POSSIBLE SITES FOR AMAZON
Where would you put a 100-acre tech campus in Metro Vancouver for the huge retailer?
With Vancouver’s leaders vying — like their counterparts in more than 100 other North American cities — to become the home of a new Amazon headquarters, it raises the question of where in Metro could the world’s largest online retailer set up shop?
Amazon released a request for proposals earlier this month, in which the Seattle-based marketing giant outlined what they’re looking for in a second home, including “a greenfield site of approximately 100 acres.”
The Vancouver Economic Commission, the organization leading Vancouver’s bid, stated earlier this week that it’s a “cross-regional” effort including interested suburban municipalities and Metro Vancouver.
Some local politicians and civic commentators consider Vancouver a very long shot to land Amazon for several reasons.
But still, it’s a useful exercise for Metro Vancouver officials to collaboratively look at the region’s development opportunities, regardless of whether the economic commission is eventually successful in courting Amazon, said Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University.
“Even if we don’t win, the good news is that out of this entire experience, we can now talk about economic development on a regional basis,” Yan said. “It’s actually healthy for the city to think about this, if not for Amazon, then for any other industry and any other business.”
1 Langara Golf Course,
Vancouver If the city were to look at turning Langara, one of its three municipal golf courses, into a campus for Amazon, the site has a few things going for it: It’s close to a Canada Line station and to Langara College, and the location is accessible to the suburbs.
The idea of redeveloping Langara has been in the news in recent years, as city politicians have proposed the idea of shrinking the Langara course or closing it, in favour of either creating accessible park space or possibly affordable housing developments.
2 False Creek Flats, Vancouver
One of the few areas in Vancouver proper that could have space for a sprawling Amazon campus could be the False Creek Flats, said Gordon Price, a former six-term Vancouver city councillor.
The Flats, on the east side of False Creek, already has a number of digital media, clean technology and transportation businesses, and the Vancouver Economic Commission is working to develop it into a “more productive, sustainable, and connected area of our city.” Of the neighbourhoods on this list, the False Creek Flats would probably be the closest analog to Seattle’s South Lake Union area which has been transformed in recent years by Amazon’s primary headquarters.
3 Innovation Boulevard, Surrey
The kilometre-long stretch of King George Boulevard the City of Surrey is promoting as a tech hub is accessible by transit, close to growing post-secondary institutions, and has “a lot of developable land” suitable for an Amazon campus, said Surrey Coun. Bruce Hayne, chair of the city’s investment and innovation committee.
4 Burnaby Mountain/Production Way area, Burnaby
Amazon will be looking for a “balance between space and connectivity” with their campus, said SFU’s Andy Yan. And they might find a good balance, Yan said, on the south side of Burnaby Mountain (home to the main campus of SFU, one of the stakeholders involved in Vancouver’s bid) where there’s a nearby SkyTrain station and “a huge opportunity to reboot that industrial land.”