Vancouver Filipino Cultural Centre opponents quietly pursuing Burnaby project | Daily Hive

Opponents of proposed new Filipino Cultural Centre in Vancouver quietly pursuing their own competing Burnaby project

The former Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre at 6515 Bonsor Ave., Burnaby. (Google Maps)

In late November, Vancouver City Council heard from over 160 public speakers on the member motion put forward by mayor Ken Sim and city councillor Lenny Zhou to establish a brand new purpose-built provincial Filipino community and cultural centre in their jurisdiction.

Specifically, the motion seeks formal City of Vancouver support and endorsement for a proposal by a private developer and a new not-for-profit organization to build a two-tower, high-density, mixed-use hotel and cultural centre development. The larger of the two towers would incorporate a 60,000 sq. ft. Filipino community and cultural centre spanning its lower six floors.

At the site of 1940 Main St., situated at the northeast corner of the intersection of East 4th Avenue and Main Street, the proposed 30-storey tower would have 242 hotel guest rooms directly above the community and cultural centre. The second tower, containing hotel uses only, would be located nearby just to the north on a separate site at 143 East 3rd Ave.

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While the motion seeks City Council’s support at this juncture, the proposal would still have to go through all of the various rezoning, development, and building permit application and entitlement processes. However, the motion directs City staff to expedite the review of the application, which aims to leverage provincial support for creating a Filipino cultural centre and the promise of new federal funding specifically for such a centre.

During the public meeting in late November, the vast majority of the many public speakers spoke in favour of the motion supporting the project. But City Council ultimately delayed the debate and decision over the motion to the second week of December, this week, to perform due diligence and receive legal advice from City lawyers.

1940 main street 143 east 3rd avenue vancouver portliving hotel filipino cultural centre

Sites of 1940 Main St. (south hotel tower with the Filipino Cultural Centre) and 143 East 3rd Ave. (north hotel tower), Vancouver. (Formosis Architecture/PortLiving)

Preliminary concept of 1940 Main St. (south hotel tower with the Filipino Cultural Centre) and 143 East 3rd Ave. (north hotel tower), Vancouver. (Formosis Architecture/PortLiving)

Some opponents who spoke against the motion lamented that this particular project — led by PortLiving and the newly formed not-for-profit Filipino Legacy Society — lacked adequate consultation with the broader Filipino community. Some questioned the legitimacy of the initiative and the capacity of its proponents to build and operate the centre, with specific questions about the developer’s financial abilities.

Others suggested, without providing any details, that the proposal conflicts with separate efforts by other community groups to establish their own cultural centre for the Filipino community.

Funding request to the federal and B.C. governments to buy a Metrotown building

As it turns out, one of those groups who spoke to Vancouver City Council to express their opposition is hoping to spearhead and achieve the centre in the neighbouring municipality of Burnaby. But they made zero mention to Vancouver’s elected officials that their work focuses on establishing the centre outside of Vancouver’s municipal jurisdictional boundaries.

This past weekend, Daily Hive Urbanized received a copy of an email sent by Paul Clemente, chair of the Pinoy Festival Alliance, to Premier David Eby. In the email on Nov. 26, Clemente informed the Premier that his organization has submitted an “initial proposal” to the City of Burnaby to explore acquiring the Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre as a potential site for a provincial Filipino cultural and community centre.

In the email, sent the same day the public meeting was being held, Clemente wrote to the Premier that his organization is “now finalizing a proposal to the provincial government and the federal government for funding the purchase of the building.”

The Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre is located at 6515 Bonsor Ave. — immediately east of Metropolis at Metrotown mall and just across the street from Bonsor Recreation Complex.

This is a 13,100 sq. ft. lot, featuring a 1989-built, three-storey building with 20,400 sq. ft. of building floor area, including a banquet hall with a stage, numerous offices, a conference room, and a large ground-level restaurant and pub — previously home to the Firefighters’ Public House.

Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre 6515 Bonsor Avenue Burnaby

The former Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre at 6515 Bonsor Ave., Burnaby. (Google Maps)

The former Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre at 6515 Bonsor Ave., Burnaby. (The Firefighters #314 Fraternal Benefit Society)

Up until 2021, it was owned and operated by The Firefighters #314 Fraternal Benefit Society, a not-for-profit organization for Burnaby and Vancouver firefighters, both active and retired. It was sold to Burnaby’s municipal government for more than $13 million.

