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Vancouver looks to transform old police station at Main and Hastings to technology/innovation hub

March 21st, 2013 · 16 Comments

My story on same is here.

I should add that, after my deadline to file had passed, I heard from Jim Fletcher, a partner at B.C. Social Ventures Partners and someone taking a keen interest in the new centre.

He said what is the best aspect of the proposed new hub is that it combines spaces for both social-enterprise innovators and tech innovators. “The idea of having the social enterprise under the roof with the commercial guys is very healthy.” He saw it as having the possibility for producing a synergy where the commercial people could show the social-enterprise people how to run better buinesses, while the social people could show the commercial people how to incorporate more social values.

He pointed out to me that Vancouver currently has a social-enterprise centre  out at UBC (did not know that) and a number of tech hubs in the central city. A hub like this could bring the two sides together in one place.

As always, text of my story below here.

Frances Bula

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published

Last updated

The world of high-tech and start-ups is coming to the heart of Vancouver’s most troubled neighbourhood, with a city plan to create a “technology incubation centre” in the old police station at Main and Hastings.

It also opens a new and discouraging front in the gentrification battle in the Downtown Eastside, local activists fear.

They had hoped the hulking former police building would be used for social housing and community space for the low-income people who live there. Instead, according to a document in the province’s BCBid site, the city is looking for an operator to run the 100,000-square-foot facility as a centre that “will provide subsidized working space and a range of support services to entrepreneurs with early-stage companies, with the objective of supporting these companies through their critical start-up and early growth periods.”

The building could potentially also house a big, existing high-tech company. In addition, the plan is to provide some subsidized space for social enterprises – businesses that are profit-oriented but have a social or environmental mission.

The acting CEO of the Vancouver Economic Commission, a city-funded operation that looks at how to bring business to the city and sustain it, said the police station is an ideal location for a tech hub, given its proximity to Gastown and Railtown where many tech start-ups and more established tech companies are already working.

“We hope this would be a good addition to the community,” said Joan Elangovan, who said the city will provide the building rent-free to the commission with the aim of seeing it become financially viable.

Councillor Raymond Louie emphasized that the building will be a home to the kinds of social enterprises that have helped the Downtown Eastside. Potluck, a catering service, and Bladerunners, which trains local residents to work in construction and mentors them in their jobs, are two examples.

“We’re supporting both technology and social innovation in one building,” he said.

But community activists say this is one more nail in the coffin of a fragile low-income community that is already facing pressure on all sides from developers and businesses wanting to move in.

“This is the absolute heart of the Downtown Eastside. It’s been protected a little bit, but now this will be encroaching right into the heart,” said Jean Swanson, of Carnegie Community Action Project.

Wendy Pedersen, an independent activist who has been protesting the arrival of the high-end PiDGiN restaurant nearby, said the plan to turn the building into a tech hub is the worst thing the city could do. “It gives a signal to the high-end market that the neighbourhood’s changing and it’s for sale.”

Vancouver police announced three years ago they would be moving out of the 1953 building at 312 Main St. to the former headquarters of the Vancouver Olympics organizing committee on the far eastern edge of the city.

Ms. Elangovan said the city had some consultations with the business community about what to do with the site.

As well, people working in the high-tech sector started approaching the city with offers.

The centre is envisioned as a large, diversified “accelerator centre,” in the jargon of the sector. That means it brings together a lot of the training and services that start-ups typically need, as well as help accessing venture capital. A model the commission looked at is the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, among others.

There are other incubator hubs and accelerator centres already in Vancouver – GrowLab, Wavefront – but they tend to focus on one specific kind of technology. The new Vancouver Technology Centre would aim to provide services to all the different kinds of tech operations that city entrepreneurs are venturing into. The deadline for proposals from third-party operators is next Friday.

“Vancouver is really a city of entrepreneurs,” she said. “What this building is going to be used for is to focus on the early-stage technology and innovation companies. This is to complement what is in the ecosystem already.”

