Vancouver entrepreneur acquires downtown's Rosewood Hotel Georgia

The Georgia Street entrance of the historic Rosewood Hotel Georgia building. (Gord McKenna / Flickr)

Downtown Vancouver’s historic Hotel Georgia has changed hands to a new locally-based owner.

Pacific Reach Properties announced today that it acquired the five-star, 155-room hotel, operated with the Rosewood brand, from Delta Land Group.

This move follows the collapse of the deal made public earlier this year that Hong Kong-based firms Magnificent Hotel Investments and Able Shine Enterprises Limited would purchase the property in a 50-50 partnership. At the time, the deal with those investors was said to have been worth $145 million.

“The Rosewood Hotel Georgia is one-of-a-kind and we’re thrilled to add it to our growing portfolio of high-value real estate investments,” said Azim Jamal, CEO of Pacific Reach.

Hong Kong-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts will continue to operate the Hotel Georgia, and the property will keep its Rosewood name. The value of the transaction with Pacific Reach was not disclosed.

Pacific Reach also owns the Westin Grand Vancouver Hotel, Radisson Vancouver Airport Hotel, Toronto’s Maple Leaf Quay, and a number of properties in Calgary, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.

“Our firm is rooted in Vancouver and, for me personally, this landmark property is a special and important acquisition,” added Jamal. “We’re excited to be working with Rosewood to ensure that the Hotel Georgia continues as our city’s most prestigious hotel, and to build on the superb work of Delta Land.”

Under its ownership, Delta Land Group extensively renovated the 1927-built hotel and rebranded the property under the operations of Rosewood. It was previously a part of the Crowne Plaza hotel chain.

The hotel reopened in 2012 following work that restored the heritage building and added a 48-storey luxury residential building on the north side of the property.

There have been a number of major local hotel property transactions in recent years. This includes the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver’s sale to locally-based Larco Enterprises in 2015 for $180 million and the Westin Bayshore Hotel to Concord Pacific for its redevelopment potential for about $300 million.

The brands of two BC-based hotel chains were also recently acquired by foreign companies. Japanese hotel company APA Hotel Group bought operations of Coast Hotels’ 38 properties for $210 million last year while Marriott took over the brand of 38 Delta hotels in 2015.

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