Data centre proposed for East Vancouver site affected by 2022 collapse

Kamloops-based True North Sustainable Infrastructure has filed a development permit application to retrofit 3438 Lougheed Highway in East Vancouver as a data centre. The 1970 three-storey building would house servers and electrical, cooling and network equipment in about 26,000 square feet of former below-grade bakery space. About 4,500 square feet above it would be used for offices, meetings, service and administration, with security staff on site around the clock.

The proposed site is beside 3432 Lougheed Highway, where a roof partially collapsed in July 2022 after about 200 tonnes of soil were piled on a rooftop parking area not designed for that load. Nearly 90 people were working in the connected Gizella Pastry bakery spaces at the time; two were taken to hospital, eight were rescued and a C.H. Guenther Bakeries employee died. The bakery and Bimmer Haus auto shop did not reopen, and the west building remains vacant.

The application says the facility would support computing and data storage kept in Canada and subject to Canadian law. It proposes screened rooftop cooling equipment and emergency diesel generators, as well as closed-loop cooling intended to limit water use. The applicant says the site would use no more water than the former industrial bakery and could eventually recover low-carbon heat for planned mixed-use development nearby.

True North, founded in 2024, operates two data centres in Kamloops and Merritt and has another under construction in Kamloops. The application does not specify the facility’s end use, though the company says its infrastructure can support enterprise, cloud and AI workloads.