18-storey mass timber hotel proposed near Granville Island

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Moreover, this project is unique for being on one of the “excess land” parcels of the City of Vancouver’s acquisition of Canadian Pacific’s Arbutus railway corridor.

Seven years ago, the municipal government declared the former railway parcels north of West 5th Ave. were not needed for its envisioned Arbutus Greenway route and the potential future streetcar line. The City exercised the option to make these vacant railway parcels — currently mainly used as parking lots — available for new building development.

Existing condition:

Future condition:

Based on the City’s summary of the preliminary project details of the rezoning application, this would be an 18-storey, mass-timber, mixed-use hotel tower.

At a height of 175 ft, this tower would slightly exceed the University of British Columbia’s 174-ft-tall Brock Commons Tallwood House student residence building, which was previously the tallest mass-timber building in the world when it was completed in 2017.

According to Arno Matis Architecture & Urbanism, this would be North America’s tallest mass-timber hotel building.

There would be a total of 168 guest rooms and a total building floor area of over 91,000 sq. ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 15.18 times larger than the size of the lot. This includes some very minor office and industrial uses.

Very preliminary conceptual artistic renderings depict a slender building with an exoskeleton-patterned facade seemingly inspired by organic forms, active ground-level hotel spaces, and indoor and outdoor hotel amenities on a landscaped tower rooftop.

These details and designs are subject to change.

The design firm told Daily Hive Urbanized that their proposal could see some changes this spring, ahead of the application’s publication for the start of the formal public consultation process.

The project falls under the City’s Broadway Plan and the Interim Hotel Development Policy to catalyze major new hotel projects, given the growing shortage of hotel rooms in Vancouver.

According to an early 2023 report by local tourism bureau Destination Vancouver, it is estimated that Metro Vancouver needs an additional 20,000 hotel rooms: 10,000 within Vancouver and 10,000 in other parts of the region. The shortage is expected to start during the peak season in 2026 within Vancouver and then extend to other times of the year and other areas of the region in the following years. It is also important to note that this shortage is likely more severe now, as these hotel room estimates were made before the provincial government’s new policies limiting short-term rentals, such as Airbnb.

The municipal government aims to stimulate the development of new hotels not only within the downtown Vancouver peninsula but also in the Broadway Plan area.

The proposed mass-timber hotel is located in a rapidly evolving area that is set to see a drastic change in urban character, influenced by the mixed-use densification policies of the Broadway Plan and the Squamish Nation’s massive Senakw rental housing project just north of the site.

The site is also attractively located just one block from the entrance to Granville Island, the False Creek South seawall, and the Granville Street Bridge’s upcoming Granville Connector pedestrian and cyclist pathways, set to open later this year. Additionally, the location is well-served by frequent bus routes along West 4th Ave., Granville St., Burrard St., and West Broadway, and is about a 10-minute walk from SkyTrain’s future South Granville Station.

Furthermore, this segment of Fir St. is envisioned by the City as part of the on-road streetcar line between Granville Island and the Arbutus Greenway, should the streetcar be built in the future.

Currently, the only hotel in the area is the 82-room Granville Island Hotel at the eastern end of Granville Island.

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