Categories: Uncategorized

  • Bill Lee

    And see back in January 2013 in this salon, http://francesbula.com/uncategorized/job-changes-former-sam-sullivan-chief-of-staff-moves-on-from-mitacs-van-economic-commission-ceo-moves-to-alberta/

    and how the VEC was becoming a plaything of the Vision party.

    and the Courier’s article in 2012 about the possible future, or not, of the Police Station.
    vancourier.com/City+hall+noncommittal+future+Vancouver+shop/6745432/story.html

    They should resurrect the old Star Theatre buried under the station if they really favour the arts and not Vision friends like the dying VECC Cultch and their new folly the over-refurbished York Theatre.

    There still is a police station offices at the back reaching to the Police Museum.

    Still, it is a bad idea in a bad building (see Courier article)

  • teririch

    Why is the city providing this building rent-free and why are taxpayers subsidizing this rent as well as hepling to fund start-ups? Or am I reading this wrong?

  • Frank Ducote

    Employment opportunities in the DTES – what a novel concept. It looks like an office building ready to go, no displacement, perhaps some training programs for local folks as well. What’s not to like.

  • teririch

    @FrankDucote #2:

    According tot he Courier article that Bill Lee linked, there is roughly $13.8 in renos required in order to make that building safe. The VPD are moving because it is old and falling apart.

    As for hiring folks in the DTES into any faction of the tech sector….a bit of a stretch. It s a nice thought, but honeslty, I don’t see a lot of it happening.

  • teririch

    I see the ani-gentrification crowd hit Save on Meats…. (talking about biting the had that feeds you.)

    http://www.cknw.com/news/vancouver/story.aspx?ID=1917523

  • Don D

    Well, Frank, I’m not sure how many high-tech jobs there would be for DTES residents in these tech startups…

    But if it was to be repurposed as a light industrial operation – say, just off the top of my head, and as an example only, a laundry serving regional health care facilities – now that could generate significant local jobs and economic activity.

    A laundry (or an assembly operation, or an order fulfillment centre – or whatever) wouldn’t be a very sexy legacy though…

  • Frank Ducote

    So, are people suggesting that nobody should aspire to anything better in their lives, should entry-level training be part of any deal here?
    Personally, I’d find that insulting.

  • Guest

    Presumably the building is being used for this because no one else in their right mind would pay market rents (even factoring in DTES decay) to open an office down there.

  • Bill Lee

    They don’t mean the business (Commerce) students at UBC Social Enterprise Club?

    UBC Social Enterprise Club [ cus.ca/author/ubcsocialenterprise/ ]
    Email:
    Website: http://www.socialenterpriseclub.ca/
    We’re here to give you opportunities to take part in incredible projects in the field of social enterprise. We seek to educate students about all aspects of social enterprise, engage students in active examples of social enterprise, and connect students to social enterprise organizations and professionals and other students, locally and internationally. Whether you’ve been involved in social enterprise before or you’re completely new to the field, we welcome you into a community of individuals passionate about social enterprise. We offer many exciting events and opportunities for you to deepen your knowledge, be engaged, and become inspired.

    It’s been very quiet, webpage wise.

    VanCity Credit Union and YWCA have some movement towards those things.

    And there is the dusty old document from the VEC, full of platitudes even then
    vancouver.ca/files/cov/vancouver-economic-plan.pdf

  • Bill Lee

    @Guest // Mar 22, 2013 at 11:48 am #8

    You could ask Corbel Commercial which is a modern commercial real estate brokerage that specializes in Vancouver’s Yaletown, Gastown and the Downtown districts.
    But of course no prices on their web pages, just pictures and make-a-deal.

    You are asking about retail and commercial rents, as housing rentals are a different matter, even if people get around the vague BC rent increase limits as noted in http://www.straight.com/news/artist-live-work-rentals-railtown-studios-questioned

    And we note the new “competition” here for Rennie’s daughters 700 block Hastings twee offices for causes-clothes-calumny.

    Madame Bula quotes “We hope this would be a good addition to the community,” said Joan Elangovan, who said the city will provide the building rent-free to the commission with the aim of seeing it become financially viable

  • Don D

    Frank Ducote, #7

    Not sure if I understand your point. Doesn’t learning some basic skills, gaining some workplace experience (and perhaps dealing with alcohol or drug issues in the process), earning a living, and having a decent and secure place to live, amount to aspiring to something better?

