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250-room floating hotel proposed for Vancouver Convention Centre waterfront

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The “Sunborn Evolution Vancouver” hotel would have a length of 431 ft (131.4 metres), a width of 60 ft (18.4 metres), and a shallow draught of only 7.9 ft (2.4 metres), which is the depth between the waterline and the bottom of the vessel. The vessel’s displacement would only be about 5,400 tons.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized early this week, Hans Niemi, CEO of Sunborn International, said the Vancouver floating hotel would be a brand-new custom-designed vessel for the local market.

While it looks like a big yacht or small cruise ship, this vessel has no built-in propulsion capabilities — it is not meant to be moved often — and functions more like a barge. Just one level, Deck 0, would be below the waterline, containing only staff areas, storage rooms, equipment rooms, and other back-of-house spaces.

There would be six decks above the water line, and one deck below the water line.

According to the rezoning application, a total of 250 guest rooms, technically called cabins, would have the capacity to accommodate about 500 people overnight.

The upper three levels would be dedicated to guest rooms, with 25 cabins on Deck 6, 45 cabins on Deck 5, and 47 cabins on Deck 4. Furthermore, the first two levels above the water line would also be fully used for guest rooms, with 61 cabins on Deck 2, and 65 cabins on Deck 1. These decks with cabins also feature outdoor decks for hotel guests only.

The entirety of the middle level of Deck 3 would be fully accessible to the public. On this level, major restaurants would be found on the front half (bow) of the vessel, with this restaurant space also spilling into a small portion of the upper level on Deck 2.

Within the middle of the vessel on Deck 3, there would be shops, a cafe, a bar, and an arcade.

The back half (stern) on Deck 3 would be used for the hotel lobby, hotel reception, and an additional lounge and bar area, which would also have an outdoor terrace. Larger publicly accessible outdoor decks and terraces would be found on both the bow and stern areas on Deck 3.

“The offerings of the hotel in terms of restaurant, bar, spa, public spaces, docks will make the vessel an interesting destination for locals, tourists and convention delegates,” reads the application.

Based on the technical drawings, the floating hotel would fit snugly into two new moorage docks on either side of the vessel.

As it turns out, there would be three different ramps (gangways) between the shoreline and the vessel.

A welcoming wide main ramp on the east (starboard) side of the vessel near the stern would provide a direct link from the convention centre’s seawall level (right next to the iconic blue “The Drop” raindrop sculpture and Mahoney’s Tavern) to the publicly accessible Deck 3 — leading visitors straight into the hotel lobby upon arrival. This main ramp to Deck 3 establishes the main entrance into the floating hotel.

The second ramp of significance is on the west (port) side of the vessel. It makes use of an existing unused concrete footing in the water, enabling the construction of a new public ramp, staircase, and elevator leading to the long floating dock on the port side of the vessel. This publicly accessible dock is designed as a viewing area and features a cafe pavilion and a spa pavilion. Drawings show two small gangways that would span between this dock and Deck 1.

The application notes that public access onto Deck 3 and the west dock would follow the operating hours of the onboard restaurants, which would likely be from 8 am to midnight.

“The hotel will add to the existing lively array of public-oriented uses linked along the water’s edge and will maintain and expand public view opportunities of the waterfront activity and North Shore mountains. No different than any other Vancouver hotel, the Sunborn hotel will be open to the public,” reads the application.

“Further, the [west/port side] mooring dock for the vessel, which includes the spa and cafe, will be accessible to the public and will allow observation of the marine habitat along the Vancouver Convention Centre habitat skirt. This will make the waterfront even more accessible than its current state… The hotel’s Deck 3 and the western dock will provide a new publicly accessible attraction offering dramatic views from the waterfront. In fact, the presence of the Sunborn hotel is consistent and complementary to the neighbouring cruise ship terminal at Canada Place.”

The third ramp would be intended for staff use only, situated on the starboard side of the vessel, directly below the main ramp for public access onto Deck 3. At water level, this third ramp would link a newly created hotel service area — within the loading dock space of the convention centre’s West Building — to the floating starboard dock.

