Vancouver council votes to demolish dilapidated downtown hotel

The heritage building at 500 Dunsmuir Street, owned by Holborn Properties, has been empty since 2013. It will be demolished within three weeks

A building declared dangerous by Vancouver’s chief building official will be demolished within three weeks.

There was unanimous support at a meeting of Vancouver city council on Wednesday for the recommendation that the 167-unit Dunsmuir Hotel be declared dangerous and taken to the ground.

Chief building official Saul Schwebs told council that the heritage building at 500 Dunsmuir S had been empty since 2013 and no maintenance work has been done since then.

Schwebs said that on a recent visit he observed that the roof had been leaking so badly over the past decade that the building was at risk of catastrophic collapse.

The once-regal hotel at the corner of Richards and Dunsmuir Street was converted into military housing during the Second World War and later into single men’s housing with the Salvation Army, a youth hostel and finally into B.C. Housing units.

The building was purchased in 2006 by Malaysian developer Holborn Properties. Holborn also owns Vancouver’s Little Mountain lands that once provided hundreds of units of social housing. Most of those units are now demolished, but little has been build in their place.

Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung was particularly scathing of Holborn’s conduct, noting that they did not send a representative to Wednesday’s meeting.

“Council is put in a terrible position because it appears the owner has allowed it to decay. That Holborn did not show up is insulting,” she said.

Coun. Peter Meiszner called it was a “really unfortunate situation.”

Coun. Mike Klassen pointed out that in Vancouver’s climate, taking care of a roof of any building was extremely important. He noted that because the building was so damaged and so dangerous there would be no opportunity to save some of its heritage elements.

The building was ordered demolished within three weeks at the owner’s cost. Schwebs said the building can be demolished safely using high-reach excavators, but once it is on the ground it will take months to safely dispose of the waste.

The owner was also told to preserve certain heritage features to be reused in any future development of the site, provided that can be accomplished safely.