Major redevelopment of City Centre Motel in Vancouver approved | Daily Hive

Redevelopment of City Centre Motel into mixed-use rental housing towers approved by Vancouver City Council

Artistic rendering of the City Centre Motel redevelopment at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

After standing for over seven decades, the City Centre Motel in Mount Pleasant is now set for a high-density, mixed-use redevelopment, with the primary use of rental housing accompanied by strong active commercial uses.

During a public hearing on Thursday evening, Vancouver City Council unanimously approved the rezoning application to redevelop the property at 2111 Main St., situated at the northwest corner of the intersection of West 6th Ave. and Main St.

The project leverages its prime location as a transit-oriented development site, and the higher density prescriptions and stipulations of the City’s Broadway Plan.

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The motel site is just a five-minute walk south to SkyTrain’s future Mount Pleasant Station (corner of Main St. and East Broadway) and an eight-minute walk northeast to SkyTrain’s future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station, both of which are part of the Millennium Line extension opening in Fall 2027.

It is also well-served by frequent Main St. and Kingsway bus routes, and about a 12-minute walk to the Expo Line’s Main Street-Science World Station.

“It’s very close to the new Broadway subway line… I think it is a good representation of Mount Pleasant and the uniqueness of the neighbourhood,” said ABC city councillor Peter Meiszner during the public hearing.

2111 main street vancouver city centre motel

City Centre Motel at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

Site of the City Centre Motel redevelopment at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

Nicola Wealth Real Estate acquired the property for $60 million in 2021, at which point the motel closed its overnight accommodations operations after 71 years. In more recent decades, it was also a popular set location for film and television productions.

Over the past three years, Nicola Wealth provided the Narrow Group and the Vancouver Mural Fest (VMF) with a time-limited, temporary use of the 1954-built, two-storey property — until the redevelopment plans are ready. The 75 motel guest rooms were turned into artist workspaces, and the parking lot hosted VMF’s summertime events. In January 2025, the non-profit organization behind VMF announced it would shut down due to financial issues.

Throughout the public hearing, artists, representatives of local businesses and non-profit organizations, and city councillors commended Nicola Wealth for their decision to enable active uses of the property for the arts and culture community, as opposed to the typical practice of leaving development sites vacant for years, until the start of construction.

“I do want to applaud the developer for supporting this and not just knocking it down and leaving the space empty,” said Neil Wyles, the executive director of the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Association.

“We’ve had multiple years of great events on this space and the developers have shown the neighbourhood that it supports the arts. I would hope that other developers would be inspired by this and work to create interesting opportunities in the neighbourhoods that they’re moving into rather than just utilizing the current tax avoidance scheme and creating a gravel dog park.”

City Centre Motel at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

Vancouver Mural Festival’s temporary transformation of City Centre Motel at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Gabriel Martins/Submitted)

Natalia Lebedinskaia, the former creative director of VMF, added, “I want to emphasize how important it is to keep in mind here that the way that the site looks now, the way that it is brought together by and brought to life by artists, by musicians, by events, by community groups… This was always meant to be temporary, and it was only possible because it was temporary. This was a bold and visionary partnership between Nicola Wealth, the Narrow Group, and VMF, and it worked.”

“It showed us how unexpected spaces, especially such iconic ones, could be re-imagined by artists during moments of transition and into the future. This project is an important precedent and one that should inspire others to think this way about how temporary cultural partnerships can transform space and how ambitious ephemeral projects can be symbiotic with a commitment to dedicate a cultural infrastructure, sometimes in the same place,” continued Lebedinskaia.

Replacing the site’s temporary “City Centre Artist Lodge” community uses, the former motel building will be demolished for two new towers of 22 storeys and 24 storeys, with the tallest tower reaching a height of 231 ft.

There will be 446 secured purpose-built rental homes, with 230 units in the north tower and 216 units in the south tower. Based on the Broadway Plan’s prescribed ratio, at least 20 per cent will be below-market rental units (about 90 units) and the remaining 80 per cent as market rental units (356 units).

