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Mount Pleasant nabs another tech tenant

Veteran gaming firm Relic Entertainment moving its headquarters into city’s emerging tech hub
mount pleasant development
Relic Entertainment will take 47,000 square feet in Mount Pleasant development. | PC Urban

 

The Mount Pleasant neighbourhood will soon add a major gaming firm to what is becoming a high-tech hub in Vancouver.

Relic Entertainment, one of Vancouver’s oldest gaming companies, will move to a new head office at 285 West 5 Avenue, the former Hudson Plating site. PC Urban Properties Corp. will transform the once low-density, heavy industrial site into a 71,000 square-foot office building. Relic will be leasing 47,000 square feet. Other space will be leased to other tech and light-industrial tenants.

“Mount Pleasant [is] an area where we have been transforming a number of formerly heavy industrial sites into places of employment for the industries of the future,” said PC Urban principal, Brent Sawchyn.

The former metal plating site – directly across from BIV’s offices – has been undergoing environment remedial work for more than year.

Relic began to look for a new headquarters in 2016 that could allow the 20-year old company to grow their employees from 180 to up to 350.

"Selecting the future home of the studio was a complicated process,” said Relic general manager Justin Dowdeswell. “We worked hard to find the right space, the right neighbourhood, the right partner, and the right location for staff – down to charting every employee’s journey to the office."

Following a 2016 City of Vancouver zoning change that allowed higher-density mixed-use commercial use, Mount Pleasant has seen a number of older industrial buildings repurposed for office and light industrial use.

Vancouver tech giant Hootsuite, with developer Westbank, is currently expanding its presence in Mount Pleasant to a block-big campus on East 4th Avenue and Main Street that will include approximately 140,000 square feet of mixed-use digital industry and office space.

“We’re seeing a whole new class of businesses springing up in the neighborhood like craft breweries, commissary kitchens, tech, visual effects and fashion,” said Colliers International vice-president Dan Jordan.

Relic will move into its new headquarters in summer 2019.