An international online gaming company is the first to sign up as an occupant of the Anvil Centre office tower.

The tower has been sitting empty since the cultural and conference centre opened on Columbia Street in the fall of 2014.

Evolution Gaming is expected to take up one floor of the eight-storey structure to house a 16,000-square-foot studio that will eventually create 170 jobs.

Evolution, along with the B.C. Lottery Corporation (BCLC), announced in April it would be setting up in Greater Vancouver but did not say where. Roger Leggett, vice-president of personal real estate for Cushman & Wakefield, the company handling the leasing of the office tower, confirmed it would be at the Anvil Centre.

Up until this announcement, Evolution Gaming was based mostly in Europe.

It originated in Stockholm and operates live casino games that can be played on desktop computers, tablets and smartphones.

When it launches through BCLC’s playnow.com site, the local operation will offer 10 live tables for blackjack, two types of baccarat and two types of roulette, according to press releases from Evolution and BCLC. Players will be able to see dealers via live streaming. According to BCLC, the games will be available 16 hours a day.

The BCLC release said initially 50 local jobs will be created.

Evolution’s other studios are in Amsterdam, London, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Italy, Spain, Malta and two in Belgium.

As for the other seven floors, Leggett said Cushman & Wakefield is on the verge of getting some other leases “over the goal line” that would take up a significant portion of the rest of the building.

But he doesn’t expect to be able to make an announcement until September.

The tower was sold by the City of New Westminster in 2014 to a company jointly owned by Vancouver businessmen Joe Segal and Suki Sekhorn. The deal closed on Dec. 30, 2014.

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