Tall & Urban News

One of the most intriguing tower developments under construction in downtown Vancouver recently passed a major milestone.

Deloitte Summit office tower at 400 West Georgia Street has topped out, achieving its full height of 301 feet (91 meters) with 24 stories.

The building replaces the former Budget car rental lot at the southwest corner of the intersection of Homer and West Georgia streets, just across from the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch.

Developed by Westbank, and designed by Tokyo-based OSO, and Vancouver-based Merrick Architecture, the tower’s form is inspired by the shape of a Japanese lantern, composed of a system of four-story cubes stacked around a central concrete core.

The building’s exterior will be clad with glass and greenery. A significant outdoor amenity space with ample landscaping is also planned for the rooftop.

The pace of construction has been relatively quick as the building uses steel for its structure instead of concrete. Over 5,000 metric tonnes of steel was raised and fixed into place for the tower.

The project’s rezoning application was approved by Vancouver City Council in February 2018.

Altogether, Deloitte Summit contains 370,000 square feet (34,374 square meters) of total floor area, with Deloitte’s relocated Vancouver offices occupying 117,000 square feet (10,869 square meters) Apple taking 60,000 square feet (5,574 square meters) and Boston-based Northeastern University taking 15,000 square feet (1,393 square meters).

Deloitte is currently temporarily located within the Spaces co-working office location at the former Tom Lee building at 939 Granville Street. Its longtime office location was previously at Bentall Centre.

In early March 2020, just before the onset of COVID-19, it was reported that Spaces will sublease its space within Deloitte Summit to Amazon, until the tech giant’s new permanent office spaces within The Post redevelopment across the street are ready for occupation.

This stopgap arrangement at Deloitte Summit will allow Amazon to grow its Vancouver workforce until The Post is ready for occupation, similar to the company’s years-long temporary tenancy within WeWork’s locations within the Bentall Centre office complex.

Deloitte Summit is currently slated for a completion later in 2021. Construction on QuadReal Property Group’s The Post also continues to progress towards its anticipated 2023 completion.

The new south tower levels emerging above the heritage Canada Post building have now reached their ninth new office floor plate. There are about six more floors to go before the south tower tops out. The north tower will reach completion before the south tower, which has progressed to its fourth new office floor plate above the heritage podium.

Amazon is also occupying the nine-story, 152,000-square-foot (14,121-square-meter) office building at 402 Dunsmuir Street, which reached completion in early 2020 just across the street from The Post. This building was designed to house 1,000 employees.

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