Search KelownaNow
An exciting announcement was made in Vancouver today.
Amazon will be expanding Vancouver’s tech hub by opening a new headquarters in the city’s downtown core.
We’re #LIVE in #Vancouver with an exciting announcement with Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau. 🇨🇦 https://t.co/obcrCLRly8
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) April 30, 2018
It’ll be located in the old Canada Post building on West Georgia Street, which is where the announcement was made today.
“Amazon will be expanding into a new 416,000 square foot office tower, to be built on top of where we are standing today,” said Jesse Dougherty, GM of Amazon web services.
“This new project, being developed by QuadReal and scheduled to be completed in 2022, will preserve the building’s architectural heritage while reimaging it as a sustainable developed mixed-use project.”
Along with @CanadianPM & @MayorGregor, we're honoured to welcome our valued partner @amazon.ca to The Post, a landmark location at Vancouver’s new social & cultural nexus. The Post will be home to 7000 people who will work, create and collaborate here. https://t.co/jeS7epiQUc pic.twitter.com/lnuKZpG8xy
— QuadReal (@QuadRealGroup) April 30, 2018
Along with the new space will come 3,000 new tech jobs, which will bring the total number of jobs in Vancouver through Amazon to 5,000.
Those jobs will be in fields including e-commerce technology, cloud computing and machine learning.
“Today’s announcement is a testament to Canada’s highly-skilled, diverse workforce and tremendous potential as an innovation and tech hub,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was on hand for today’s announcement.
“Tech talent and investment are coming to our country in record numbers, and companies like Amazon are bringing even more energy, vision – and thousands of good jobs – to Canada.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomes @Amazon’s announcement that it will create 3,000 new jobs in Vancouver: https://t.co/mAAXOkugRQ pic.twitter.com/w6LZDKBOde
— CanadianPM (@CanadianPM) April 30, 2018
Premier John Horgan also chimed in on the announcement, saying it reflects the strength of B.C.’s economy and the talent level of its citizens.
"This investment will advance B.C.'s well-earned reputation as an innovation hub, and will promote growth in all sectors of our economy, in all regions,” he said.
Another major Canadian city, Toronto, is still in the running for Amazon's official second North American headquarters.
If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.
If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.