This particular ramp is the dedicated back-of-house service entry for staff, deliveries, and other loading, and it also doubles as an emergency exit for everyone inside the floating hotel. As well, the third ramp conceals the the vessel’s electrical, water, and sewage connections to the convention centre’s existing infrastructure.

As for vehicle access for guests, a small area at the northeast corner of the convention centre’s West Building’s parkade level would be turned into a hotel guest pick-up and drop-off area. From the parkade, guests can reach the main hotel entrance ramp by using the staircase or elevator to reach the seawall level. Additional taxi and ride-hailing pick-up and drop-off areas would also be established on Canada Place Way.

With a capacity of up to 500 overnight guests, 150 to 225 full-time jobs, and public attractions like restaurants, bars, a cafe, a spa, and a floating viewing deck, the new floating hotel is expected to bring “considerable pedestrian activity” to the seawall at the convention centre’s West Building.

“The hotel will contribute to additional interest and security by contributing new active uses along the waterfront. The positioning of the Sunborn hotel near the eastern edge of the water lot will make it visible from Canada Place, Jack Poole Plaza and the walkway along the northern edge of the Vancouver Convention Centre,” reads the application.

“Given the attractive design and function as a hotel, the vessel will be an appealing marine-inspired attraction and draw to the waterfront, similar to how cruise ships generate public interest and excitement when they arrive in port.”

It is also emphasized in the application that the location of the floating hotel does not negatively impact the dramatic northward view from inside the grand ballroom of the convention centre’s West Building.

Altogether, the floating hotel vessel itself would have a total floor area of about 162,000 sq ft, including 131,000 sq ft of indoor space, 13,000 sq ft of outdoor decks and terraces, and 18,000 sq ft of back-of-house space and other technical areas.

Extensive environmentally-friendly features of this floating hotel include an innovative heat exchange that draws sea water and hotel wastewater systems, an extensive solar panel system spanning almost the entire length of the vessel’s rooftop, two tidal electricity generators installed next to the west dock, and high-efficiency HVAC systems.

To create the site and hotel design, Sunborn International worked with local architectural firm Dialog, and Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, which previously contemplated a potential new marina for the water lot.

Niemi told Daily Hive Urbanized earlier this week that, if all goes as planned with the municipal government’s permitting process, followed by the construction of the new vessel and completion of the site improvements, the Sunborn Evolution Vancouver could open in late 2026 or 2027.

If this opening timeline is achieved, it would be the single largest new hotel to open in downtown Vancouver since the 2017 opening of Parq Vancouver’s Marriott hotels. The region, especially in downtown Vancouver, where demand is highest, is facing a worsening hotel room shortage, which is putting upward pressure on hotel room rates and turning away potential visitors.

When asked to provide a ballpark figure on the overnight room rates for the new floating hotel, Niemi says this is not intended to be a super-ultra luxury hotel, but rather it will compete with the pricing of hotels in downtown Vancouver, especially when it comes to serving the attendees of meetings and conferences held at the convention centre.

“This is the largest in terms of rooms because this is what we feel is the most needed in the downtown area. We need all the rooms that we can get, and that’s what we understood from the City. So we’re sort of prioritizing the maximum number of rooms,” said Niemi during the interview.

“We have to be competitive. We have no sort of crazy ideas that we’re going to go in there with super-high prices… We’re going to be very sensitive to setting our pricing policy to what the rest of the competition sets in downtown.”

The company’s water lot lease is expected to last for 20 to 30 years.

Sunborn International has two other floating hotel locations in Europe. It opened its first location next to London’s ExCeL convention centre in 2003, and renewed the site lease in November 2024 for another 30 years. As well, the company is building a new replacement and expanded floating hotel for this London location, which will be a sister vessel of the Vancouver location. In 2014, the company opened its second floating hotel in Gibraltar, which also features a casino.

Including Vancouver, they now also have plans to create three more floating hotel projects in North America.

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