgia Street in a high-traffic area of Vancouver, The Post will include 1.13 million square feet of state-of-the-art office space in two new towers, surrounded by retail and public spaces.”
Amazon is set to take 35 per cent of that office space.
The phased construction has completion for the Post in 2022 through 2023.
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