This morning I read an ARTICLE penned by Fances Bula in the Globe and Mail that called the Sears building at Robson and Howe "The Great White Urinal", and outlined the plan for Nordstrom to come in and give it a facelift. This is a building that former chief of planning for the City of Vancouver, Brent Toderian, has touted as "the worst building in Downtown Vancouver" and it has long been looked upon as not-the-most-inviting of spaces, and not the best use of a location that is pretty much smack dab in the middle of our city.
It is with great pleasure that I share with you these renderings below of what Nordstrom plans to do to The Building Formerly Known as The Great White Urinal, in Pacific Centre. I'm also quite happy to let you know that not only will this be a new retail store but they're going for LEED certification in the construction, and they're also building some new office space into the development which they're currently pre-leasing. Hopefully once it's completed it'll warrant a new nickname!
Oh, and here's the release with all the info:
Vancouver, B.C.; September 17, 2012 – Pacific Centre shopping mall is pleased to officially unveil today plans for its high-profile property at Robson and Granville. The company is undertaking a multi-million dollar redevelopment of the existing building to accommodate the arrival of Nordstrom, while creating new retail and commercial mixed-use space.
“This is an extremely exciting stage in our evolution,” says Tom Knoepfel, Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager, Cadillac Fairview. “These plans reinforce Pacific Centre’s reputation as downtown Vancouver’s pre-eminent mixed-use property. Pacific Centre will span from Pender Street all the way to our new entrance on the corner of Robson and Granville. This will be a key factor in the centre’s continued success.”
The building’s shell will remain, but the structure will feature a new exterior design as part of Nordstrom’s arrival and be re-clad in glass. Nordstrom will occupy 230,000 square feet on three floors, including the street level. A new 48,000 square foot multi-tenant retail space will be built on the lower mall level, and the top four levels of the building will be converted to 280,000 square feet of AAA class office space. The project is targeting LEED Certification under the LEED: Core & Shell Program.
The office space is comprised of four 70,000 square foot floor plates with 17-foot ceilings, slab to slab. It will also offer two atriums and a landscaped roof-top amenity. The space sits atop Pacific Centre with interior access to: SkyTrain and Canada Line, six office towers, and the Four Seasons Hotel.
“There is no other office space like this in the downtown core,” continues Knoepfel. “These are very large floor plates which are not currently available in the heart of the city. They will be attractive to businesses who would not normally consider downtown due to the lack of floor plate space.”
The project was designed by James K. M. Cheng and the contractor is the Ledcor Group. Callison will serve as the architect for the Nordstrom space and is consulting with James K. M. Cheng as part of the project design process. Construction is scheduled to begin in November and will take 18 to 24 months to complete. New retail stores on the lower level are expected to open in late 2014 while Nordstrom and the office space are to open in 2015. Pre-leasing for the office and retail space is currently underway.
