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Apple Plans to Open Office in Westbank’s Glitzy Vancouver Tower

Vancouver’s office sector is becoming increasingly crunched for space, as technology giants expand their footprint.

Apple Plans to Open Office in Westbank’s Glitzy Vancouver Tower
The Apple Inc. logo is displayed at one of the company’s stores in Hong Kong, China. (Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. plans to open an office in one of Vancouver’s most hotly anticipated developments, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Cupertino, California-based Apple will join Deloitte LLP and IWG Plc’s Spaces co-working unit as key tenants in 400 West Georgia, a 24-story office building that is owned by Westbank Corp. and Allied Properties REIT, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t yet public. The firm will take up about two floors, one of the people said.

The futuristic tower -- a rotating stack of enormous glassy cubes said to be inspired by a Japanese paper lantern -- is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2020, according to Westbank’s website. The entire development will be 367,000 square feet. Deloitte Canada’s Vancouver headquarters will take up about 117,000 square feet in the top 10 floors, while Spaces will rent about 120,000 square feet.

Representatives for Allied, Westbank and Apple declined to comment.

Vancouver’s office sector is becoming increasingly crunched for space, as technology giants expand their footprint in the Pacific Coast city, lured by a strong labor pool, friendly immigration policies, and proximity to U.S. West Coast company headquarters. Vancouver and Toronto are tied for having the tightest vacancy rates in North America, according to CBRE.

Apple’s office will be across the road from a bunker-like former Canada Post mailing center that’s being re-developed to host Amazon.com Inc.’s new 416,000 square foot office as it increases its Vancouver workforce five-fold to 5,000 by 2022. Microsoft Corp. too has expanded in the city in recent years and is helping fund a study for a high-speed rail that would link the Canadian city to Seattle and Portland.

Apple also has offices in Toronto, according to its website.

--With assistance from Mark Gurman.

To contact the reporters on this story: Natalie Obiko Pearson in Vancouver at npearson7@bloomberg.net;Natalie Wong in Toronto at nwong133@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net, ;Debarati Roy at droy5@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Thorpe

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.