Canada Revenue Agency HQ Breaks Ground

The taxman, like many others, is flocking to False Creek Flats. Rize Alliance Properties has broken ground on Phase 2 of its Containers on Terminal project, a 143k SF building that’ll be Canada Revenue Agency’s new Lower Mainland HQ.

Development director Andy Tam, right, is pictured with the project team at the groundbreaking for Containers 2. CRA signed a 15-year lease and will consolidate its Metro Vancouver office space and staff at 468 Terminal Ave. B+A Architects drew inspiration from the railway containers that were the first occupants of Terminal, which runs adjacent to a CN rail line (it’s next to SkyTrain tracks, as well). Andy says the building will have “expansive glazing" to allow natural light to filter in.

False Creek Flats has undergone a significant transformation and is now a bustling commercial hub offering companies a low-cost alternative to downtown. “Not even five years ago there were huge plots of empty land,” Andy notes. Today the area is home to, among others: Centre for Digital Media, Emily Carr University and Mountain Equipment Co-op, which just opened a 12k SF HQ; plus high-end car dealerships like Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Acura. And Columbia College occupies the first Containers building (below), completed in 2013.

Containers 2 is slated to be built and fully occupied by spring 2017. It's being custom-designed for CRA, which is moving its 800 area employees there in stages. The agency wants open floor plans and plenty of natural lighting and ventilation. “Very efficient space planning was a requirement,” says Andy, noting Containers competed with several other projects to lure CRA, winning due to its proximity to transit and highways—and the promise of lower rents and operating costs. “You’re basically getting a downtown location without paying downtown prices.”