    Unless one is born into affluence, one’s first job is generally pretty damn unskilled – but important and aspirational all the same.

    Those of us from working class backgrounds do not find the concept of having to start somewhere “insulting”.

    Whether working at a McDonald’s, or, as in my case, driving a truck, a low skill job was and is “entry-level training” for most of us. Unless family circumstances provide a leg-up to the higher rungs, aspiring to something better is a lifelong process involving incremental steps – the first of which is probably the most important.

    And for most, if not all,residents of the DTES, working as a trainee at a high-tech startup is an unlikely first step.

    I don’t know enough to decide whether repurposing this building as a high-tech incubator is a good idea overall, or not – but I do know that to suggest that this usage will create local jobs is bafflegab of the highest order.

  • Frank Ducote

    Don D – maybe I wasn’t clear enough. You are agreeing with what I said in @3 above, I think.

  • teririch

    Yaletown already houses many of Vancouver’s tech companies; Radical in on Terminal and there is the beautiful Emily Carr Digital (Media) Arts building on Old Northern Way.

    Why would the city not be looking to create a Tech Hub on one of these already anchoring facilties. Terminal has open industrial space as does the area where the EC building is situated.

    This would allow the Main Street building to be repurposed for low income or senior housing.

  • Bill

    Employment opportunities in the DTES that are not related to the poverty industry? No doubt this will lead to protests that this is an assault on the community values of the DTES.

  • Raingurl

    I thought the building was full of asbestos. Like Yaletown, did the toxins disappear once the highest bid came in?

  • Bill Lee

    @teririch // Mar 25, 2013 at 10:35 am #13

    Speaking of Tech Hub, (and local large games maker lost its EA’s CEO resigned unexpectedly Last week. John Riccitiello, CEO and Director since April 2007, resigned from both positions effective March 30.) how is Hootsuite doing with their gift horse?

    Remember ?
    http://francesbula.com/uncategorized/city-of-vancouver-makes-hootsuite-an-offer-to-good-to-refuse-stay-here-lease-to-own-one-of-our-buildings/

    Yesterday’s news indicates a buyout?
    We give them property and they scoot?

    “From VentureBeat
    “Social media management dashboard HootSuite announced a significant hire this morning: former Yammer vice president of marketing Dee Anna McPherson.

    Among her accomplishments at Yammer were the acquisition of the company by Microsoft for $1.2 billion and a healthy 300 percent annual growth rate.

    At Yammer, McPherson lead a team of 40 marketing professionals across corporate marketing, lead generation, corporate communications, creative service and international marketing. Among other responsibilities, she created YamJam, Yammer’s annual user conference, and represented the company as a speaker at industry events such as SXSW, Forrester’s Content & Collaboration Summit and the Ragan Intranet Summit.

    Prior to Yammer, McPherson was a partner at Horn Group in San Francisco, where she led the San Francisco office and provided counsel to startup executives. At PeopleSoft, McPherson was the global head of Public Relations, and she was a Senior Vice President at both Edelman and Ogilvy.

    In 2012, HootSuite’s staff grew from approximately 70 employees to over 250 and the company plans to add up to 100 additional employees in 2013. The company’s unique culture and dynamic office environment helped it earn the title of #1 Best Place to Work in British Columbia in 2012 by BC Business. Additional career & opportunities are available now within HootSuite’s Marketing department, including a Director of Product Marketing, Director, EMEA Marketing, Senior Writer, and others. Follow @HootHR to receive updates on HootSuite’s available opportunities.

    …#One question: Where will she work?

    McPherson is San Francisco-based, while HootSuite is Vancouver-based. HootSuite does have a San Francisco office but has indicated in the past that it has no intention of moving senior staff. That said, all of its top people spend time in San Francisco and Silicon Valley regularly, and it would not be unusual for McPherson to simply reverse that trend, working in San Francisco while occasionally visiting Vancouver.
    Read more at venturebeat.com/2013/03/13/yammer-executive-dee-anna-mcpherson-jumps-on-the-hootsuite-bus-as-vp-of-marketing/#V37si4jea8e6bwRv.99 ‘