People can change their vocations, and so can 13-storey buildings.
Driving the news: Construction will begin later this year on converting an office building in Vancouver’s Central Business District (CBD) into a boutique hotel that will provide 150 to 200 new rooms to a city that really needs them. It’s expected to open in early 2029.
The hotel is the brainchild of B.C.-based developer Reliance Properties and Quebec-based chain Germain Hotels, which bought the office last year for $70 million.
Zoom out: Office-to-hotel conversions are rare because it’s hard to find buildings where you can maximize space and also because getting them up to code can be more expensive than building a hotel from scratch. This particular building just happens to have an ideal layout.
That said, there are other such conversions either in the works or in the proposal stage in Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary. The latter actually completed its first purpose-converted office hotel last June — the 226-suite Element Downtown.
Why it matters: Vancouver has a hotel deficit, with the highest room occupancy rate for a major Canadian city — hitting 78.2% in 2024, and more than 90% during the busy summer season. Per Destination Vancouver, the city must add 10,000 rooms by 2050 to keep up with demand.
Last year, city council approved a policy to spur hotel creation, with zoning changes that encouraged conversions and mixed-use builds, particularly in the CBD.
Our take: While office conversions are unlikely to play a major role in relieving Vancouver’s hotel stress — or adding to Canada’s hotel capacity in general — they represent the type of creative thinking that we’d like to see more of when it comes to building dwellings.—QH