As of July 2024, according to BC Assessment, this property carries an assessed value of $10.8 million, including $4.46 million for the land and $6.34 million for the existing structure.

In the 1980s, the local firefighters association created the physical clubhouse space for firefighters to socialize. But the pandemic proved to be the final straw for the building’s operations, with major financial losses for consecutive years that eventually proved to be too much.

In 2022 and 2023, the City of Burnaby briefly considered redeveloping the Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre into a tall high-rise office tower — a brand new Burnaby City Hall, replacing the current campus north of Deer Lake. This pursuit was later abandoned.

Through a nominal lease with the municipal government, Pinoy Festival Alliance operated the former firefighters’ hall as a temporary Filipino cultural centre from May to September 2025.

“We have discussed this with our Filipino community leaders and they are in support — as such, we are confident that what we are proposing is a viable, realistic, cost-effective and sustainable plan for a provincial Filipino centre,” wrote Clemente to the Premier.

The former Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre at 6515 Bonsor Ave., Burnaby. (The Firefighters #314 Fraternal Benefit Society)

“Even though we have waited decades, we refuse to act out of desperation”

During the public meeting with Vancouver City Council, Liberty Devera spoke on behalf of the Pinoy Festival Alliance. She is the organization’s director of volunteers.

She voiced her organization’s desire to see a standalone building for the cultural centre, not within a mixed-use development with a hotel.

“For generations, Filipino Canadians in British Columbia have carried a clear, dignified, and deeply held dream to build a standalone Filipino Cultural Centre, a home that reflects our identity, our stories, our history, and our contributions. A Filipino Cultural Centre is not a hotel amenity. It is a representation of identity, history, and community,” Devera told Vancouver City Council.

“It must stand on its own, be an inclusive and accessible space. It should not be embedded in a commercial establishment or tied to corporate branding. Embedding our cultural identity inside a private commercial development diminishes its purpose, limits accessibility, and undermines independence. We respectfully reject the building of a Filipino Cultural Center within a hotel… A Filipino Cultural Center must stand on its own. Even though we have waited decades, we refuse to act out of desperation. We will not settle for a compromised or diminished version of our dream.”

However, the very early design concepts for the proposed Vancouver mixed-use hotel and cultural centre tower on Main Street appear to contradict some of Devera’s concerns. The plans indicate completely separate entrances for the hotel and the cultural centre: the hotel lobby and entrance would be located along East 4th Avenue, while the cultural centre would feature a prominent entrance on Main Street. This cultural centre entrance would be accessed through a corner public plaza at the intersection — a space that could potentially serve as a memorial plaza for Lapu Lapu festival victims.

The multi-level cultural centre would span the full length of the building’s Main Street frontage, supported by highly visible signage and a strong street presence.

While these are some very preliminary ideas, the proponents have emphasized that all concepts for the centre will be created and finalized through community consultation.

1940 main street vancouver filipino cultural centre portliving hotel

Preliminary concept of 1940 Main St., Vancouver, featuring hotel uses and the Filipino Community and Cultural Centre. (Formosis Architecture/PortLiving)

Preliminary concept of 1940 Main St. (south hotel tower with the Filipino Cultural Centre) and 143 East 3rd Ave. (north hotel tower), Vancouver. (Formosis Architecture/PortLiving)

Moreover, high-density, mixed-use developments are increasingly common in the region, especially in centrally-located, urbanized areas near major public transit hubs, where land costs come at a premium.

Both locations are within very close walking distance to public transit hubs, with the Metrotown location near SkyTrain’s Metrotown Station and the major bus exchange, and the Vancouver location near SkyTrain’s Main Street-Science World Station, two future SkyTrain stations (Mount Pleasant and Great Northern Way-Emily Carr) on the Millennium Line’s Broadway extension, and various major bus routes. As well, the areas surrounding both locations will see immense changes over the coming decades from high-density redevelopments.

Pinoy Festival Alliance’s proposal to use an existing 20,400 sq. ft. building in Metrotown offers roughly one-third of the 60,000 sq. ft. of new purpose-built space proposed for the Vancouver concept.

While Devera objects to the cultural centre entering into a commercial partnership with a developer and sharing a building with a hotel, the Vancouver project proponents assert the arrangement is actually a major strength that greatly improves the long-term financial sustainability of the centre. Under the proposal, a portion of the hotel’s annual operating revenue would be directed to the centre, helping to fund its ongoing operations, maintenance, and programming. In essence, the hotel would provide a long-term operating endowment for the cultural centre.

