Vancouver's Pacific Centre to get new luxury hotel as Four Seasons closes this month
Credit to Author: Harrison Mooney| Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2020 22:28:15 +0000
The Cadillac Fairview Corp. has announced plans to replace the Four Seasons at Pacific Centre with another luxury hotel brand once its longtime tenant vacates the space later this month.
The 370-room Four Seasons Hotel, on Howe near West Georgia streets, has been a mainstay of the downtown Vancouver mall for over four decades. But it will close permanently at the end of January 2020 when its lease expires, allowing CF, Vancouver’s largest commercial property owner, to “welcome a new hospitality and entertainment offering reflective of Vancouver’s current stature as a premier tourism and business destination,” a Wednesday news release said.
The company has mostly declined to provide details on the new venture beyond confirming that it’s a “world-leading, luxury lifestyle hotel brand.” As for which hotel brand and when it will open to the public, that remains to be determined.
“We’re still working through finalizing a deal,” said CF’s western Canadian director, Tom Knoepfel. “Then we need to determine the level of renovations or modifications that need to be done to the building, so we’ll be working through that schedule, and once we’re able to announce a brand we’ll likely also be able to announce an opening day.”
The announcement is good news for the tourism sector, which is already dealing with a steady decline in hotel rooms due to redevelopment and densification, among other factors. Downtown Vancouver lost more than 600 rooms, for instance, when the Empire Landmark and Coast Plaza Stanley Park hotels were both shuttered in recent years to make way for more West End condos.
Knoepfel said this was a major consideration for CF as it explored options for the space.
“We’re equally concerned with the number of hotel rooms in this city,” he said. “We know it’s a significant economic driver for our city and in terms of shoppers at CF Pacific Centre, so we believe it’s important to replace those hotel rooms. It’s our intention to provide as many rooms as possible.”
Renovations are expected to begin in the spring, though visitors to the mall aren’t likely to be significantly impacted.
“We’ll likely retain a connection from the shopping centre into the new hotel, but we don’t anticipate a lot of disruption or change in CF Pacific Centre,” said Knoepfel.
As for the hotel grounds, Knoepfel anticipates that the overhaul will be extensive.
“We anticipate a fair amount of work needing to be done,” he said.
The Four Seasons hotel in Vancouver is closing after operating for more than 40 years.
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