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Doing Business Downtown

Praise doesn’t come any higher than that. It’s easy to see that Downtown Vancouver is on par with other larger cities around the world – London, New York, Chicago, Toronto and San Francisco.

• Downtown is Metro Vancouver's largest employment centre with 124,600 jobs.
• Construction of the $2-billion, 19-km Canada Line light rapid transit line connecting the Vancouver International Airport with downtown is underway. Completion is expected in November 2009. New stations include Vancouver City Centre at West Georgia at Granville Street and an expanded Waterfront Station near the SeaBus and Westcoast Express Terminals.
  
• Downtown Vancouver will be host to ice-related sporting events, the opening and closing ceremonies, the daily medal ceremonies and social events for the 2010 Winter Games (February 12-28, 2010). The media broadcast centre, host to over 10,000 accredited media, will be located in the new and expanded Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre .
  
• The City of Vancouver’s Metro Core Jobs and Economy Land Use Plan limits the amount of residential development downtown in favour of commercial development and expands the City’s Core Business District.
  
• Lobbying by the Vancouver Fair Tax Coalition was rewarded with City Council holding commercial property tax at 2006 levels for 2007 saving property owners $5.7M in property taxes.
  
• Billions of dollars have been invested in Downtown Vancouver by both the private and public sectors over the last ten years resulting in major new office towers, hotels, new condo units, infrastructure improvements and the restoration of historical buildings.
  
• More than 40 of Canada's corporate headquarters are located in the Metro Vancouver area, with 28 located downtown. It is home to all of Canada's leading financial, law and accounting firms.
  
• Overall, downtown has a 3% vacancy rate, the lowest in the country, with more than 50% of all downtown office buildings full. (CB Richard Ellis MarketView, 3rd quarter 2007)
  
• Over 21M sq. ft. of office space including over 4M sq. ft. of AAA class and 5.6M of A class space. Currently there is approximately 3.5% vacancy in AAA class office space.
  
• Vancouver Economic Development Commission’s recent Business Climate Report (2007) accepted by City Council focuses attention on creating a more attractive business climate for Vancouver.
  
• Easily accessible from all quadrants of the city (approximately 60 minutes from most parts of Metro Vancouver at rush hour).
  
• Only 20 minutes from the Vancouver's International Airport (Canada's second busiest airport).
  
• Connected by public transit from the north (Seabus), south (buses), west and southwest (Westcoast Express and SkyTrain). Vancouver’s ‘highly developed transportation system’ was a determining factor in Vancouver being ranked the most liveable city in the world by the Economist magazine (August 2007).
  
• With more than 75,000+ people living and around downtown, well-lit and well-travelled sidewalks provide safe and easy access around the downtown peninsula.
  
• Excellent public and private meeting facilities - Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, including a major expansion underway, BC Place Stadium, General Motors Place, Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University downtown campus, BC Institute of Technology (BCIT), plus 15 hotels with major meeting facilities.
  
• Downtown employees have access to excellent recreational facilities – YWCA, YMCA (currently under re-construction; completion 2009), Steve Nash Fitness Centre, Vancouver Club, Terminal City Club, as well as the seawall for running, cycling, rollerblading and walking.
  
• Over 1,000 shops, 200 restaurants and 50 entertainment spots.
  
• Approved future/under construction projects in the Downtown include the $11 M+ re-design and reconstruction of Granville Street (from the Granville Street bridge to the Waterfront station), multi-million dollar upgrade and addition of condos to the Crown Plaza Hotel Georgia, construction of a new $500-M, 58-storey Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Residences designed by architect Arthur Erickson, construction of the 61-storey Shangri-La Hotel & Residences, soon to be Vancouver’s new tallest building, the Kor Hotel Group’s boutique Loden Hotel (opening 2008), hundreds of condo units, construction of a pioneering LEED office building beside GM Place with approx. 260,000 sq. ft. office space as well as cultural and retail space (development application stage) and new 23-storey office and retail tower at Thurlow & Alberni Streets with 400,000 sq. ft. (rezoning application submitted)