Notably, even the original acquisition and construction of the firefighters’ clubhouse in the 1980s required decades of fundraising by the firefighters’ association and ultimately involved a partnership with the private developer behind Metrotown mall, which opened in 1986. The association negotiated a land swap with the mall owner, who also granted them legal rights to use 70 parking stalls within the mall’s parking facilities for the clubhouse.

In 1990, a year after the clubhouse building was completed, the property’s title was transferred from the developer to the association, enabling the clubhouse to open. The association also received a payment of $500,000 ($1 million in 2025 dollars) from the developer.

The former Firefighters Banquet & Conference Centre at 6515 Bonsor Ave., Burnaby. (The Firefighters #314 Fraternal Benefit Society)

By contrast, after more than three decades of use, the firefighters’ association eventually sold their standalone commercial building to Burnaby’s municipal government because they could no longer financially sustain its operations.

In making her plea to City Council to reject the Vancouver proposal on Main Street, Devera omitted the very significant detail that her own organization has separate plans that focus on pursuing a Burnaby site. The website of their organization also indicates their offices are located in Burnaby.

While calling for greater transparency from the Vancouver project proponents, this omission is noteworthy, given that Vancouver’s elected officials are directly responsible for the cultural and economic interests of their own jurisdiction — one that also happens to be home to a major Filipino population. A Burnaby location likely goes against those obligations, and such a detail could influence Vancouver City Council’s final decision on the motion.

“The [provincial] government has clearly signalled its commitment to moving forward with a genuine, community-supported Filipino Cultural Centre,” continued Devera.

“We ask and expect the City of Vancouver to honour this work, and support the existing and legitimate community-driven initiatives and efforts, not undermine them with a proposal inconsistent with the community expectations. We move forward together, aligned with one vision, one effort, and one heart for the future of the Filipino community in British Columbia.”

However, competing municipal efforts to secure major cultural institutions are far from unprecedented. The City of Vancouver and the City of Surrey, for instance, are currently vying to host the new South Asian Museum backed by the provincial government. Both municipalities have issued competing formal statements and letters of support outlining why their city should be selected for the provincial investment. Similarly, there is no unified consensus within Metro Vancouver’s South Asian community — anchored in both Surrey and Vancouver — on where the museum should ultimately be located.

The provincial government’s consultation process and feasibility study for the South Asian Museum found that Surrey was the “most suggested” site, largely due to its greater South Asian population. At the same time, the study acknowledged that both Vancouver and Surrey offer distinct advantages and drawbacks. A downtown Vancouver location would expose far more Canadians and international visitors to South Asian culture, heritage, and history than a museum situated in Surrey. Conversely, Surrey presents a more practical location, with greater availability of land at lower cost for building a new museum.

The Main Street mixed-use hotel and Filipino cultural centre development proposal resolves the high land cost issue for a site near downtown Vancouver, with no acquisition required. Although the cultural centre would have to share the site with a hotel, the property is valued at $23.7 million — almost entirely from the land, with only about $20,000 coming from the existing structure — according to BC Assessment, as of July 2024. But unlike the emerging approach for the South Asian facility, it is not a “museum,” although it could potentially host some Filipino art exhibits as one of its wide range of programming uses.

In July 2025, the provincial government released a report summarizing the findings of their completely separate 2024 public consultation with the Filipino community on what kind of considerations should go into planning the new Filipino cultural centre, including the uses, programming, theming, and locations. This report did not suggest where it should be built in Metro Vancouver, but the key location considerations expressed by respondents in the consultation entailed accessibility to public transit, availability of parking, space for expansion, and access to green space.

Daily Hive Urbanized reached out to the Pinoy Festival Alliance and City of Burnaby, but did not hear back before the publication deadline. The B.C. Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport shared that no formal proposals have been submitted at this time, and no decisions have been made on the direction.

“The contributions of the Filipino Canadian community in B.C. are an important part of our province’s history, culture, and success. The Filipino community in B.C. has expressed a need for a cultural centre that celebrates heritage and culture and provides a space for community, and brings people together,” reads the Ministry’s statement to Daily Hive Urbanized.

“No proposals for a Filipino cultural centre in Burnaby have been submitted to the Province at this time. Nothing has been decided about the vision, scope or location for a centre. The Province is committed to working collaboratively with partners to advance cultural spaces.”

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