VPD community policing centre opens at Amazon's The Post office complex

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The Post finds its footing as downtown Vancouver's newest anchor

“Cities evolve over time and our presence in the community must evolve with the city,” said VPD chief Steve Rai during a press conference today.

“To meet the changing needs of the downtown community, when it was time to find a new location, it was also the right time for a new name, one that better reflected the community this community police office will serve. The Post offered a unique opportunity and an ideal location.”

While community policing centres do help to enhance enforcement operations, such facilities are not regular police stations, as their work focuses on working with the community to build trust.

Rai says 70 volunteers are now working alongside the centre’s staff, including regularly patrolling the area on foot, identifying issues that affect pedestrians, public transit riders, and cyclists, and working closely with VPD officers to enhance public safety.

“They’re not just about enforcement. They’re about people. They’re about building trust. They’re about strengthening relationships and creating safer communities from the ground up,” said Vancouver mayor Ken Sim.

“It will also be a hub where people can ask questions, raise concerns, learn about resources or just connect with someone who’s there to help.”

Downtown Community Policing Centre’s public counter and office space is located inside The Post, accessible from the Homer Street entrance into the secured bike parkade for the building’s office workers — situated between The Post’s retail atrium and Amazon’s South Tower office lobby — just north of the intersection with West Georgia Street.

“You’re going to have more traffic for law enforcement coming here, you’re going to see more police cars parked outside. Don’t be alarmed, I think it’s a good thing,” said Terry Yung, the MLA for the riding of Vancouver-Yaletown, the B.C. minister of state for community safety and integrated services, and a former VPD inspector. He suggests the added visibility of VPD officers will help improve the area’s security.

“We actually want to encourage our members to spend more time in the communities they police, and that’s a good thing,” continued Yung.

Just over a year after a deadly stabbing incident

The space for the policing hub was offered by QuadReal Property Group, the owner and developer of The Post.

Remco Daal, the president of Canadian real estate for Quadreal, said they first came up with the idea about 12 months ago to create a partnership for establishing such a policing hub.

This roughly coincides with a high-profile deadly incident in September 2024, when the entire area immediately outside The Post and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre became a large crime scene following two random, unprovoked stabbings that killed one person and seriously injured another — just as the area’s high concentration of office employees were beginning to descend into the area for the start of their work day.

The incident shook the sense of public safety in the area, especially among the office workers of The Post’s primary office tenant, Amazon.

“Having a visible, accessible centre right here at The Post will make a huge difference — from Amazon employees to nearby residents,” said Mayor Sim.

“I want to highlight the Amazon employees and let’s be incredibly real, in the not so distant past, this was a challenging neighbourhood and while the city’s gotten safer, there have been some pretty significant incidents that jarred people and we felt for not only the residents but the team members of Amazon that were coming in here who didn’t feel safe. And so, that’s why this was important.”

Amazon employees bringing new life to downtown streets

Shortly after the incident, in early January 2025, Amazon began a new policy for all of its office and tech hub locations worldwide, requiring staff to come into the office five days per week — up from the previous policy of three days.

This has noticeably led to an increase in pedestrian foot traffic in the area near The Post, with restaurants, shops, and other businesses in the area also benefiting from a big bump in customers. The greater presence of people on the streets has also enhanced the sense of safety in this eastern area of the Central Business District, as steady foot traffic tends to deter crime and foster a more welcoming public environment.

The Post serves as the home base for over 2,000 Amazon office workers. The company continues to open additional purpose-built, fully furnished office spaces within the building, having leased the entirety of The Post’s office floors. Combined with Amazon’s other nearby office locations, the company’s downtown Vancouver workforce now totals nearly 5,000 employees — all of whom are required to work on-site each weekday.

Amazon first began occupying The Post’s South Tower fronting West Georgia Street in September 2023. It then opened a major office space expansion in September 2024, featuring a large two-storey atrium on the eighth level of The Post’s base podium.

By 2026, after the opening of the North Tower fronting Dunsmuir Street, Amazon will fully use all 1.1 million sq. ft. of purpose-built office space at The Post, potentially more than doubling the current number of staff based in the complex. Construction is well underway on fully furnishing the interior shell space of the North Tower to the company’s specifications.

Sony will soon join Amazon at The Post. The company is in the process of relocating Sony Pictures Imageworks’ global headquarters to a new permanent office space spanning over 52,000 sq. ft. within the third level of The Post’s atrium, a space that had originally been designed for large-format retail uses. They employ about 700 people.

QuadReal is still in the process of pivoting its leasing strategies for the remaining vacant retail/restaurant spaces at The Post, including the spaces previously slated for a major food hall — cancelled due to the restaurant operator’s severe financial issues — and Fogo de Chao Brazilian steakhouse, which changed its mind on entering into the Canadian market. Loblaws’ flagship City Market grocery store continues to be a major source of foot traffic, followed by the Evolve Strength fitness gym and various cafes and small food and beverage outlets.

Jesse Dougherty, vice president of global networking at Amazon Web Services and head of the company’s Vancouver Tech Hub, said the opening of the community policing centre in the building represents an effective response for “a [public safety] problem people saw, and  [then] got together, worked quickly, and solved it.”

“We’ve got thousands of corporate employees that are coming and going out of this space every day, and they’re going to feel safer, happier, more productive because of today. I’m delighted to be here for the opening of the community policing centre at The Post because it is a huge milestone that it kind of proves what we can do when we work together across private sector, law enforcement, and government,” said Dougherty.

“At Amazon, we believe the safety of our employees and the safety of the community we’re in are the same thing. We are members of the community and we can only really be safe and productive when those around us are the same way. We have a stake in making sure this neighbourhood is vibrant, growing, innovative, fun because that’s where we want to be as well.”

When the mixed-use office and retail redevelopment of the former Canada Post processing centre was first envisioned — and when Amazon committed to leasing all of its office space — the city-block-sized project was seen as a catalyst for expanding the activity of the Central Business District eastward. It has since fulfilled that promise, singlehandedly sparking several major office projects in the area, which have now reached completion.

“[QuadReal] had a vision for this space that was mind-blowing when we first started this project years ago. A place that was going to create a new opening for the community. Places for people to come in through the outside where our workers would love to invent on behalf of customers,” continued Dougherty.

“They made it real and now taking it even further, it’s a place that supports the growth of the community around us with the addition of the community policing centre.”

Dougherty also took the opportunity to announce today that Amazon will donate $50,000 to Downtown Van (the local business improvement association for downtown Vancouver) to fund winter care packages for people in the community who are in need of help.

The recent return of Amazon’s critical mass of office workers to their downtown Seattle workspaces has also brought noticeable changes to the area, where the company’s huge cluster of global headquarters office buildings is located — helping to reinvigorate a part of the city that had been struggling after employees began staying at home during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) — the local business improvement organization for the city’s core — said Amazon’s decision to require office-based employees to return five days a week has brought back a level of downtown activity reminiscent of pre-pandemic 2019. Amazon’s global headquarters office buildings in downtown Seattle are the home base for about 50,000 office-based staff.

DSA noted that after three full months of Amazon’s five-day office presence policy changes, downtown Seattle has reached foot traffic volumes not seen since before the pandemic hit, with the increased foot traffic deterring crime from improved visibility, and many businesses seeing a big boost.

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