St. Paul's Hospital site in downtown Vancouver put up for sale

After over a century at its current location, one of downtown Vancouver’s most recognizable landmarks has been put up for sale.

See also

• New $1.9-billion St. Paul’s Hospital is officially a go in Vancouver
• This is the design of the new $1.2-billion St. Paul's Hospital (RENDERINGS)
• London Drugs owner donates $6.5 million to new St. Paul's Hospital

St. Paul’s Hospital currently sits on a 6.6-acre site on Burrard Street, but future plans for St. Paul’s call for a new facility to be be built on a vacant 18.4-acre site at 1002 Station Street in the False Creek Flats.

A brochure from CBRE, the Burrard Street site’s property owner, calls the property “a once-in-a generation development opportunity.”

According to CBRE, the site is one of the most prominent “centre-ice” locations in all of downtown Vancouver, and a sales offering of this size represents the largest contiguous site offered for sale in downtown Vancouver since 2005.

A lost size comparison of St. Paul’s Hospital on Burrard Street from the sales brochure. (CBRE)

CBRE notes that currently, there are 11 active and 23 upcoming high-density condo projects in the Vancouver downtown core, delivering a total of 6,766 units.

“The average price of these units are reaching up to $2,154 PSF with 22 of these projects being located within a 1 km radius of St. Paul’s Hospital,” the sales brochure reads.

“The sale of the current St. Paul’s Hospital will provide the new ownership the opportunity to shape the direction of a site that is approximately the size of two city blocks in a much-coveted part of the peninsula,” said Tony Quattrin vice-chairman of CBRE Canada.

“In the normal course of business, to assemble an equivalent-sized parcel of land in downtown Vancouver could potentially take decades, but the sale of the St. Paul’s Hospital will allow the new owner to do so in a single transaction,” he added.

Daily Hive reached out to CBRE regarding the asking price, but they remain tight-lipped on the subject.

Proceeds to assist new hospital development

The brochure also notes that proceeds of the Burrard site sale will assist with the development of the new St Paul’s Hospital Health Campus.

“Providence Health Care’s vision is that the campus becomes a central element of the City’s biotechnology and medical research industry and helps put the City of Vancouver on the map as a world-class medical and healthcare hub,” it adds. “The integrated nature of this property can accommodate multiple stand-alone future development opportunities that are linked to, but separate from, the new hospital.”

Earlier this year, the provincial government announced that plans for the new facility were officially a go,  and doors of the new $1.9-billion St. Paul’s are expected to open in 2026.

In the meantime, “the existing St Paul’s Hospital will continue to operate on the site until the new hospital is developed,” the sales brochure reads.

The new site will have a capacity of up to 548 beds, which includes 115 net new beds and be the home of several leading provincial programs and referral centres, including for heart and lung care, renal, eating disorders and specialty surgeries and transplants.

In addition, it will offer a diverse range of general and specialized care, including HIV/AIDS, chronic disease management services, emergency and critical care, mental health and addictions beds and programs, ambulatory services and outpatient clinics, end-of-life care, Indigenous health, maternity, colorectal and gastrointestinal services, and community care and community outreach programs.

For health-care workers, researchers and students, the hospital will provide access to medical projects like immunotherapy, precision medicine, virtual reality, robotics and 3-D printing. Medical records, test results and images will be instantly and securely accessible to patients and their care team no matter where people are in the hospital or the province.

It will also continue to be a teaching hospital, training hundreds of UBC medical students, BCIT nursing students and hundreds of other health-sector professions

The first phase of the St. Paul’s redevelopment project is building a new core hospital. Phase 2 is expected to include a clinical support and research centre. Future development opportunities will be confirmed upon completion of the Station Street rezoning.