Kind of interesting that there seems to have been another Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill building never built in Vancouver.
5688 Balaclava Street in 2010?
Quote:
The low-rise development features residential units, each with high-end, sustainable finishes. Each unit features an outdoor terrace, with views to the community gardens and green landscape surrounding the building. A central garden space provides an outdoor lobby entrance to the building and includes water features and lush landscaped spaces. Other community amenities include a pool, fitness center, multi-purpose activity room and working rooftop gardens for residents.
Kind of interesting that there seems to have been another Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill building never built in Vancouver.
5688 Balaclava Street in 2010?
Current plans are for a seniors centre designed by Rositch Hemphill Architects?
Sadly, yes. The AS + GG design for seniors housing was for previous owners, Dubai-based Emaar Group who subsequently sold the Knox church site in 2011 to Hon Towers Kerrisdale Ltd.
Robert Macdonald, who owns the St. Regis Hotel Vancouver, has indicated to Cadillac Fairview that he would like to build a St. Regis hotel in the former Four Seasons hotel space, but he told BIV that he has not heard back.
St. Regis is a top-tier brand that Marriott International Inc. (Nasdaq:MAR) operates worldwide, except in Metro Vancouver. Macdonald owns the brand in this region because his independent St. Regis hotel has been in business at the corner of Seymour and Dunsmuir streets for the past 107 years.
“We had a legal tussle on that,” he said. “They lost. I won. So I now own the right to use the St. Regis brand for the whole Lower Mainland. I gave up to them the rights to use the brand outside the Lower Mainland [in B.C.]. That’s how we settled that. They paid me.”
Eventually, Macdonald would like to operate up to six St. Regis hotels in the Lower Mainland, possibly with locations in Burnaby and Richmond. He said he knows people at Marriott and would probably try to partner with its St. Regis operation and link with that chain’s reservation system.
Holborn Group is in the early stages of developing a tower on its Seymour Street site where there is a parkade that connects via a sky bridge to the Hudson’s Bay Co. (TSX:HBC) department store.
That site is across the street and half a block away from Macdonald’s St. Regis hotel, and Macdonald said that he thinks it would be a great spot for a new luxury St. Regis hotel.
Holborn CEO Joo Kim Tiah told BIV that his company in December submitted a letter of inquiry to the City of Vancouver to develop the site.
“Everything is very preliminary at this point in time, and there will be a lot of consultation with the city and public prior to us being able to officially submit for a rezoning for the site,” he said.
If Macdonald builds a new St. Regis hotel in the Bay parkade site, he said he might keep his current St. Regis hotel where it is as an annex, given that it is so close.
Yeah, Marriott would probably stay away from the rest of BC if he expanded his brand of St. Regis in the Lower Mainland, as it would degrade Marriott's brand.
Interesting. I have always been curious about the "St. Regis" we have. Now I know it's story.
I have never understood how the Vancouver St. Regis has received the rave reviews and their "Star Ratings". Perhaps people thinking it was part of the other.
like when ESL Schools use Harvard or Yale or whatever in their name.
Not really.
The local St. Regis Hotel would have developed common law trademark rights within its area of trade - i.e. BC.
Those rights would not extend to other areas where its reputation was not known.
There was another one that had a wavy crown spire. And a second one that looks like a modern stylized Telus boot building but with two completed sloped sides.
Just noticed Chungwha which is building the hotel on 888 West Broadway, the Marriot Hotels in Bridgeport..
They also own the medical building at 1200 Burrard (at Davie) Seems like that will be a prime redevelopment candidate down the road as well. Sold for $63,800,000 in January 2018
Basically everything is redacted but at least it confirms OMA as the design architect, there's a silhouette of the towers on the letter, and the table of contents indicate some of the public realms and spaces namely 'the forum'
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