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There will now be 279 hotel rooms under the upscale Hilton Curio brand — including 56 long-term suites and 223 short-term suites — and 105 secured purpose-built rental homes, with 89 market rental units and 21 below-market rental units. Previously, under the previous 2024 concept, the project called for 396 hotel rooms, including 271 short-term stay rooms under the Hilton Tapestry brand and 125 long-term stay rooms in the Hilton Homewood Suites brand.

This pivot is accomplished by converting the hotel guest room floors above the base podium in the 10-storey west tower into rental housing, while hotel uses have been fully retained in the 14-storey east tower.

The rental housing unit size mix is 21 studio units, 31 one-bedroom units, 29 two-bedroom units, and eight three-bedroom units.

Existing condition:

Future condition:

Mixed-use hotel and rental housing uses to improve financial feasibility

There have been numerous changes to the design and uses of the redevelopment over the years, which have passed through different ownership groups and architectural design teams.

When the project was previously led by Centennial Hotel and Arno Matis Architecture, there were plans for up to 438 hotel rooms, and similar retail/restaurant uses on the ground level. This version, within a building complex within similar heights, form, and density, saw its rezoning application approved in early 2020.

Shortly after Bosa Properties acquired the property and approved redevelopment plans, the envisioned hotel uses outlined in a 2022 development permit application were downsized to 156 guest rooms within the west tower and about 150,000 sq. ft. of office space in the east tower.

When it became apparent that office space demand would remain weak for the foreseeable future, the major office component was entirely converted into hotel uses in the 2024 rezoning application submission. In the process, the architectural design was also simplified — a clear measure of value engineering to reduce construction costs.

Still, however, the developer has noted that the project faces a challenging pro forma as a 100 per cent hotel project, which has necessitated the latest revision of incorporating some secured purpose-built rental housing.

According to the project team, this revision of incorporating rental housing is “required to obtain the necessary financing and to ensure the viability of the project.”

The new application notes that with the inclusion of such rental housing uses, the developer hopes to seek low-cost loans from the federal and provincial governments to help cover the project’s construction costs.

Under the City’s Broadway Plan, residential uses are not permitted for this particular site that sits within the core of Vancouver’s emerging secondary central business district. The area plan deems the area to be optimal locations for new hotel, office, and institutional development, especially with its adjacency to the VGH and BC Cancer Centre medical campus and the future subway stations of SkyTrain’s Millennium Line extension.

With high land and construction costs and growing hotel operating costs, the City encourages mixed-use hotel and market residential projects, with the market residential density helping offset some of the higher costs of building and operating the hotel uses. Developers, Destination Vancouver, and the British Columbia Hotel Association have also indicated that this improves the financial viability of projects in many scenarios.

No ability to increase building height to improve financial viability

The City has also provided some flexibility for adding density through increased building height to help improve the pro forma of such hotel projects.

However, added verticality is not possible for this particular development site due to height restrictions of not only View Cone 3.0 emanating from Queen Elizabeth Park, but the far more restrictive federally-regulated height limits in the area to maintain the helicopter flight path for the hospital’s helipad — situated just south of the property on the rooftop of the VGH building with the emergency department.

“Height limits for the building massing have been informed and sculpted by the helicopter flight path requirements from VGH. Our site falls within the helicopter flight path of VGH that has an H1 designation, which is the most restrictive from a helicopter performance perspective. To ensure our proposal does not impact operation of the VGH flights, either during construction or after the building is occupied, Bosa Properties engaged a specialty helicopter consultant to review our proposal and coordinate with VGH to ensure compliance with their requirements,” reads the application

“Our building has been sculpted in response to the helicopter flight path… This site is uniquely constrained by helicopter flight path limitations, yet the new proposal enhances livability and exceeds policy standards compared to the previous all-hotel proposal.”

In terms of changes to the architectural design between the 2024 rezoning application and the 2025 revision, the latest design remains highly consistent, with the biggest changes being the incorporation of protruding patios to the rental housing floors and slight changes to the rooftop of the base podium.

Although the project’s hotel room capacity is now smaller than various previous concept iterations, it will still provide a major net gain of 162 guest rooms compared to the property’s existing 1971-built, seven-storey hotel with 117 guest rooms. Park Inn & Suites by Radisson closed in 2017, the attached Fairview Pub closed in January 2020, and some site preparation and demolition in advance of major construction work have already been conducted.

Additionally, the base podium uses have remained consistent, with this new Hilton property dedicating the entirety of its second level for the main hotel lobby, sizeable restaurant, bar, and lounge uses, and conference and meeting rooms. The main hotel entrance and pick-up/drop-off area are situated in the laneway.

The ground level will see 25,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant uses to activate its West Broadway streetfront. This represents a slight decrease from 29,000 sq. ft. in the previous concept, which enables the inclusion of a residential lobby fronting Laurel Street and a secondary hotel entrance within the east tower from West Broadway’s street level.

The design of the prominent cafe — part of the retail/restaurant uses at ground level — has been optimized, which continues to be adjacent to a covered outdoor area at the building’s corner with the intersection. This covered plaza space uses the building’s soffit overhang for weather protection and will also be activated by patio seating and a suspended public art installation.

The total building floor area will reach 297,000 sq. ft., representing a floor area ratio (FAR) density of a floor area that is 7.3 times larger than the lot size of almost 41,000 sq. ft. This is slightly down from the previous concept’s 309,000 sq. ft. with a FAR density of 7.6.

Three underground levels will accommodate 178 vehicle parking stalls, which is a slight decrease from 183 stalls in the previous concept.

There are currently three new hotel projects within the immediate area of the future Oak-VGH Station.

Immediately to the north, a new 12-storey hotel building at 901 West Broadway will contain 147 guest rooms under the Marriott brand. And just further to the north at 888 West 8th Ave., there is a proposal to build a 16-storey hotel tower with 152 guest rooms. Both projects are envisioned as 100 per cent hotel uses, plus accompanying hotel restaurant/bar uses.

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