New restaurant coming to Harbour Green Park near Jack Poole Plaza

A new restaurant will be built at the western edge of the Vancouver Convention Centre, right on the Coal Harbour waterfront immediately next to Harbour Green Park.

On Monday, Vancouver Park Board commissioners approved a plan to allow Sequoia Company of Restaurants Inc. and McDougall Holdings Ltd. to build and operate a two-storey restaurant within a space currently covered by wood chips.

Sequoia Company operates a number of restaurants in Vancouver, including Seasons in the Park at the top of Queen Elizabeth Park, The Teahouse in Stanley Park, Cardero’s in Coal Harbour near Stanley Park, and The Sandbar on Granville Island. McDougall Holdings also owns two establishments, the Flying Beaver pub in Richmond and Flying Otter in Victoria, in partnership with Harbour Air.

The Harbour Green Park restaurant location offers sweeping views of the Coal Harbour skyline, Stanley Park, and the North Shore mountains. The development site was previously occupied by seaplane terminal facilities until 2013 when all facilities were relocated to the newly built Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre under the convention centre.

The project has been nearly a decade in the making. It was first proposed in 2004 during the planning phase of the Vancouver Convention Centre expansion project and a design for the structure by Acton Ostry Architects was later approved by the Park Board in 2008.

The Park Board-approved business and financial model for this restaurant is similar to agreements made for the Cactus Club restaurant at English Bay Beach and The Boathouse at Kitsilano Beach.

Under the agreement, the joint venture between Sequoia Company and McDougall Holdings will be required to pay a basic minimum annual rent of $200,000, in addition to a portion of its annual revenues – ranging from four per cent for earnings of up to $8 million to seven per cent for earnings of $12 million or more. The lease contract is over a 10-year term, with the option of two additional 10-year terms.

The operator will also be required to fund the construction of the Park Board-designed restaurant structure, although the latest city documents indicate there have been some changes to the design.

The original plan called for a three-storey restaurant, including a rooftop patio, but those plans have been seemingly scrapped in the latest designs that place a large patio on the second level.

At this early stage of the project, there is no anticipated completion and opening date for the new restaurant. It joins a growing number of restaurants in the area such as the Cactus Club flagship and Tap & Barrel restaurants, both located just footsteps away at Jack Poole Plaza.

These establishments are frequented by tourists and attendees of the events and conferences held at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Over the next few months, the City is also expected to make a decision on the operator of a restaurant space at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre plaza in downtown Vancouver.