With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1181452
T 30 BCBUSINESS NOVEMBER 2019 TOP RIGHT: ALAN CHAN; COURTESY OF WESTBANK The whole world is looking Gillespie does a great sales pitch, too. In June, at Westbank HQ on the fifth floor of downtown's Shaw Tower, another of his buildings, he shows off models of planned, coming and almost-finished projects. Gil- lespie, who wears a dark blue crewneck sweater and black pants, is lean and wiry, with tousled wavy hair and piercing eyes. One of the most striking buildings on display, near the Vancouver Public Library, is scheduled to open next year. Report- edly Apple's future Vancouver digs, the 24- storey structure consists of a stack of steel- framed glass lightboxes. "This building turns into a sculpture when it's not occu- There's a Lego-building contest, a fashion show, a bookshelf stocked with art and design volumes. A studio for Goh Ballet Academy, which will move from its current Main Street headquarters to a 25,000-square- foot school at Oakridge. A section of floor and wall plastered with concert posters, heralding the six live music venues that will also have a home in the development. A model of the new Oakridge, with its nine residen- tial towers, office space, community centre, 10-acre park with running track, 300-plus stores and the Kitchen, a vast food court. A demonstra- tion suite showing the work of French designer Clémande Burgevin Blachman, who will furnish and curate each home in her portion of the project, right down to the books and toothbrushes. And the Tea Lounge, where Westbank sales reps can help you secure your own piece of Oakridge. Near the exit, before the gift shop, a video screen shows the man behind this spectacle: Westbank founder Ian Gillespie, chatting with some of the internationally renowned architects he's enlisted to help build his version of Vancouver. When you step outside, the surrounding mall feels dated and lifeless, like it knows it will soon be rubble. Due for completion in 2027, Oakridge will join Gillespie's many other additions to the city skyline over the past three decades. Westbank is developing the 28.5-acre site, whose designer is local Henriquez Partners Architects, with Vancouver-based QuadReal Property Group. Owned by British Columbia Investment Management Corp., QuadReal bought Oakridge from Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate division of fellow pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, in 2017. Downtown is dotted with Gillespie's buildings, from his early Residences on Georgia to the Woodward's redevelopment to the Telus Garden office and retail complex to Vancouver House, the eye-catching and much-Instagrammed residential tower designed by Danish archi- tect Bjarke Ingels. As a key piece of a new municipal town centre, Oakridge represents another level of influence for Gillespie, who's active in Toronto, Seattle and Tokyo but lavishes much effort on his home- town. In a feeble market for ultra-high-end condos, he's offering units at a premium while other developers kill or delay projects. Can he pull off the Oakridge gamble? Ask anyone who knows Gillespie and his work, and will talk about him, and they'll tell you he has many sides. He's a lone wolf who doesn't suffer fools, a smart businessman for whom ideas are valuable currency, a forward-thinking patron of art and architecture who pushes his peers to up their design game. He doesn't much care if you like him, but he wants to make his mark. He's been cast as a luxury developer who uses art to flog condos, driving up home prices for the average Vancouverite. But in fact, he's helped improve the city's public spaces and tackled tough projects that include social housing. And with his plans to generate renewable energy, he's also leading his fellow developers on sustainability.