QuadReal Property Group has sold its flagship real estate asset of The Post mixed-use office and retail complex in downtown Vancouver.
This was one of the largest and most significant projects pursued by the Vancouver-based real estate development company, shortly after it was founded in 2016 as a key investment arm of British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), which manages the assets of B.C.’s public sector pension plans and other entities.
In a brief release today, QuadReal stated that it will remain as the property manager of The Post to “ensure continuity of service excellence for both tenants and building community.”
Sources tell Daily Hive Urbanized that the 2023-built complex, which spans an entire city block, has been sold to Pontegadea Inversiones SL — the real estate and investment firm of Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, founder of fast fashion giant Zara. Ortega also founded and previously chaired Inditex, the global fashion company that owns Zara along with brands such as Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Pull&Bear, and Stradivarius.
According to Bloomberg, as of this month’s assessment, Ortega, now 89 years old, is the 17th wealthiest person on the planet, with a net worth of US$114 billion. He owns 59 per cent of Inditex.
The Post office and retail complex, May 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
In more recent years, through Pontegadea, Ortega has grown his worldwide portfolio of office, retail, industrial, and logistics real estate assets — including within Canada.
In 2022, Pontegadea acquired the iconic gold-coloured Royal Bank Plaza office tower in downtown Toronto — a deal considered one of the largest office-tower transactions since the pandemic, and the biggest single-asset acquisition of a Canadian property in recent years. Oxford Properties Group and CPP Investments — both owned by major Canadian pension funds — sold the Toronto tower to Pontegadea for a reported C$1.15 billion, marking the largest real-estate acquisition by the Inditex founder at the time.
In 2024, in a deal worth roughly C$360 million, Pontegadea also bought Beedie Group’s 2022-built warehouse complex in South Burnaby’s Big Bend industrial district — a multi-level industrial building with one million sq. ft. of space on a 28-acre lot, fully leased to Amazon as a distribution centre. As well, earlier this year, the Spanish entity also acquired a substantial stake in PD Ports from Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management.
The transaction for The Post is likely to rank among the most significant office real-estate deals in British Columbia’s history — and possibly recent Canadian history — rivalling the sales of the nearby Bentall Centre office complex in 2016 and again in 2019, each exceeding C$1 billion during the peak of Vancouver’s pre-pandemic office market.
According to BC Assessment, the July 2024 assessment roll places the The Post’s value at C$924 million, including C$210 million for the 2.9-acre land parcel and C$714 million for the newly redeveloped structure.
The Post is the single largest office building in B.C., with 1.1 million sq. ft. of office space entirely leased to Amazon for its main Vancouver Tech Hub location.
Amazon’s office space in the South Tower of The Post in downtown Vancouver, September 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
September 2024 opening of Amazon’s Level 8 office atrium at The Post. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Amazon first began occupying The Post’s South Tower fronting West Georgia Street in September 2023. It then opened a major office space expansion in September 2024, featuring a large two-storey atrium on the eighth level of The Post’s base podium. Currently, The Post serves as the home base for over 2,000 Amazon office workers.
By 2026, after the opening of the North Tower fronting Dunsmuir Street, Amazon will fully use all 1.1 million sq. ft. of purpose-built office space at The Post, potentially more than doubling the current number of staff based in the complex. Construction is well underway on fully furnishing the interior shell space of the North Tower to the company’s specifications.
There is also nearly 200,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant space within the lower levels below the Amazon office volume, oriented around a publicly accessible multi-level atrium fronting Homer Street, including anchor retail tenants Loblaws City Market and Evolve Strength fitness strength.
This year, work began on furnishing a 52,000 sq. ft. vacant retail space on the third level of The Post’s retail atrium into the new replacement office location for Sony Pictures Imageworks’ global headquarters.
A number of other commercial units remain vacant, including spaces previously intended for a large food hall and restaurants. Earlier this month, a community policing centre operated by Vancouver Police Department opened inside The Post.
Amazon’s basketball court on the rooftop of the heritage base podium of The Post. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
The Post’s retail atrium. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
The Post retains its original 1958 heritage facade and much of the heavy-duty industrial structure — enabling mail trucks to drive deep inside the building — from its days as a major Canada Post processing centre, with two new high-rise office towers rising on the north and south sides of the heritage podium.
After a new Canada Post facility opened next to Vancouver International Airport, BCI acquired the property from the federal government in 2013 for roughly C$160 million, initially envisioning a mixed-use redevelopment with a residential component being the primary use.
Over the years, however, the former Canada Post building’s redevelopment concept and design changed repeatedly, ultimately transitioning to a fully commercial office and retail project — a change driven largely by securing Amazon as the anchor tenant. In 2018, the same year construction began and the building’s interim use as a film and television production studio came to an end, Amazon committed to leasing about 420,000 sq. ft. of office space at The Post. That commitment expanded significantly in 2019, when the tech giant agreed to take over the building’s entire 1.1 million sq. ft. office floor area.
At the time, The Post’s critical mass of office and retail space was seen as a catalyst for the eastward expansion of downtown Vancouver’s Central Business District.
The original building was designed by McCarter Nairne & Partners, while the redevelopment was led by Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership. It was one of the most ambitious heritage redevelopments in Canadian history.
Construction progress on the Canada Post redevelopment in downtown Vancouver, June 2019. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Construction progress on the Canada Post redevelopment in downtown Vancouver, June 2019. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
According to law firm McCarthy Tetrault, the construction cost of The Post exceeded C$600 million, with the firm publicly sharing in 2023 they advised QuadReal “on a number of active and ongoing contractual disputes respecting both the construction contract with PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc., and in respect of the lease with Amazon, during the course of the Project.”
QuadReal’s other prominent flagship property in Vancouver is the mixed-use residential and commercial complex known as Oakridge Park (formerly Oakridge Centre), which will see its new indoor mall open in Spring 2026. It is also in the early stages of pursuing a redevelopment of Capilano Mall in North Vancouver.
As of the end of last year, on behalf of BCI and other entities, QuadReal managed real estate assets worth over C$75 billion across Canada. As of earlier this year, BCI manages gross assets of nearly C$300 billion.
Since the pandemic, there has been a growing trend of Canada’s large pension funds reducing the proportion of their assets invested in the country.