Amazon Canada showcases new office tower amid layoffs, return to office pushback

The upcoming debut of Amazon's newest office space at the former post office depot in downtown Vancouver is generating buzz among the city's business and tech sectors, despite mass layoffs in the industry and record-high office vacancy rates. 

The south tower of The Post building at Georgia and Hamilton streets is scheduled to start welcoming 3,000 employees by September. The opening comes at a time when many companies are struggling to convince their employees to return to the office after work-from-home policies during the pandemic. 

"What's important is that we recognize this as an adjustment," said Kristin Gable, senior manager of communications with Amazon Canada. 

Amazon showcased the south tower of the new building to media earlier this week. It includes features like a community garden, dog parks and an outdoor basketball court.

The base of the tower will be open to the public and include a Loblaws supermarket, Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chao, and fitness club Evolve Strength. 

"This isn't going to be just an Amazon office, it's going to be a space for the community," Gable said. 

Signs of life

Earlier this year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees they would have to return to the office at least three days a week starting in May. The announcement generated some blowback from employees. 

Bridgitte Anderson, president and CEO of the Vancouver Board of Trade, says it's clear the pandemic has permanently changed how often people work and come into the office.

The downtown core still has less foot traffic because of work-from-home policies that began three years ago, she says, but there are signs of life.

"Vancouver is doing better than lots of other places around Canada and it is really exciting and encouraging and helpful to see business buildings like that open up," she said. 

Companies like Amazon have to rethink the way they are using their offices, Anderson adds.

"It's clear people are not going to be in the office five days a week."

Space for 6,000 employees

The north tower of the new building is expected to open in 2024.

In total, both towers will offer 1.1 million square feet of new office space for about 6,000 employees. It is the fifth downtown building for the company's 4,500 office-based employees. 

During the tour, Gable wouldn't specify if the 6,000 employees were expected to come from Amazon's existing properties or if they would be new hires. 

The building is also opening at a time when there have been mass layoffs throughout the tech industry, including at Amazon.

But Stephanie Hollingshead, CEO of the Tech and People Network, says a lot of companies in the sector continue to hire new employees.

"There's still a fair bit of growth," she said.

Hollingshead points out that tech companies like Amazon were "bursting at the seams" in their offices prior to the pandemic. 

There has been a fair amount of buzz about the opening of the building, Hollingshead said. She hopes that Amazon, as an anchor company in the city's tech sector, will be able to open its doors to host industry-wide events. 

Hollingshead adds that major companies like Amazon and Microsoft help attract a lot of international talent to B.C., which can eventually filter down to smaller companies in the industry. 

"It really helps bring in some great experience into the ecosystem."