32-storey hotel with rooftop restaurant proposed for downtown Vancouver

32-storey hotel with 578 rooms and rooftop destination restaurant proposed for downtown Vancouver (RENDERINGS)

Artistic rendering of the hotel tower at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

Local developer Marcon is hoping to provide a much-needed major relief for Metro Vancouver’s immense shortage of tourism-supporting, hotel-room supply.

They have submitted a rezoning application to build downtown Vancouver’s largest new hotel in more than two decades, since the 2001 completion of the 746-room Sheraton One Wall Centre.

Based on the number of hotel rooms, it is also the largest hotel project currently in the future pipeline in the entire region, not including the eventual reopening of the former Four Seasons Vancouver Hotel tower at CF Pacific Centre with a new operator following an extensive renovation.

This brand new hotel project will have even more rooms than the 2017-built Parq Vancouver hotels of JW Marriott and The Douglas with a combined total of 517 rooms, the 2016-built Paradox Hotel (former Trump) with 147 rooms, and the 2010-built Fairmont Pacific Rim with 377 rooms.

Marcon’s proposal calls for a total of 578 rooms in a 32-storey, 100% hotel tower at 516-534 West Pender Street — the southwest corner of the intersection of West Pender Street and Richards Street.

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The striking architectural design and breathe of high-end hotel amenities suggest this will be an upper-middle to upper-end hotel property. A hotel operator or brand has not been associated with this hotel given the current early stage of planning.

In late 2021, the developer acquired three properties at the corner for a combined total value of $64 million.

516-534 West Pender Street Vancouver hotel marcon

Site of 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

Existing condition:

Site of 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

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The land assembly of the Advanced Parking public parkade at 516 West Pender Street (left) and the commercial building at 534 West Pender Street (right) in downtown Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

Artistic rendering of the hotel tower at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

To achieve this project, the six-storey parkade with 263 vehicle parking stalls would be demolished, but two other heritage structures on the development site will be retained.

The 1909-built, small, two-storey Captain Pybus commercial building on West Pender Street, currently the home of Cartems Donuterie, will see its facade integrated with the new building. The much larger 1912-built, eight-storey Lumbermen’s Building on Richards Street will be restored, and its office uses will be retained — but separate from the hotel.

A three-storey high atrium that is sculpted into the West Pender Street frontage provides an impressive space for the main entrance, hotel lobby, restaurant, and bar. This interior space is enclosed by glass walls and further defined by its jade-coloured metal accent wall and ceiling panels that are also visible from the exterior.

Artistic rendering of the hotel tower at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

Up above, the entirety of the third level is dedicated to a main ballroom and meeting rooms.

The hotel rooms are located from levels four to 10 and 12 to 29.

The entire 11th level will be completely used for a very significant destination restaurant attraction, which includes an outdoor restaurant patio overlooking the intersection below.

All of level 30, the sub-rooftop, will offer hotel amenities, including a fitness gym, health spa, and outdoor terrace with a swimming pool and hot tub.

The uppermost top floor, level 31, will be used as office space. The small, standalone office level at the top of the tower suggests this will be a private office for the developer and/or hotel operations.

The building’s various uses are broken down as 408,500 sq ft for hotel rooms, 15,500 sq ft for restaurant and hotel amenity uses, 660 sq ft for retail, and 14,600 sq ft for office.

Hotel building uses at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

Artistic rendering of the hotel tower at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

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Layout of Level 11 for the hotel restaurant at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

Layout of Level 30 for hotel amenities at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

Designed by Henriquez Partners Architects, the same firm behind the Woodward’s redevelopment, the proposed hotel tower provides a nod to the area’s heritage character by providing the tower exterior with complementary tones of brickwork. Landscape architect Paul Sangha Creative has also provided the design with extensive greenery — trees both inside and outside the main level’s atrium, planters for climbing vines on parts of the tower’s exterior, and plants and trees on both the lower and upper rooftops.

“The built form will strengthen the urban fabric of the downtown core while making a significant contribution to the beauty and visual power of the city within the overall dome shape of the city’s skyline,” reads the project’s design rationale.

The tower’s height of 318 feet uses up the site’s entire height limit, reaching the underside of the protected mountain View Cone of E1, which emanates from the middle of the Cambie Street Bridge.

Six underground levels will provide 146 vehicle parking stalls and 91 secured bike parking spaces.

The new hotel tower’s total floor area would reach 446,000 sq ft, establishing a floor area density of a floor area that is 21.35 times larger than the size of the lot. This does not include the existing 32,000 sq ft of floor area from the retained Lumbermen’s Building.

Artistic rendering of the hotel tower at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

Last month, Destination Vancouver CEO Royce Chwin warned of the dire situation with the hotel shortage.

There are now about 13,000 hotel rooms in Vancouver — representing a decrease of 2,000 rooms compared to 2008 in the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics. The pre-pandemic losses were initially mainly due to hotel redevelopments into residential uses, while the pandemic-time losses were from governments buying older, low-end hotels for rapid housing for the homeless. The Metro Vancouver region as a whole now has about 20,000 hotel rooms.

With the absence of new major additional hotel developments, the tourism bureau projects Metro Vancouver’s available hotel room supply will fall behind real demand every summer starting in 2028. By 2040, the supply-demand imbalance will be throughout the year.

And by 2050, due to the inability to host overnight visitors and gain their spending on hotels, retail, dining, services, and attractions, there will be $20 billion in accumulated direct revenue losses to the economy. It is anticipated 20,000 more hotel rooms will be needed in Metro Vancouver over the next three decades.

“New hotels are desperately needed in Vancouver to address a recent decline in hotel rooms and to support the recovery of the tourism industry,” states the rezoning proposal.

“This project addresses the decline of supply in the downtown core, in a location where hotel development is encouraged. It provides a new destination hotel of similar size to other Downtown hotels and will set a new benchmark of exceptional quality.”

Artistic rendering of the hotel tower at 516-534 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Marcon)

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