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Vancouver tourism advocates are urging real estate giant Cadillac Fairview to include hotel rooms in its plans for a tower it owns on the northeast corner of West Georgia and Howe streets.
News broke Thursday night that Cadillac Fairview had asked the city for permission to demolish the former Four Seasons hotel building on that site. This came after Cadillac Fairview completed renovation paintings on what is a 30-story building, adding a 25-story tower. It ended in 1976 and occupied the Four Seasons from April of that year until friction with Cadillac Fairview led the hotel chain to close its hotel in January 2020.
Several Cadillac Fairview senior vice presidents of retail told BIV that the company expects at least part of the site to be a hotel. Former Cadillac Fairview executive Tom Knoepfel, now retired, said this is because of the pandemic, and current Cadillac Fairview retail vice president Lillian Tummonds said as much last summer. Retail executives are involved in the task as the tower rises and is connected to the CF Pacific Center shopping mall.
Early in 2020, Cadillac Fairview was searching for a luxury brand to run a renovated hotel on the site, with some thought to creating its own hotel brand.
Time lingered and executives repeatedly said a question was whether there would also be a residential component in the tower, and if so, how much.
Building a residential feature in the tower without demolishing it can be complex, as it would require the construction of kitchens in larger units.
Cadillac Fairview sent BIV a message today that seemed to imply that a detail of the hotel was likely to occur in a long-term remodel.
“Cadillac Fairview’s plans for the new tower aim to provide interesting uses for the centre, which would continue to include a hospitality offering,” he said.
Tummonds did not respond to BIV’s request for an interview to explain what his company plans to do with the site.
The vision for the long-term tower may be similar to that used at a site across Howe Street, where Delta Land Development Ltd. spent about $500 million to rebuild what is now the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, as well as a 50-story residential complex. Tower that also houses offices. Further renovations took place at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in early 2024.
“It’s just wonderful for a hotel,” said the Tourism Industry Association of B. C. CEO Walt Judas told BIV on Friday.
“If they have a component that adds meeting room space, most definitely that’s helpful for sure.”
He said more hotel rooms are “desperately” needed in Vancouver alone, but throughout Metro Vancouver and the province.
Judas pointed to Taylor Swift’s recent trio of concerts at BC Place and how demand for hotel rooms increased to the point that basic rooms were renting for more than $1,000 each.
While there is not sufficient time for Cadillac Fairview to complete its project in time for the 2026 World Cup, Judas said that Vancouver’s role hosting seven games in that global soccer spectacle has the potential to encourage more visitors to the region. That in turn would push up demand for hotel rooms.
Destination Vancouver CEO Royce Chwin is part of a working group tasked with identifying how to lure hotel management companies or owners as well as which locations in the region would be ideal for new hotels.
“We want to upload rooms to our Vancouver inventory and remove them,” he told BIV in a text message.
“It would be great to see this property be reenvisioned into a hotel once again.”
Demand for hotel rooms in Metro Vancouver drove the average July room rate to the level never seen in a major Canadian city last month: $358. 35 per night.
Despite that, or perhaps driving those sky-high prices, Metro Vancouver had the highest occupancy levels for any metropolitan region in Canada in that month.
Data from the region has trended toward higher hotel room rates and occupancy rates for years, and that has led to a creeping boom as developers grapple with zoning, permitting and financing that can be more difficult to navigate. Get it for residential or residential projects.
Data collectors at Lodging Econometrics in August counted a record-high 59 hotel projects underway across the province that are expected to provide 8,439 new rooms when complete.
Of those, 21 were in Metro Vancouver, up from a record 23 projects in the region in early 2024, Lodging Econometrics senior vice president JP Ford told BIV.
He said in September that of the 21 projects, six were under construction, two are expected to start in 2025 and thirteen are in the early stages of drawing up plans.
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