City zoning is key to development possibilities for 349 West Georgia
Ashley Ford
Province
Once the world’s largest welded-steel structure, this building is looking for a buyer. RIC ERNST – THE PROVINCE
Vancouver’s main post office is officially up for sale.
Canada Post spokeswoman Colleen Frick confirmed yesterday that the sprawling, 49-year-old building that occupies a strategic block at 349 West Georgia is on the block.
But even if everything proceeded as hoped for with the complex sale, “the earliest we could move would be 2009,” she said.
Canada Post says the vintage plant, “given its age and location, severely limits processing and operational movement.”
Don Vassos of CB Richard Ellis in Vancouver, who is brokering the sale, said he must find a buyer and also locate space that will continue to give the post office a presence in the downtown core.
“It is a huge sale and a big plot of land and is quite complex,” he said.
“Part of that complexity depends on what the city will allow to be built on it. It depends on what zoning is fixed to it.” Frick said Canada Post is committed to maintaining a “retail presence in the downtown core somewhere.”
The current property is thought to be worth at least $60 million to $70 million under its current zoning. The big unknown is what the city may allow to be developed on the site.
City officials could not be contacted yesterday for comment, but a city rezoning specialist has been assigned the file.
With the Vancouver economy booming there will be intense competition from potential investors from the office/commercial and residential sectors.
Canada Post had earlier said it wants a new single-storey location built where rush-hour traffic is not such a big issue.
Frick said the building currently houses the processing operations for Lower Mainland letter mail, Canada Post administration and two letter-carrier depots.
It employs 1,700 workers and is the country’s third-largest mail-processing operation.
Now known as the Vancouver Mail Processing Plant, it opened for business in 1958. The $13-million, five- storey building was the largest welded steel structure in the world when it opened.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
