800 Granville Street | 137.5m | 42, 38 fl | Proposed

[officedweller]

Here's the narrow Robson sidewalk shown on the plans.
It's the same width as now, given that they are retaining the Lennox Pub building.
You can tell because of the BC Hydro vault panels shown on the drawings.
The City should require the same width of sidewalk as the Old Navy Building to the west and the H-Mart Building to the east.

[phesto]

Originally Posted by Changing City

I thought they were selling off a lot of property so they could have some capital to build here? They're also looking for CMHC funding, according to the new rezoning. Presumably that coulod change too, depending on the outcome of the election that's about to be announced.

They've sold off most of their portfolio simply to dodge foreclosure. This proposal looks like a last ditch effort to increase the value of the site above what is almost certainly a massive amount of debt on the property. Even if they lose control of this site, this design is certainly more in line with what the market wants to build and so hopefully the project gets built (either by Bonnis or someone else).

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

I would imagine if the demand for office space climbs up again back to pre-pandemic levels, they would redevelop it themselves rather than sell or offload it.

Maybe the reason they're trying to sell it (along with some of those other property on Granville) is that outside of hotel and commercial retail tenancy improvement, there aren't really many alternative options for what to redevelop a property into, along the Granville strip.

The city isn't likely to make that many more exceptions to allow (even) more residential on Granville, and Bonnis' position is that the hotel business is just not their thing.

So if the market isn't accommodating more office space, and you're not willing to do hotels (which the market could conceivably accommodate) then selling off is probably the only thing that makes sense.

Maybe they find another Hotelier to sell it to,... to redevelop it into a hotel much like they did their lot on the Robson and Seymour corner next door (the 809 Seymour Street/ 600 Robson Street lot).

It would certainly be an ideal location for one, smack dab in the middle of the entertainment district.

In addition, the main impediment to developing a hotel on the Best Buy building site has been removed with the redevelopment of the Vancouver Centre parkade with VCII. That problem was the tight former L-shaped alley that would not allow tour buses to access the alley.
The new "alley" is through the base of VCII and allows wider turning radii.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by phesto

They've sold off most of their portfolio simply to dodge foreclosure. This proposal looks like a last ditch effort to increase the value of the site above what is almost certainly a massive amount of debt on the property. Even if they lose control of this site, this design is certainly more in line with what the market wants to build and so hopefully the project gets built (either by Bonnis or someone else).

But the Granville Street planning will essentially push through the density increase on this land so it's doubtful that the rezoning would get them much more especially if they are that strapped for cash. And why would they have a massive amount of debt on the property? It's not like they've been burning through cash developing any of their other sites.

[kikin]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

They talk about the future hotel across the lane in the design rationale for the tower separation but they have the old office building in the model/diagrams.

What is the location of that one? I'm trying to visualize the area.

I noticed that it is starting to look close to groundbreaking for the hotel to the east of the Capitol on Seymour, I think (correct me if wrong) that that one is supposed to be 30 floors. I wonder when that proposed commercial building on the side of the Capitol on Robson Street is going to start.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by kikin

What is the location of that one? I'm trying to visualize the area.

I noticed that it is starting to look close to groundbreaking for the hotel to the east of the Capitol on Seymour, I think (correct me if wrong) that that one is supposed to be 30 floors. I wonder when that proposed commercial building on the side of the Capitol on Robson Street is going to start.

Yes, the Paul Y hotel on Seymour is 30 storeys, and the site has been fenced off for a while. It looks like they'll be using part of the lot across the lane (owned by the same owner) as the construction compound.

There is no longer a commercial building on the side of the Capitol on Robson Street. Bonnis obtained a permit, tried to sell it as strata office, and failed (twice). Rumours suggested the site had been sold and that a developer wanted to put a pod hotel there, but no formal applications have emerged yet. That would be across the lane from the 800 Granville Bonnis project.

And welcome!

[jollyburger]

I just saw a reference to an international hotelier submitting a rezoning for a 30 storey tower on the old Bonnis strata site. Was there some other article mentioning the pod hotel?

[idunno]

I hadn't seen that announcement of the hotel brands for the Paul Y Hotel! Moxy and Element. Do we have a thread for it?

https://www.staymagazine.ca/articles/pau...nt-by-westin-hotel-in-downtown-vancouver

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I just saw a reference to an international hotelier submitting a rezoning for a 30 storey tower on the old Bonnis strata site. Was there some other article mentioning the pod hotel?

There was something over a year ago (roughly when Bonnis said they'd sold it to an international hotelier for an exciting 30 storey hotel), that referenced Moxy, from New York, planning a Downtown development, but wanting to put Pod-style rooms into the project. That was before Council encouraged the idea of pod hotels.

It's strange that nothing has ever seen the light of day, over a year after it was supposedly submitted to the City. Maybe a building as tall as the Capitol, so close to that tower, is an issue?

