Ian Gillespie (developer)

Ian Gillespie (30 September 1961) is a Canadian real estate developer. In 1992 he founded Westbank Projects Corp. based in Vancouver, British Columbia, which now has more than $12 billion of projects completed or under development. The company is active across Canada and expanding into the United States with luxury residential, rental apartments, affordable housing, office, retail and hotels.^[1]

Gillespie is credited with re-introducing the mantra of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) into the modern development realm.

Biography

Gillespie completed a Business degree at the University of British Columbia (1985) and then an MBA at the University of Toronto, (1986) after which he began his career when he joined shopping centre developer Schroeder Properties in Vancouver.

Westbank

In 1992, Gillespie started Westbank Projects Corp. The first project was a mixed-use development in Richmond, British Columbia, in partnership with the Hong Kong-based Kuok Group known for their ownership of the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, the South China Morning Post newspaper, and Kerry properties, along with other local investors. To date, the Westbank group of companies employs in excess of 1800 people, including its construction company ICON West Construction, the hotels and restaurants, and the recent acquisition of downtown Vancouver’s district utility company Central Heat, which Westbank is in the process of reimagining into a new business called Creative Energy.

LEED

In addition to the expansion of Vancouver’s district utility and transition to a low carbon energy source, Westbank is also one of the world’s leading LEED Platinum developers, including two of North America’s first LEED Platinum office buildings, TELUS Garden and TELUS Sky, as well as the targeted LEED Platinum residential high rise at Vancouver House, and the re-development of Oakridge Centre into a LEED Platinum neighbourhood.

Project highlights

Westbank's projects range from buildings that offer low-income housing and rental apartments to definitive mixed-use luxury developments. Known for its ambitious and visionary approach, Westbank has garnered a reputation for developing Canada’s most iconic buildings in recent years and securing legendary landmarks.

Gillespie has cultivated a group of like-minded architects (including Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), James K.M. Cheng Architects, Henriquez Partners Architects, Hariri Pontarini Architects, Office of McFarlane Biggar) to develop buildings and projects that emphasize sustainability and incorporate a high degree of design excellence.

Vancouver House Rendering

Some of the projects Westbank is best known for include:

2008: Woodward’s the iconic department store built in 1903 and redeveloped amid controversy with affordable housing, retail and restoration of the ‘W’ neon sign using LED lights atop the building. (BC Business Magazine called it 'the most complicated and ambitious development in Vancouver ’s civic history.' The Vancouver Sun has ranked Woodward's as number 2 in their piece, '10 highlights from the first 125 years.'^[2]

2009: Shangri-La Vancouver

2010: Fairmont Pacific Rim

2012: Shangri-La Toronto

In 2013, Westbank purchased Toronto’s (Ontario) Honest Ed’s but has yet to confirm plans for the site.^[3]

Under development TELUS Garden (2014), TELUS Sky (2017) and Vancouver House (2018)

The redevelopment of Oakridge Centre into a 3 million square-foot residential community comprising 2900 residential units, and a 1.2-million square-foot shopping mall, in which Westbank is teamed with Ivanhoe Cambridge.

Woodward's re-development

Westbank's Re-development of Woodward's

Charles Woodward first opened the iconic Woodward store in 1903 in Vancouver on Hastings and Abbott. The store thrived until reaching bankruptcy in 1993. As the building sat empty for years, it was occupied by the homeless. In 2002, a homelessness protest nicknamed 'Woodsquat' gained national recognition as activists opposed redevelopment of the property.^[4] In 2006, Westbank pushed ahead with re-development the historical landmark at the area of Abbott and Hastings. The challenging undertaking involved sparing the original four-storey building and developing around it. Much of the public believed that higher-end condos would never sell in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver— but all 536 condo units were purchased only 12 hours after sales began. The $330-million dollar mixed-use project includes low-income housing, market condos, retail and more. The historic red 'W' was replicated, and once again was placed atop the building.^[5]

In 2010, Westbank was named British Columbia's top most innovative company for its Woodward's project by BCBusiness.^[6]

District energy

In 2013 Gillespie’s Westbank Projects Corp. purchased Central Heat Distribution, the major provider of heat in Vancouver. It is already constructing a small low-carbon energy service for its $750-million TELUS Garden Project and partnering with the city to create a similar low-carbon energy recovery program for the Oakridge Centre redevelopment, for which Westbank is the residential developer.^[7]

