BC Business
Since opening in 1990, 777 Dunsmuir’s visual splendour—a bold mixture of traditional and post-modern architectural elements—has attracted many high-profile tenants, including KPMG, Slater Vecchio LLP and Wolverton Securities.
In short, the 19-storey building is a real estate developer’s dream: a Class AAA tower that is coveted by businesses and fondly regarded by locals.
The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited knows that maintaining a good reputation takes work; that’s why they spent a good deal of 2014 renovating 777 Dunsmuir’s lobby and adding new amenities. “The Vancouver real estate market is highly competitive, so we modernized 777 Dunsmuir,” says leasing director, Lou Ficocelli.
Completed in December 2014, the revamped lobby with its juxtaposition of cool white marble flooring and sumptuous dark wood is a visual showcase; these elements are complemented by new LED lighting on the exterior canopy along Dunsmuir and Howe streets, which announces the building’s presence from the street.
Three floors above, on the roof of adjoining Holt Renfrew, are tennis and basketball courts that can be easily accessed by tenants. “And this amenity is complemented with newly updated washrooms and changing facilities,” says Ficocelli.
The most complex retrofit to 777 Dunsmuir is completely invisible to tenants: a geo-exchange system that required over 30 boreholes drilled into the building’s parkade, and a piping system installed 400 metres into the ground. This is Canada’s first geoexchange retrofit of an occupied high-rise mixed-use complex in a downtown core, and is expected to significantly reduce the building’s carbon emissions by storing and extracting heat out of the ground.
Cadillac Fairview’s attention to 777 Dunsmuir is typical of a real estate developer known for being innovative. “Our ongoing goal is to provide our tenants with the very best amenities, comfort and aesthetic appeal,” says Ficocelli.