Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has worked out a deal with social-media startup Hootsuite to keep the rapidly expanding company’s head quarters in the Canadian city. On November 22, city officials announced that Hootsuite would purchase a building in Mount Pleasant from the city of Vancouver through a lease-to-own agreement. Mayor Robertson stated that the Hootsuite deal was the start of a push to keep and establish business head-offices in the city.
The Mayor talked about the deal and said that, “We’ve been courting Hootsuite for over a year to convince them to sink their roots deeper in Vancouver as they grow. Vancouver lost a lot of head offices in the past. And we believe the most effective way to replace them is to grow them.”
Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite, also added that, “Since we first started HootSuite, we’ve been proud to call Vancouver our home. We’re excited to have found a new location that allows us to stay and expand here. We’ve had strong support from the city.”
Hootsuite will now get the 33,000-square-foot former Vancouver Police Department investigations unit as an office with an option to buy. The venue has a valuation of $9.6-million and is located in an industrial zone. According to Justin Omichinski, a real estate broker for Avison Young, Hootsuite is getting a great deal because they will most likely paying $30 a square foot which is a great price for the premises.
Another plus point for the company is that fact that the building has grandfathered permission for commercial use even though it is in an industrial zone. This is a very good situation for the startup because it is getting a deal that many technology startups would kill for. A commercial building in a industrial zone is hard to come by and many startup are forced to either pay a lot for rent to be in downtown or go to lower cost premises in the outskirts of the city.
The Mayor Robertson also said that, “We’ve definitely worked hard these past few years at keeping fast-growing companies happy in Vancouver.” He also mentioned that the city had pushed to “accelerate bylaw changes,” to get more types of uses in the False Creek Flats and Broadway technology areas.
Source: The Globe and Mail
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