Retro hotels
Growing up in Montreal, this columnist saw Vancouver as the place everyone moved to after Expo 86, at about the same time folksinger Ian Tyson returned to prominence with Cowboyography. The album included Tyson covering his own, older ode to Vancouver, “Summer Wages,” with its reference to “all the beer parlors / all down along Main Street” where “the dreams of the season / are spilled down on the floor.”
But with gentrification, the bars and hotels along Main Street – including the American Hotel with its new Electric Owl izakaya, and the London Hotel and pub – are filling up with a new season’s dreams. Throw in the celebrated Waldorf a few blocks east on Hastings Street, and the East Side is finding its groove as investment pours in.
But what of the Burrard Motor Inn on the other side of town opposite St. Paul’s Hospital, asked a reader?
The vintage property originally opened in 1956 and enjoyed a 50-year run before closing in 2006. It was put on the market and sold for $8 million to Kalla Holdings Ltd. in 2010. Kalla principal Tony Kalla, a seasoned multi-family investor (and one of the original shareholders in Business in Vancouver, by the by), saw potential in the 72-room property with its enclosed courtyard – as apartments.
But when the numbers didn’t pencil out for converting the solid concrete structure with motel-sized rooms to apartments, a closer look was taken at its hotel potential.
“We thought we could do a funky, boutique, hipster hotel that no one else has done in this town because of the courtyard,” Kalla said. “We thought there was some upside to the hotel business on the property.”
The inn kept running until being shut down in February 2011 to allow the renovations to proceed full bore. Since then, more than $3 million has been spent remaking the rooms and renewing infrastructure, including plumbing, electrical and lighting systems.
High-definition flat-screen televisions have been placed in every room, which run from $129 a night – a rate hip to budget-conscious travellers.
Hodgson Design Associates devised a retro theme for the property, and online traveller reviews agree the property has nailed the hipster ethos with colourful doors, stylized sign lettering and chairs around the courtyard that recall a time well before the digital age.
Kalla plans further refinements.
While the Waldorf touts a vintage tiki bar and local restaurant phenomenon Nuba, the Burrard is home to 7-Eleven and Blenz outlets.
Demolition pending
While major office towers grab headlines, Vancouver & Shanghai Land Ltd. is quietly proceeding with plans to develop a five-storey commercial building at 720 Robson Street.
The heritage façade of the existing structure at 817-819 Granville Street would be maintained, while a second building at 712 Robson Street would be demolished. The new building developed on the site will be 41,792 square feet and will offer three storeys of office space above two storeys of shops. Two levels of underground parking will be maintained.
The building facing Robson Street is boarded up for demolition, but Andrew Chan of Vancouver & Shanghai did not return calls for comment regarding the timeline for the project. Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership is architect for the project, but referred all questions to Chan.
The original building at 817-819 Granville Street dates to 1888, but the current facade was designed in 1929 by architects Townley & Matheson, which also designed the old Vancouver Stock Exchange building at 375 Howe Street that Credit Suisse plans to redevelop.
Townley & Matheson’s original drawings will guide restoration of the façade of 817-819 Granville Street.
During the city’s Urban Design Panel meeting this past February, some panel members felt details of the project’s design could feature “a higher level of unexpectedness.” Given the lack of further information available from Vancouver & Shanghai at this time, the final form might well be unexpected by the general public.
Paint It Black
The long-time home of Korean restaurant Arirang House at 2211 Cambie Street at the north end of the Cambie Street bridge has started attracting attention, and for good reason. The former restaurant building was recently painted black (“black as night, black as coal,” to quote the Rolling Stones).
It’s an artistic prelude to what promises to be a bowed boutique residence of just 15 apartments looking toward False Creek.
Port Capital Group Inc., headed by Tobi Reyes, is the developer.
Its portfolio includes properties at 522 Beatty Street and 99 West Pender Street, site of a planned Bing Thom-designed tower by the Salient Group (which also redeveloped 522 Beatty Street). •