A high ratio, 40 per cent, of these rental homes will be sized for families, defined as units with two or more bedrooms. The overall unit size mix is 97 studio units, 169 one-bedroom units, 137 two-bedroom units, and 43 three-bedroom units.

Existing condition:

City Centre Motel at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Future condition:

Artistic rendering of the City Centre Motel redevelopment at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

Additionally, the property’s Main St. East 5th Ave., and East 6th Ave. frontages will be activated by nearly 16,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant space within the ground level of the complex. There will be major public space provisions, including wide pedestrian sidewalks and a publicly accessible breezeway that doubles as a mid-block pedestrian connection between Main St. and the laneway, which will see pedestrian-friendly public realm upgrades as a part of the project.

This breezeway, which separates the two towers, is also activated by retail/restaurant uses, including space for outdoor patios. New giant replica “City Centre” signs suspended above the breezeway will provide a very prominent nod to the site’s historical motel past.

Wyles believes the project’s active commercial uses and public spaces will attract people and enhance street activity. However, he notes that recently completed building developments nearby on Main St. have seen a growing trend of dental and medical offices occupying the ground floors. While such businesses are necessary, he argues these clinics should ideally be located on second levels, preserving street front space for shops and restaurants to maintain the district’s character and vibrancy.

In addition to the retail/restaurant uses, as a community amenity contribution (CAC) inspired by the success of the temporary City Centre Artist Lodge, this development will provide a 5,800 sq. ft. turnkey, cultural amenity space to the municipal government. The City will select a non-profit arts and cultural organization to operate this space at a later date.

It was noted in the deliberations that the cultural amenity space and standard fees that will be paid by the developer are made possible by an increase in density, with the developer choosing to build more market rental housing to offset such higher costs.

“We don’t see a lot of rental projects that also generate community amenity or in addition to the development cost levies,” said ABC city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung.

“And typically, there isn’t enough because the cost of delivering the housing [requires] a longer payback period for rental [income] to generate that.”

Artistic rendering of the City Centre Motel redevelopment at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

As a part of the development, there will be a new traffic signal for the intersection of East 6th Ave. and Main St. As well, the existing traffic signal at the intersection of East 5th Ave. and Main St. will be upgraded to improve its use by pedestrians.

Four underground levels will contain 197 vehicle parking stalls and 1,065 bike parking spaces.

In total, this project will generate a building floor area of 351,000 sq. ft., establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 10 times larger than the size of the 35,000 sq. ft. development site. The project’s design firms are Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and Hapa Collaborative.

“Obviously the opportunity to add hundreds of rental units, including a significant proportion dedicated to below market rentals is a serious, meaningful step forward to addressing Vancouver’s persistent housing crisis,” said local resident Harrison Nesbitt.

“Given the proximity, obviously, to transit, shopping, Olympic Village, and Mount Pleasant, I think this only further strengthens the proposal. Beyond housing, the mixed-use development will, of course, bring much needed commercial and cultural space to an otherwise underserved section of Main Street.”

Artistic rendering of the City Centre Motel redevelopment at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

Although the site is within the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area, sites that front Main St. within this industrial area are permitted to pursue high-density, mixed-use developments.

Immediately to the south, in 2021, a nine-storey, mixed-use building known as Aspen was completed at 188 East 6th Ave. (2221-2223 Main St.) — containing 145 social housing units and commercial space, including a Steamworks Brewing restaurant location, as well as a City-owned small public park.

And immediately to the north, in February 2024, Westbank’s rezoning application to develop the parking lot at 2015 Main St. into a 25-storey, mass-timber rental housing tower with 210 units was approved. This is a future phase of Westbank’s Main Alley tech campus.

Layout of the upper ground level of the City Centre Motel redevelopment at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

Layout of the lower ground level of the City Centre Motel redevelopment at 2111 Main Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Nicola Wealth Real Estate)

2015 main street vancouver main alley prototype m5

October 2022 artistic rendering of Prototype/M5 at 2015 Main Street, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Westbank)

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