Spring 2024
A blog written for the tenants of 225 West Eighth Avenue, a creative group community.
Introduction: Why this blog/newsletter?
The same three families (friends and business partners) have owned this small boutique office building since 1991. There have been many economic ups and downs during that time, but perhaps none so dramatic than in the last five years. We all thought that the Covid pandemic was life-changing but once vaccines had been distributed, there was an expectation that things would return to normal. That was a naive idea. This has not been the case of course; and one of the outcomes has been that the workforce will perhaps be forever mixing working from the office with working from home.
The design of office space and the management of office buildings needs to adapt to this new reality. As owners of an office building, we want to begin now. We live in a world-class city and we work in a vibrant and hip neighbourhood. It is close to downtown and yet is less formal and more fun which is demonstrated by the brightly-coloured murals decorating many of the Mount Pleasant buildings.
This newsletter/blog is part of our plan to bring tenants together; this not only helps business owners encourage their staff back to the workplace, but reduces the effect of social media isolation. It will inform you about new developments in the neighbourhood (restaurants, businesses, events); about things happening within our building; and give you (hopefully) some other helpful information. We want you to feel part of a community within the building and within the neighbourhood. In today’s noisy and unpredictable world, we think this can only be a good thing.
This newsletter will appear as a blog on our website quarterly (spring, summer, fall and winter). Posters will be posted in the elevator and parking garage to let you know when to look for a new posting.
Happy Spring everyone; we all look forward to getting to know you better as well as receiving your feedback (management@west8th.ca).
Lesley
From your landlord group: Ken (Koo) and David and Lauren (Altman) and Lesley (Donaldson)
Deck Party
We will be hosting a summer party on the 4th floor deck. Everyone welcome. Food and drink served.
Many thanks to Josh, founder of The District for his support and generosity in allowing us to use his space; he is an enthusiastic fan for turning our building into a community group and we are grateful to have such a great group of tenants. Not only is Josh allowing us to use the north deck for our summer party but also the south deck for growing vegetables, fruit and herbs for our Lobby Marketplace (distribution of free produce) during the summer.
We look forward to seeing you all there.
BY THE WAY: Want a Spring Playlist? Scroll down to TENANT’S CORNER AND SEE JOSH’S LINKS.
Stay tuned
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🎉😎🍹
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Deck party
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Stay tuned 〰️ 🎉😎🍹 〰️ Deck party 〰️
Neighbourhood Corner
Each blog posting will feature some great places to eat in the neighbourhood in case you haven’t had much time to explore. Watch out for future postings with recommendations for the best craft beer, cocktails and coffee places (Mount Pleasant is cool!). This Spring blog features some restaurants at Yukon and 5th.
Blaze Gourmet Burgers
Tacofino
purebread
Art Corner
Art can soothe our souls. Need a break from your screen? The Vancouver Biennale has a sculpture at Broadway and Cambie: Walking Figures.
Landlord Corner
Three families have owned 225 West 8th Avenue for over 30 years: The Altmans, the Koos and the Donaldsons.
We are all over 50 years old (Ken, David, Lauren and Lesley) and we notice that our tenants are all young! So from our personal experience and long lives, we will give you a life advice tip each newsletter. Old school. Here goes:
KOO: Kenny owns Identica, a branding strategy and design firm. He has offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong and from time to time works out of Suite Genius, 3rd floor. He relocated to Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2004 to start his company, returning to Vancouver two years ago. He treasures the thrilling experiences and memories from the Far East, but he is grateful to have returned to Vancouver, a beautiful and remarkable city. (The building was originally bought to house Ken Koo Creative).
Tip: “Over the years in business, I've come to realize the immense impact of visual identity—just consider brands like Nike, Apple, and Mercedes”.
ALTMAN: Lauren and David have lived in Vancouver all their lives. David worked in the Sports and Entertainment industry for many years and Lauren had a rewarding career with the West Vancouver Memorial Library, driving the bookmobile throughout the community, creating puppet shows and story times, to becoming Manager of Operations for the years leading up to her retirement. Now a grandma, Lauren loves taking her young granddaughter to story time at the Library.
Tip, Lauren: “Read to your little ones …
One of my favourite books to read:
Sometimes I like to Curl up in a Ball by Vicki Churchill”
Tip, David: “I live in Mount Pleasant; I recommend the Argo Cafe for a memorable meal”.
DONALDSON: Lesley has managed the building for, well, decades. Originally from New Zealand she moved to Canada when she married John. Her career began in the Personnel Recruiting business. After being in the business world for many years, she started her own business in midlife teaching Drama to children and teens (due to her life-long love of theatre and children’s literature). She travels to Los Angeles several times a year to visit her son and family.
Tip: “Los Angeles isn't just all smoke and mirrors. If you travel to Los Angeles for business or pleasure and enjoy architecture, visit Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. It is an architectural gem by Frank Gehry. It is my favourite building in the world”.
Tenant Corner
Our tenants:
Josh: Founder of The District
Mitchell: Founder of Suite Genius
Chris: Co-founder of Red Hook Studios
James: CEO of Picture Shop
Each blog/newsletter will feature a recommendation from a tenant from their knowledge and expertise about their specialty.
THIS ISSUE: FROM JOSH, THE DISTRICT
Spring is springing and cherry blossoms are in full bloom around 225 West 8th. Walking to the office every morning and seeing friendly faces emerging from hibernation has been a nice new rhythm. New music is flowing and being scheduled to get everyone excited about the spring and summer festival seasons. To kick this off, I wanted to share a quick playlist I put together this morning featuring some funk, house and chill music I’ve been listening to. Looking forward to talking and sharing more tunes over patio beers with everyone soon!
https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/7F9Ez0vl4KDSuNlTw036aO?utm_source=generator
If you are into house music, I wanted to pair the list with one of our long standing brands the team on the 4th floor works on - Selected - check out the channel here:
https://youtube.com/@SelectedBase
Happy Listening!
Cheers,
J.
New to Vancouver?
Vancouver in the spring is awesome. Check out the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival.
Jonathan Rogers Park
We have a cool park NEXT DOOR. Visit the Elizabeth Rogers Community Garden and revel in the gardens when you need a break. It was started in 1996 and there are 56 plots and 12 fruit trees. An expansion plan is in the approval stage.
https://www.lookingatthegardenfence.com/deryaakay.html
Looking at the Garden Fence Art Project
Let us introduce you to:
Emma Houghton
from SUITE GENIUS
She is the Mount Pleasant Community Manager and has been in this role for just over two years. She will soon be transitioning to a new role which she is very excited about. Emma splits her time between Suite Genius and the world of the arts. She’s a film and theatre actor, voiceover performer, playwright, arts producer, grant writer, and very curious person. She loves water slides, tuna melts, meeting new people, and solving problems! If you want to know more about her, you can check out her website at https://emma-houghton.com
If you see her around, say hi!
