Vancouver-based Hootsuite may be the first tenant to move into a large renovated office building in the city’s Mount Pleasant District, according to a report from Daily Hive.
Local British Columbia developer Westbank recently submitted a development application to the City of Vancouver to give a massive facelift to an office building located at 2015 Main Street. If approved, the building will become the first phase of a plan to build a major digital media and tech hub in the district.
While the building is currently used as a processing, store, and call centre for RBC, Westbank founder and CEO Ian Gillespie told Daily Hive that the building will be repurposed as a space for Hootsuite. He also said that Hootsuite will be among several companies to become tenants in the renovated and repurposed tech campus.
“These won’t just be buildings housing just Hootsuite,” said Gillespie. “What we want to do is bring a half dozen firms that are in that digital space altogether, and if other landlords do the same you’ll get an exciting critical mass of these companies.”
According to Daily Hive, Gillespie and Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes entered a “personal partnership” back in 2015 to develop the new tech hub, and shortly after, they acquired the buildings on the entire city block for $40.5 million.
“What we want to do is bring a half dozen firms that are in that digital space altogether.”
Hootsuite currently occupies a 27,000 square-feet space in an office building at 111 East 5th Avenue on the southwestern corner of the block, near its main 33,000 square-feet space at a former policy building at 5 East 8th Avenue in Vancouver. The social media management company also has offices in Toronto, Sydney, and Los Angeles.
While the building renovation proposal still awaits approval, Vancouver-based Henriquez Partners Architects and landscape architecture firm Hapa Collaborative have major plans to incorporate an innovative design within and outside the building.
Daily Hive reported that the exterior face of the building will have a new “living screen” for vertical planting, which aims to connect the building with other new buildings within the tech campus. The base of the building will also incorporate a canvas space for murals to acknowledge the area’s reputation for creativity. Other renovations will include replacing the building’s current roof with a green roof and redesigning the lobby.
Earlier this year, Hootsuite acquired three companies including Naritiv, AdEspresso, and LiftMetrix.