Plans have been submitted for the massive redevelopment of the former central Canada Post building in Vancouver.

These include the retention of the heritage building occupying an entire city block downtown between West Georgia, Dunsmuir, Homer, and Hamilton streets.

Built in 1958, the seven-storey Modernist structure will also be converted to host commercial, housing, office, and parking uses.

In addition, the building will serve as a platform for three new residential and office towers rising 17, 18, and 20 storeys.

The planned development will add 799 new homes downtown, consisting of 427 market rental units and 372 condos.

The proposal also includes 49-space child care facility, and six levels of parking.

In 2011, Canada Post announced plans to transfer operations from the main post office building at 349 West Georgia Street to a new modern sorting plant near the Vancouver International Airport in Richmond.

The property was acquired in 2013 by the B.C. Investment Management Corporation, a provincial public sector pension fund.

Plans for the downtown property are part of the rezoning application filed before the City of Vancouver by architectural firm Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership.

In its letter of intent, the architectural company states that the project involves the “largest heritage revitalization in Vancouver history”.

“It’s a rare confluence of opportunity when an underappreciated part of downtown Vancouver meets an underloved structure – and both of them, as it turns out, have huge potential,” the firm writes.

According to Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership, Vancouver has an “opportunity to re-imagine and redefine this part of our city once again, and the Post Office will be key for this evolution”.

An open house will be held is scheduled for November 22 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver (900 West Georgia Street) from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.