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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 senior vice presidents of retail at Cadillac Fairview told BIV that the company’s expectation was for at least a portion of the site to be a hotel. Former now-retired Cadillac Fairview executive Tom Knoepfel said the pandemic, and current Cadillac Fairview vice president of retail Lillian Tummonds said the same last summer. Retail executives are preoccupied with the task because the tower rises and connects to the CF Pacific Center 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 passed and the leaders continued to ask if there would also be a residential component in the tower and, if so, to what extent.
Building a residential detail in the tower without demolishing it can be complex, as it would require the construction of kitchens in larger units.
Cadillac Fairview today sent BIV a statement that sounded as though a hotel component in a future redevelopment is likely.
“Cadillac Fairview’s plans for the new tower are aimed at bringing exciting uses to the centre, which would continue to include a hospitality offering,” it 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 future tower may wind up somewhat resembling one that was used on a site across Howe Street, where Delta Land Development Ltd. spent an estimated $500 million to redevelop what is now the Rosewood Hotel Georgia as well as a 50-storey residential tower that also has some office space. Further renovations to the Rosewood Hotel Georgia took place 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 area to a meeting room, that’s helpful. “
He said more hotel rooms are “desperately” needed in Vancouver alone, but throughout Metro Vancouver and the province.
Judas highlighted Taylor Swift’s recent concert trio at BC Place and how demand for hotel rooms increased to the point that basic rooms rented for more than $1,000 each.
Although Cadillac Fairview doesn’t have enough time to complete its task in time for the 2026 World Cup, Judas said Vancouver’s role in seven matches in this global soccer extravaganza has the potential to inspire more visitors to the region. to a building in 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 need to add rooms to our Vancouver inventory, not take them away,” he told BIV in a text.
“It would be seeing this asset reinvented again as a hotel. ”
Demand for hotel rooms in Metro Vancouver drove average room rates in July to levels never seen in a major Canadian city the previous 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 for the region has been trending toward higher hotel-room rates and occupancy for years, and it has set off a development boom as developers navigate zoning, permits and financing that can be trickier to get than for residential or office projects.
In August, Lodging Econometrics knowledge lenders counted a record 59 hotel projects underway across the province that are expected to supply 8,439 new rooms upon completion.
Of those, 21 were in Metro Vancouver, down from a record 23 projects in the region in early 2024, Lodging Econometrics senior vice president JP Ford told BIV.
It said in September that of those 21 projects, six were under construction, two were expected to start in 2025 and 13 were in the early stages of drawing up plans.
Some of the projects include:
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