VANCOUVER -- A building boom downtown is creating much-needed office space in Vancouver, city officials say.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson helped break ground Thursday on The Exchange, a $200-million, 31-storey Credit Suisse office tower in the financial district, one of seven buildings now under construction downtown.

Robertson heralded the projects as an end to the city’s business vacancy woes, as Vancouver remains one of North America’s tightest markets for office space.

Vancouver’s vacancy rate for Class A office space sits at 5.3 per cent. That compares with 8.7 per cent in Montreal and 9.7 per cent in Edmonton. But according to Cushman and Wakefield, Vancouver’s vacancy rate is projected to jump to 7.7 per cent this year and to 10.5 per cent in 2015.

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“When it comes to the strength of Vancouver’s office market, we’ve come a long way in the last five years.” Robertson said. “A few years ago our economy was being held back by a lack of space, we had a critical shortage and it’s wonderful to see the market respond.”

He said the city has approved as much office space in the last four years as in the previous decade. Up until recently, the city was projecting a critical shortage of office space by 2031 if land-use policies remained the same. Robertson said new zoning bylaws enacted in 2009 helped get the new towers off the ground. The seven towers under construction downtown will total 2.18-million square feet of new office space.

He said Credit Suisse’s decision to build from the ground up in Vancouver signals that international corporations realize the city is one of the strongest office markets in North America.

The Exchange, which will be joined with the old Stock Exchange building built in 1929 at 475 Howe St., will be the first LEED Platinum conversion of a heritage building in Canada. LEED Platinum is the highest designation for sustainable building design from the Canada Green Building Council.

It is the first B.C. venture for Credit Suisse and will provide 369,000 square feet of office space, or enough space for 1,700 workers.

The tower will not only add much-needed office space in the downtown core but also contribute to the city’s goal of becoming the greenest city in the world, Robertson said..

The six other office towers under construction downtown are Telus Garden at 448,000 square feet; 745 Thurlow at 365,000 square feet; 980 Howe at 250,000 square feet; The MNP Tower at 270,000 square feet; 725 Granville at 300,000 square feet; and Aquilini’s Tower at 180,000 square feet.

“We are creating jobs in the heart of Vancouver’s financial district and building one of the most sustainable workplaces in Canada,” said Franz Gehriger, CEO of SwissReal Group

Renowned Swiss architect Harry Gugger, who is best known for the Tate Modern Gallery in London and Caixa Forum in Madrid, said he wanted to create a building that respects its immediate environment. He added that the old Stock Exchange building is “a refined and handsomely crafted building” and that they tried to respect the heritage building as much as they could.

Mark Renzoni, president of CBRE, the leasing brokerage for the development, said the firm is negotiating with a number of tenants and he expects to make an announcement soon.

The old stock exchange building, clad in gothic terracotta, was built in 1929 just as interest in neo-gothic architecture was erased by the more streamlined style of the Art Deco movement. The gothic facade will be retained and incorporated into the overall design, according to plans.

Don Luxton, a local heritage expert who consulted with Gugger’s firm, said the developers have done a high level of heritage restoration and he believes The Exchange will serve as a model for future restoration projects in Vancouver. The building will retain many of its original interior features, including its original elevator lobby, which has a vaulted ceiling and ornate stonework.

ticrawford@vancouversun.com

With a file from Matt Robinson

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