Hilton Hotel with nearly 400 rooms to be built at future Oak-VGH SkyTrain

2024 artistic rendering of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

The future new hotel at the southeast corner of the intersection of West Broadway and Laurel Street will be an upscale Hilton property.

Property owner Bosa Properties has revealed that its complete redevelopment of the existing Park Inn & Suites and the Fairview Pub at 888 West Broadway will introduce two Hilton brands to the site, which is immediately east of the subway entrance building into SkyTrain’s future Oak-VGH Station.

There will be combined total of 396 hotel rooms across the Hilton property, including 271 short-term stay rooms in the 11-storey west tower under the upscale Hilton Tapestry brand, and 125 long-term stay rooms in the 15-storey east tower under the upscale Hilton Homewood Suites brand.

This represents a net gain of 279 hotel rooms compared to the existing Park Inn with 117 hotel rooms.

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“Tapestry Collection by Hilton are unique hotels with individual spirit, unique style, vibrant personality, and connection to their destination. Tapestry Collection guests seek authentic experiences with a sense of adventure and exploration,” reads the design rationale by Henriquez Partners Architects in the newly submitted rezoning application outlining project revisions.

“Hotels part of the Tapestry Collection are full service properties with distinct character that tell a unique story with local roots. The key elements in Tapestry suites include meaningful design solutions that support work and rest with warm and welcoming finishes palette.”

As for Homewood Suites, its all-suite, residential-style, extended-stay hotel operations are catered for not only tourists, but also business travellers and other longer types of stay. This option, which includes kitchenettes for the hotel rooms, would also well serve visitors of the area’s healthcare and medical research campus anchored by Vancouver General Hospital and BC Cancer Centre, including people working in or accessing medical services and families of patients.

888 west broadway vancouver hilton hotel 2024

Site of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

Existing condition:

park inn suites 888 west broadway vancouver

The existing Park Inn & Suites at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

2020-approved rezoning application design:

2020 artistic rendering of the redevelopment at 878-898 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Arno Matis Architecture)

2023-approved development permit application design:

888 west broadway vancouver bosa properties hotel 2022

September 2022 artistic rendering of the revised concept of 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

2024 rezoning application with revised design:

2024 artistic rendering of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

However, this represents the latest design change for the long-planned hotel redevelopment, which has also passed through different hands of ownership. But it reverts it much closer to the original size of the new replacement and expanded the hotel concept.

The rezoning application for the original hotel concept by property owner Centennial Hotel and design firm Arno Matis Architecture was approved by Vancouver City Council in 2020. This original concept included 438 hotel rooms — 258 short-term stay hotel rooms and 180 long-term stay hotel rooms — and 29,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant uses within an interconnected building reaching 11 storeys and 13 storeys for its towers.

Shortly after the rezoning approval, Bosa Properties acquired the property and approved design plans from Centennial Hotel. In 2022, working with the project’s new lead design firm, Henriquez Partners Architects, a development permit application was submitted, which not only provided the project with a major revision in its architectural design concept, but also significantly downsized the size of the new hotel to solely within the west tower with 156 hotel rooms. The east tower, previously also slated for hotel uses in the original concept, was fully converted to 149,000 sq ft of office space.

City of Vancouver staff approved the development permit application in January 2023, but this concept is now cancelled with the new brand and operating partnership with Hilton, and the identified need for significantly more hotel rooms in Metro Vancouver.

2023-approved development permit application design:

September 2022 artistic rendering of the revised concept of 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

2024 rezoning application with revised design:

2024 artistic rendering of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

According to a 2023 report by local tourism bureau Destination Vancouver, Metro Vancouver is facing a shortage of 20,000 hotel rooms over the coming decades, including 10,000 within Vancouver and 10,000 in other areas of the region outside of Vancouver. Without a meaningful increase in hotel room supply, the shortage will send hotel room rates to new heights, deter tourism, and impact many tourism-dependent jobs and the city’s ability to attract concerts, events, and festivals. The forecast of a seasonal shortage beginning in the peak season of 2026 will grow over the subsequent years.

