Miller Thomson LLP plans to move into the redeveloped Pacific Centre at 725 Granville Street above the future Nordstrom department store.
The 65-lawyer firm, currently in 58,000 square feet on several floors of a Howe Street tower, plans to lease 48,000 square feet at space that formerly was Sears.
That's more than half of one of the four 73,000-square-foot floors of office space that will be above the 230,000-square-foot department store. An additional 44,000 square feet of retail space in the structure's basement, below Nordstrom, remains available. Other space on that level will be common space as part of a mall extension.
"Moving in is about three years out but we're excited about it," Miller Thomson's Vancouver managing partner Owen Pawson told Business in Vancouver January 15.
"We all get to be on one floor so we will be much easier to collaborate."
Pawson said the exact floorplan has not been finalized but the early vision is to have enough individual offices for 70 lawyers and space for 80 staff.
None of those offices would face the windows and instead would use glass and other materials to capitalize on lots of internal light. Staff lounges or meeting areas for collaborative groups would instead face the windows.
"If we have some offices on the windows, we have the situation where there are some desirable offices and some offices that are not so desirable," Pawson said.
That's because the large floorplates have less window perimeter than smaller ones.
The site's office space is on floors that have 17-foot-high ceilings and windows that stretch 12 feet from base to top, allowing in lots of light.
Because the firm will be in 10,000 fewer square feet, its goal is to eliminate as many filing cabinets as possible.
"Space downtown is very expensive and if you're just using it for paper storage with filing cabinets, that cuts into the space available for people," he said.
Colliers senior vice-president Colin Scarlett brokered the deal for Miller Thomson, which has offices in 11 Canadian cities.
He told BIV that he has lined up other potential tenants for the building including what he described as a Vancouver technology company that wants to expand.
