BC Business
Premier John Horgan announces plans for Amazon’s second Vancouver office.
Amazon.com Inc. announced a second Vancouver office today, and no, it’s not the coveted second headquarters for the tech giant that the city is bidding for.
But what some executives and reporters were calling H2 Lite is impressive in its own right. The 4,500-square-metre space at 402 Dunsmuir Street, scheduled to open in 2020, will double Amazon’s current workforce in Vancouver, bringing 1,000 more jobs to the city’s technology sector.
The announcement had no shortage of high-profile speakers: Premier John Horgan, federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough and Mayor Gregor Robertson all took the podium.
Horgan stressed British Columbia’s prominence in the tech sector, pledging to continue its battle with the “rival down south”—Amazon’s hometown of Seattle. Robertson pointed to the fact that Vancouver accounted for “a third of the new jobs” in Canada last year.
Amazon also announced a partnership with the B.C. First Nations Technology Council that will result in laptops purchased for students and “more of a partnership in mentoring and coaching” Indigenous youth, according to executive director Denise Williams.
On the topic of Amazon’s sought-after second HQ, Robertson said Vancouver is still in the running.