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Changing City

There was something over a year ago (roughly when Bonnis said they'd sold it to an international hotelier for an exciting 30 storey hotel), that referenced Moxy, from New York, planning a Downtown development, but wanting to put Pod-style rooms into the project. That was before Council encouraged the idea of pod hotels.

It's strange that nothing has ever seen the light of day, over a year after it was supposedly submitted to the City. Maybe a building as tall as the Capitol, so close to that tower, is an issue?

Found this reference from BC Business in 2022 but I think it's about the Paul Y Seymour site?

At the moment, there are three hotels under construction, four that have been approved, and several more in pre-approval stages, from what I can gather through conversations with various developers and a cruise through the city’s rezoning site.

One—the application for which only went through in late summer—would be for Vancouver’s first of the hipster pod-type hotels that have proliferated in Europe and started popping up in North America. I stayed in one in Seattle, a CitizenM that’s part of a Netherlands chain. Rooms smaller than a dorm room, with a comfy, plushy bed that goes wall to wall, a Plexiglas-encased shower in the corner and just enough room to get from the door to the bed with a teeny sink on one side, and a teeny desk on the other. But then a big fun bar in the centre of the lobby and all kinds of lounging, games-playing, TV-watching, hanging-out “spaces” scattered around that main-floor bar.

In Vancouver, that new entrant is coming from New York-based Moxy and being planned for a site on Seymour Street if it can meet the city’s requirements, which to me sound somewhat pause-inducing. This is the note I got back from the city about whether a pod-style hotel is legal in Vancouver, which I’d been told maybe wasn’t. “There aren’t minimum room sizes for hotels… but there are accessibility and life safety requirements that would govern things like door and corridor widths throughout the building, and specific accessibility requirements for a subset of the rooms (1 in 40) that would require specific clearances. With regards to “pod” hotels, building staff have noted that: “POD hotels may be problematic if they don’t consider accessibility, and don’t have the necessary fire separation between units or sprinkler protection. Each guest ‘room’ would be considered separate from the others and fire spread between them would need to be considered.” So, we’ll see on that one.

https://www.bcbusiness.ca/industries/rea...er-is-coinciding-with-a-boom-in-tourism/

The New York Moxy rooms are mostly 200-220 sq feet

https://moxytimessquare.com/bedrooms/

[s211]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

The New York Moxy rooms are mostly 200-220 sq feet

Which is right around the size of a typical commodity NYC hotel room, if not slightly larger, going from past research on average hotel sizes.

[kikin]

so according to that blog it is a Westin hotel? The recent rumour I had heard was that it was a Fairmount hotel?

[NewfBC]

Moxy Hotels do not have 'pod' rooms. They're smaller rooms, yes. But comfortable for one or two.

And the brand was launched in Italy, not sure why it's being called 'from New York'.

Ron.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by NewfBC

Moxy Hotels do not have 'pod' rooms. They're smaller rooms, yes. But comfortable for one or two.

And the brand was launched in Italy, not sure why it's being called 'from New York'.

Ron.

Maybe they are talking about pods as those smaller room sizes in general.

No clue about the New York reference. I think Marriott is based in Maryland.

[Feathered Friend]

EVALUATION: Support with Recommendations (6/0)
THAT the Panel Recommend Support with the following recommendations:
1. Further consideration to improve the laneway in particular with pedestrians coming
and going on the laneway.
2. Further consideration on the design and the orientation of the shared balconies to
better access to the light to improve the functionality and sociality of the residents.
3. Further consideration to improve the functionality of the bike storage.
4. Further consideration should be given particularly to Robson and Granville
frontages.
5. Further consideration to the design expression and the articulation of the south
tower.

https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/udp-minutes-06-18-2025-final.pdf

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/udp-minutes-06-18-2025-final.pdf

Do we know if they're proposing to build these as a phased buildout or both towers together?

Because in the case of the former, that would presumably allow them to take the South tower back to the drawing board while the north tower gets built first.

And while at it, they may also be able to do something about that bike storage bridge as the panel recommends (and as came up here when this proposal was first revealed), as well as that 'Bird-poop-roof-waiting-to-happen' that it overlooks.

And hopefully the giant corner viewscreen(s) at the corner of Granville and Robson survives any Value-engineering or cost-reduction attempts through the rest of the process.

[officedweller]

From UDP:

A Panelist suggested the sidewalk to be more generous on Granville (i.e. In Portland, on
Burnside Street they have created an arcade that allows the sidewalk to be more
generous.

Shouldn't that be the Robson sidwalk?

[kikin]

any guesses as to when a tall building will begin construction in this project?

[madog222]

Up for public hearing referral at next week's council meeting.

[gaviscon]

Originally Posted by madog222

Up for public hearing referral at next week's council meeting.

Any updates from the meeting?