Canada Post signs construction firm for $200m Vancouver plant
Canada Post has selected a company to design and build its planned $200m new mail processing facility at Vancouver International Airport. The Corporation is planning on moving operations from the current plant in the downtown area of Vancouver out to the new facility at the airport in the City of Richmond, British Columbia.
Toronto-based Bird Design-Build Construction, Inc., was selected through a competitive process to design and construct the 700,000 square foot facility on 42 acres of land leased from the Vancouver Airport Authority.
Construction is expected to begin within weeks, with the facility to be fully operational in 2014.
Canada Post said its facility would process letters, packets and parcels as well as advertising mail, all under one roof.
It believes the new site will provide better access to transportation links and allow the Corporation to grow its e-commerce business with faster mail processing and improved delivery logistics.
About 10% of national mail volumes flow through Vancouver, which manages mail for British Columbia and the Yukon. It is also a gateway into Canada for the Asia-Pacific market, as one of three major international access points for Canada Post. The new facility will house a Canada Border Services Agency outpost as part of its international role.
Canada Post said on Friday that its new facility will be built to environmental standards within the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design programme, taking up as small an ecological footprint as possible.
Employees are to move from Vancouver’s current facility at 349 Georgia Street W and from the Vancouver Parcel Delivery Centre in Richmond, British Columbia, once the new building is operational. Canada Post is planning on continuing operations at the Georgia Street W facility until 2015.
“No full- or part-time employee will lose their job as a result of the new processing facility being built at the Vancouver International Airport,” insisted Canada Post in a statement, adding that after 2015, “The corporation will retain a strong retail and delivery presence in downtown Vancouver.”
