30 BCBusiness march 2015 paul joseph
I
n the fall, Mountain Equip-
ment Co-op—the stalwart of
Vancouver's green-friendly
economy—moved into a
new $28-million, four-floor
complex at the edge of the False
Creek Flats. The new head office
marks
MEC's coming of age,
as it has transitioned from a
crunchy-granola co-op into one
of Canada's top outdoor lifestyle
retailers, focused on fashion-
conscious, urban consumers.
Built around a multisto-
rey timber-and-steel atrium,
the complex reflects
MEC's
consumer-facing savvy as well
as its democratic ethos: there
are no corner offices and all
employees sit within one desk
space from a window (with
the notable exception of the
C-Suite, housed in a series of
internal pods).
MEC first proposed a new
head office nearly a decade ago,
as its former space—a converted
eastside auto shop—began burst-
ing at the seams. To that end,
the company purchased land
adjacent to the new
VCC-Clark
SkyTrain Station as well as the
new Emily Carr campus, which
is currently under construction.
But with the 2008 economic
downtown,
MEC had to sell
the land back to the Investors
Group, with whom they have
signed a 20-year build-to-lease
agreement.
■
A Cyclist's Delight
Located on the Central Park
Greenway—Vancouver's main
cycling axis—the new head office
unreservedly caters to cyclists.
The basement holds space
for 128 bikes and a handful of
kayaks, and the company offers
showers and change rooms to its
bike commuters. The complex's
landscaped parking lot—which
provides the possibility for future
expansion—is, not surprisingly,
quiet.
It's Economical Being Green
The MEC building is designed to use
only 30 per cent of the energy and 40
per cent of the water of an average
structure of its size. In the basement,
a system of tubes and pumps draw
geothermal heat, which is then
circulated through ducts around the
building. "The more heat we can keep
in the building, the more we save on
energy," says CEO David Labistour.
O f f i c e S p a c e
Let's Get
Physical
expect Gore-tex galore in
mec's new mount pleasant
digs
by Jacob Parry
