Beedie Development Group and Mountain Equipment Co-op have unveiled plans for a new 45k SF MEC flagship in Olympic Village, taking up two levels of a three-storey building at 2nd Avenue and Quebec Street, a Beedie-owned site. Office space on the third floor will include a mix of MEC and sublease spaces, plus community space. The proposal was filed with the city planning department last week. Slated to open in 2018, the new store will replace MEC's 130 West Broadway location, a building “nearing the end of its useful life,” according to the co-op, which has been there since 1995. Its lease term is also nearing its end.

Relocating the Vancouver flagship “boils down to having a bigger, better and more accessible store” to serve MEC's 400,000-plus members in the Greater Vancouver region, noted CEO David Labistour, pictured receiving a design award. Numerous sightlines into the store and a wide pedestrian boulevard on both 2nd Avenue and Quebec Street will enhance the public realm, and an undulating green roof will capture and manage rainwater. The building is designed by Proscenium Architecture & Interiors, the group behind MEC’s North Vancouver store and its new HQ on Great Northern Way.