Destination Vancouver established its estimated figure of a 20,000-room shortfall well before the provincial government announced its policies that strictly curb short-term rental homes. Many short-term rental homes for visitors have since been converted to long-term rental homes for residents, which has increased demand for traditional overnight accommodations in hotels even further.

“Our proposal revises the previous Development Permit application’s program from an office and a hotel tower to two hotel towers, in response to the strong demand for hotel rooms and to support tourism, the city, and the local community.

“New hotel rooms are desperately needed to address the significant shortfall. Metro Vancouver faces overwhelming economic opportunity losses from the inability to meet the growing demand from tourism and businesses. Central Broadway plays a key role in gaining back more hotel capacity to provide hospitality services for tourism, businesses, and the healthcare industry.”

2023-approved development permit application design:

September 2022 artistic rendering of the revised concept of 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

2024 rezoning application with revised design:

2024 artistic rendering of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

Also, the location’s central location and immediate adjacency to SkyTrain’s future Oak-VGH Station lends itself to be a highly convenient location for a major hotel.

“Hotel and retail staff, workers, as well as patrons are easily able to reach the site by alternate modes of transportation, and have a range of amenities, restaurants and services in direct vicinity of the site to reduce the need for car travel. The new subway will connect the site for easy access from the airport, to downtown, and the broader area,” continues the rationale for reverting the project to 100% hotel for its main use instead of a split with office uses.

“Our proposal aims to affirm Uptown as a key hotel and retail location in the region and as the heart of Vancouver’s second downtown and strengthen this role by providing opportunities for additional hotel spaces adjacent to transit.”

According to Bosa Properties newly submitted rezoning application outlining its major building use and architectural design revisions, the east tower is now slightly taller at 165 ft with 12 storeys — up from 139 ft with 10 storeys in the previous development permit application, when the east tower was converted into office space.

2024 artistic rendering of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

The new rezoning application’s retail/restaurant uses of about 32,000 sq ft, including shared uses with the hotel, is slightly higher than the previous iterations. The vast majority of this space is located on the ground level to activate the building’s West Broadway and Laurel Street frontages, with hotel lounge/restaurant uses located next to the lobby on the second level. Various meeting rooms and event spaces are also found on the second level.

Some of the hotel’s largest amenity spaces for guests will be an indoor swimming pool and large fitness gym on the top level of the three-storey base podium, which connects both hotel towers, and various indoor and outdoor amenity spaces on the top floor of both towers.

The main entrance into the hotel will be on the south side of the building in the laneway, where the pick-up and drop-off will also be located. There will also be a prominent covered plaza at the building’s corner with the intersection.

The new rezoning application also suggests that if height restrictions for the site were not an obstacle, the development’s east tower would likely be a high-rise tower up to about 320 ft. While the eastern half of the development site is impacted by View Cone 3 emanating from the peak of Queen Elizabeth Park, the overwhelming restriction for the project is the federally mandated lower height restrictions for Vancouver General Hospital’s helicopter flight path, with the helipad located just half a block to the south.

Height restrictions due to View Cone 3.0 and the Vancouver General Hospital helipad at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

As for the architectural design changes, the new rezoning application provides a streamlined design compared to the previous development permit application. The design of the prefabricated cement panels for the facade is particularly simplified.

“The building is designed using high quality materials and detailing, and to reflect high standards of the Bosa and Hilton brands,” continues the design rationale.

The total building floor area will reach 309,000 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 7.6 times larger than the development site. Three underground levels will accommodate 183 vehicle parking stalls. A building setback on the west side fronting Laurel Street, closest to the subway station entrance, will provide space for a Mobi bike share station.

This Hilton property will be the intersection and subway station’s second major hotel. Just kitty corner to the future Hilton site will be the new AC Hotel by Marriott Vancouver — a 12-storey building with 151 hotel rooms at 901 West Broadway, replacing New India Buffet, Bar, and Restaurant (former Earls restaurant).

2024 artistic rendering of the Hilton hotel at 888 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Bosa Properties)

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