MEC, a Canadian outdoor recreation gear and clothing retailer, has broken ground on its new Vancouver flagship store. The three-storey building will be located at the eastern gateway to Olympic Village at 2nd Avenue and Quebec Street.
Designed by Proscenium Architecture & Interiors to a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold standard, the development will include two levels of retail, a third floor with office and amenity space, three levels of underground parking and more than 50 bike parking stalls.
The MEC flagship store in Olympic Village will feature a significantly different interior design from the existing Vancouver store. With extensive use of wood for merchandising and a “store within a store” approach for categories like cycling, the design provides an immersive shopping experience and aims to inspire people to be active outdoors.
The retailer has partnered with Beedie Development Corp. for the 60,000-square-foot development, which is expected to complete by mid-2019. Once complete, MEC will operate the purpose-built, high-performance green building on a leasehold basis from Beedie for at least 20 years.
“In two years, MEC’s stunning new flagship store will serve our 450,000 local members from an area that is teeming with outdoor spirit, as well as target environmental and conservation standards that align with our brand,” said MEC CFO Sandy Treagus.
MEC’s Olympic Village location will replace its store at 130 West Broadway, which the Vancouver-based retailer has occupied since 1995.
MEC operates four other stores in British Columbia: North Vancouver, Victoria, Langley and Kelowna. MEC Kelowna opened in April 2016, and since then MEC has opened four other new stores and relocated three more to larger premises.
