Vibrant mixed-use hub redevelopment for City Centre Motel site

Vibrant hub transformation with rental housing, retail, and restaurants proposed for City Centre Motel site in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood

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

This is one of the most significant proposed redevelopments within the City of Vancouver’s Broadway Plan area to date, containing substantial rental housing and a range of commercial uses that activate new major public spaces.

It also provides a thoughtful nod to the site’s seven-decade history of being the location of the City Centre Motel and the growing arts and culture scene of Mount Pleasant.

Nearly three years after it acquired the motel site, Nicola Wealth Real Estate has submitted a new rezoning application for the site at 2111 Main Street — prominently located at the northwest corner of the intersection of West 6th Avenue and Main Street.

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Since 2022, the developer has partnered with the Narrow Group and the Vancouver Mural Fest to provide the 1954-built motel complex with the temporary uses of 75 artist studios, a flexible event site for the annual festival, and a blank canvas on the building’s facade and asphalt parking surface for artists to paint their colourful murals.

“The City Centre Artist Lodge, a unique collaboration between Nicola Wealth Real Estate and Narrow Group to supply low-cost temporary artist studios, will continue to be utilized by local artists for the duration of City approvals,” Josh Anderson, the vice president of development for Nicola Wealth Real Estate, told Daily Hive Urbanized.

2111 main street vancouver city centre motel

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

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

city centre artist studios vancouver mural festival

Mural installation progress at City Centre Motel in Vancouver, May 2022. (Sabrina Miso Creative)

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

To the best of its ability within the policy constraints and prescriptions of the Broadway Plan, and the site’s height restrictions due to View Cone 3.0 emanating from the peak of Queen Elizabeth Park, the proposal acknowledges its prime transit-oriented development location.

The motel site is just a five-minute walk south to SkyTrain’s future Mount Pleasant Station (corner of Main Street 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 2027. It is also well-served by frequent Main Street and Kingsway bus routes, and about a 12-minute walk to the Expo Line’s Main Street-Science World Station. Furthermore, the site is adjacent to major cycling routes.

The proposal calls for a pair of towers, reaching 22 storeys for the north tower and 24 storeys for the south tower — up to a height of about 238 ft, which is the underside of the view cone.

Rental housing is the primary use; there would 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% will be below-market rental units and the remaining 80% as market rental units.

A high ratio, 40%, 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:

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

Future condition:

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

Various common amenity spaces will be provided to residents, including indoor spaces within the fourth level of both towers that open up to outdoor amenity terraces. Both terraces are seamlessly connected by a bridge above the breezeway. Furthermore, both tower rooftop levels are entirely used as indoor and outdoor amenity spaces.

Down below, the breezeway at ground level is a mid-block, east-west publicly accessible pedestrian-only corridor, akin to a plaza, between Main Street and the laneway to the west. It is central to the project’s public space offerings, with the breezeway activated by retail and restaurant units with patios that spill out into the outdoor space.

Due to the site’s slope, the public spaces are spread across multiple terraces/levels. But these spaces remain highly inviting and accessible through the incorporation of high-quality materials, street furniture, weather protection considerations, and, of course, active commercial uses.

The breezeway also serves as not only a pedestrian link within the complex and to the laneway, but also to the major projects immediately to the west, including several separate future high-density office developments and the future City-owned arts space within a heritage structure.

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

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

New giant “City Centre” signs suspended above the breezeway will provide a very prominent nod to the site’s historical motel past. These signs, perched against the fourth-level resident amenity bridge, will replicate the design of the motel’s existing vintage signage.

Along with other retail and restaurant units that activate the complex’s Main Street, East 6th Avenue, and laneway frontages, the complex provides a combined total of nearly 15,000 sq ft of such uses.

Facing East 5th Avenue, the project will provide 5,000 sq ft of new arts and cultural spaces, which is said to be inspired by the success of the temporary City Centre Artist Lodge. Upon completion, the space will be gifted to the municipal government as a community amenity contribution (CAC).

Further public space improvements will be performed on the adjacent laneway, and there will also be some mural opportunities.

“Our application builds on the Broadway Plan’s mandate of market and affordable rental housing, while also providing much-needed arts amenity space in Mount Pleasant,” Anderson told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“Our site will help anchor this part of Main Street with a variety of dynamic retail opportunities both on the street and integrated into our publicly accessible breezeway through the property.”

Artistic rendering 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)

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)

According to architectural design firm Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership, the complex’s distinct and varied brick facade is inspired by the “eclectic urban form” of Main Street and the industrial heritage of Mount Pleasant. The project’s landscape design firm is Hapa Collaborative.

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

Overall, the complex contains a total building floor area of 346,600 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio (FAR) density of a floor area that is 9.9 times larger than the size of the 34,900 sq ft lot. In terms of FAR, this is one of the highest-density rezoning proposals catalyzed by the Broadway Plan to date.

The City Centre Motel site is immediately south of Westbank’s Main Alley tech office campus, which recently saw the approval of a 25-storey “M5/Prototype” mass-timber tower addition with over 200 rental homes and ground-level retail space. A future rezoning application will seek the addition of another mixed-use tower with rental housing and commercial uses.

Immediately to the west of the motel site, construction is nearing completion on Main Alley’s new “M4” office and creative industrial building. It will be anchored by global animation and visual effects studio Animal Logic.

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)

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