Global Education City Holdings Inc., Vancouver, Canada
Global Education City Holdings Inc. (“GEC”) is an investment holding and management company with a focus on education-related real estate projects in Canada. In 2019, Canada hosted more than 642 000 international students, with over 143,000 in British Columbia. The growth rate for International students enrolled in the public post-secondary system in B.C since 2008 has grown by 300% in ten years. With a vacancy of only 1% in some areas of Metro Vancouver, students, especially international ones, face great difficulty in finding affordable housing.
In 2015, GEC Corp. initiated plans to diversify its core business of education to include student residences through GEC. This move was not a simple expansion of the company but that of a strategic one. GEC Corp. can leverage the volume of students it has access to and channel them into its housing facilities. Since then, GEC has developed a network of serviced apartments and a hotel throughout the Metro Vancouver area, each at a centralized location and within two to five minutes walking distance from a Skytrain (subway) station. Within five years, the real-estate portfolio under the GEC brand exceeded $1.5 billion. The portfolio comprises operational facilities, projects under-construction and rezoning developments. GEC provides accommodation services to 90 schools with students from 71 countries.
Besides providing accommodation to students, GEC also offers various other services such as international student landing service, hot meals, after school activities, shuttle bus to and from nearby schools, private tutoring, excursion activities for the weekends, and student counselling. These services provide a safe, clean, and convenient environment for domestic and international students to study, relax and enjoy their stay in Vancouver.
Out of all the projects in the pipeline, the most anticipated project is the Education Super Center, which will be the first of its kind in North America, aggregating several multidisciplinary public and private schools at one location. Schools expected to locate at the super-center include language schools, colleges, and universities. The super-center has long and short-term stay hotel or student-centric rental apartments connected to it. The schools at the super-center will share the auditorium, computer center, electronic library and the cafeteria to save costs. Students and teachers will enjoy the convenience and superior services available at the student-centric rental apartments connected to the Education Super Center.
Irix Design Group Inc.
Irix Design Group is a one-stop, full-service marketing, and design agency with a specialization in Asian marketing. Since 1994, Irix has created innovative and effective marketing communication solutions for clients across Canada, the United States and Asia. Today, Irix is one of the leading advertising agencies in Vancouver with clients spanning across a broad spectrum of industries, from real estate, banking, finance, to education and consumer products.