Art

Westbank is a major purveyor of public art. Their most recent signature projects have gone beyond the normal developer requirement for public art and showcase prominent works from some of the world’s most respected artists, among them:

• Woodward's: Stan Douglas's 'Abbott & Cordova, August 7, 1971'
• Shangri-La Vancouver: O Zhang's 'Horizon,' Ken Lum's 'From Shangri-La to Shangri-La'; Heather & Ivan Morrisson's 'Plaza'; Elspeth Pratt's 'Second Date'; Kota Ezawa's 'Hand Vote'; Damian Moppett's Large painting and 'Caryatid Maquette in Studio at Night'; Mark Lewis' 'Offsite'
• Fairmont Pacific Rim: Liam Gillick’s installation (The artwork consists of a running line of repeated text: 'Lying on top of a building the clouds looked no nearer than when I was lying on the street'; This passage, in the artist’s signature choice of Helvetica bold, encircles the Fairmont Pacific Rim); James K. M. Cheng & Adeline Lai’s 'Forest Screen'; Joseph Wu's Origami Light Sculpture
• Shangri-La Toronto: Zhang Huan’s 'Rising'
• Telus Garden: Martin Boyce's 'Beyond the Sea Against the Sun'
• Vancouver House: Vancouver artist, Rodney Graham's ‘Spinning Chandelier,' slated for completion in 2018.
• Other: Gwen Boyle's 'New Currents and Ancient Streams'; Dale Chihuly's Persian glass series; Douglas Tayler's 'Ford Grove'; Diane Thater's Light art (a continuous line of dissolving coloured light linking the whole building with the plaza); Ron Terada's 'Unseen' at Main & Keefer; Reece Terris' 'Triumph of the Technocrat'; Susan Point's 'Fusion,' Kelly & Thomas Cannell's 'Land, Sea, Sky'; Krista Point, Debra Sparrow and Robyn Sparrow's 'Weavings'

Building artistry

In 2012, Gillespie's self-published book, Building Artistry, was released providing his thoughts and reflections on his two decades of development. The 532-page book is available through Amazon.com

Gesamtkunstwerk

In 2014, Gillespie re-introduced the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) to the development realm, staging an exhibition of the same name to reveal the process, detail and thoughts that have gone into the creation of architect, Bjarke Ingels’ design of Vancouver House.^[8]

Notables

2014: International Property Awards MIPIM in Cannes, Bjarke Ingels Group received the Architectural Review Future Award for the Beach & Howe (Vancouver House) tower in Vancouver & Mixed-Use Tower in Vancouver , (Vancouver House) in the category ‘Tall Buildings’.^[9]

2014: Shangri-La Vancouver received 2014 AAA Five-Diamond Award, 2nd consecutive year, highest hotel & restaurant rating in Vancouver ^[10]

2013: Shangri-La Toronto voted The Best Urban Hotels 2013, Wallpaper Magazine.^[11]

2013: Fairmont Pacific Rim garners Best City Centre Hotel, Canada from Travel + Leisure Magazine.^[12]

2013: Shangri-La Toronto/Momofuku wins Award of Excellence, Toronto Urban Design Awards^[13]

2011: Woodward’s is ranked as number 2 in Vancouver Sun's piece on '10 highlights from the first 125 years.'^[14]

2011: Woodward’s wins the 2011 Design Exchange Awards, Gold, Architecture – Residential

2011: Fairmont Pacific Rim received the Commercial Building Award 2011-Excellence award for Hospitality: Hotel/Motel/Resort

2010: Best of Commercial Building Awards, Vancouver : Woodward’s Building Redevelopment, Judges’ Choice Award for best overall of the 36 entries. Woodward’s also won the Excellence Award in the mixed-use commercial/residential category for owner/developer Ian Gillespie of Westbank and Ben Yeung, Peterson Investment Group. Westbank and Peterson Investment Group were also winners of the Excellence Award in the hospitality/hotel category for the Shangri-La Vancouver.^[15]

2010: Shangri-La Vancouver wins the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) Commercial Building Awards - Excellence award in the hospitality/hotel category

References