10-storey boutique hotel under construction in Vancouver's Chinatown

Construction progress on Keefer House hotel at 123 Keefer Street, as of March 28, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The addition of a new boutique hotel in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown district will add to the area’s ongoing revitalization efforts in a major way and provide much-needed additional hotel room supply.

Construction is well underway on building a new 10-storey hotel building at 123 Keefer Street, which is located near the northeast corner of the intersection of Keefer Street and Quebec Street.

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This is a small lot with only a street frontage of 50 ft and a depth of 122 ft. It is wedged by Beedie Group’s future 105 Keefer Street development site immediately to the west and The Keefer Bar building at 135 Keefer Street immediately to the east, all of which are just across from the Chinatown Parkade.

When Daily Hive Urbanized last covered the development proposal for 123 Keefer Street in 2018, it was originally envisioned as a 10-storey condominium building with 32 units.

Five years later, this project is now a hotel, with $32.5 million in construction financing secured in 2021.

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Site of Keefer House hotel at 123 Keefer Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

keefer house hotel 123 keefer street vancouver chinatown march 28 2024

Construction progress on Keefer House hotel at 123 Keefer Street, as of March 28, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

keefer house hotel 123 keefer street vancouver

2021 artistic rendering of the Keefer House hotel at 123 Keefer Street, Vancouver. (Citifund Capital Corporation)

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The sites of Beedie Group’s 105 Keefer Street project (right), Keefer House hotel at 123 Keefer Street (centre), and The Keefer Bar at 135 Keefer Street (right). (Beedie Group/Daily Hive)

The project is being spearheaded by Chris Evans, whose family is best known for the OPUS Hotel and catalyzing Whistler’s real estate development growth.

Evans told Daily Hive Urbanized the Chinatown hotel property will be called Keefer House, under a brand new hospitality group with no affiliation with the OPUS Hotel.

This boutique hotel will contain 53 guest rooms, a ground-level retail/restaurant space, an indoor amenity space on the second level, and an outdoor amenity space for guests on the building’s rooftop.

Due to the site’s narrow size, there will be no underground parking, but a basement level is still being constructed for the hotel’s back-of-house and storage spaces.

Evans says there will be more information to share about the property’s concept, design, and features at a later date.

Construction began in late 2023 with site preparation and excavation, and as of today, work is now progressing to the ground level.

In a statement, Jordan Eng, the president of the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Association, told Daily Hive Urbanized he is “excited about the new project and the business activity and visitors it will bring into our neighbourhood as Chinatown continues to improve with the support from the three levels of government, the work and collaboration of the Legacy organizations, and the efforts of so many volunteers.”

As well, given the location’s close proximity to the future St. Paul’s Hospital campus, this new hotel property could also help meet some of the overnight accommodations demand that can be expected from the new major hospital and research centre.

Construction progress on Keefer House hotel at 123 Keefer Street, as of March 28, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Currently, the hotel project is performing excavation on the site and is using Beedie Group’s adjacent larger site as the project’s construction staging and storage area. Construction has yet to begin on the Beedie Group project, which will be a nine-storey building with condominium and retail/restaurant uses.

Evans also shared that his new hospitality group will also be opening Smithe House, another boutique hotel. It will be a 36-guest-room hotel within over 30,000 sq ft of space previously designed for office uses at the 2021-built, 26-storey The Smithe condominium tower at 225 Cambie Street, the northwest corner of the intersection of Smithe and Cambie streets. Smithe House will occupy levels three to five within the tower developed by Boffo Developments.

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.

Smithe House hotel at The Smithe tower at 225 Smithe Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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