Hotel
construction powers up in Vancouver
Anticipated demand for hotel rooms in Vancouver up to
and after the Olympics, suggests that these new hotel’s
success won’t be much in doubt.
“We expect that the demand will grow stronger than the
supply,” said
Tourism Vancouver executive vice-president Paul
Vallee in a recent interview.
Though demand forecasts aren’t available for lodging
demand, anecdotal evidence suggests that there’s room
for growth in the market.
Vallee says it’s been a decade since the last boom in
hotel construction, during the late 1990s.
The market absorbed the glut of new supply delivered
during that period and space has since emerged for new
developments – primarily small-scale boutique hotels
offering a more intimate, luxurious experience.
Here are some of the new Hotel projects to watch
More than 1,300 new hotel rooms are planned for
downtown Vancouver in the next two years. Greater
Vancouver as a whole has 2,559 rooms planned or in
various stages of development, a significant increase of
10.6 per cent beyond the current tally of 24,091 rooms.
The Vancouver projects include:
The $60 million, 220-room Coast Coal Harbour Resort
The $400 million restoration and expansion of the
Hotel Georgia
The 415-suite Fairmont Pacific Rim project adjacent to
the Vancouver Convention Centre expansion
The 60-storey Shangri-La project on West Georgia Street.
The largest project outside Vancouver is the
redevelopment of the Radisson site in Burnaby, where
Gateway Casinos is building the
Villa Casino and Convention Centre with a 200-unit
Delta-managed hotel slated to open in summer 2009.
Scott Calvert, vice-president responsible for property
development with Gateway, said the hotel is intended to
serve more than just casino visitors.
Rather, it is part of what he terms a mixed-use
entertainment complex that includes a convention centre,
casino and other amenities.
The hotel itself is being repositioned as a
business-class hotel in an area where there aren’t many
other properties of a similar calibre, he said.
The top three floors will have 35 suites designed for
inclusion in Delta’s business-class Signature Club, for
example.
“We think there’s a good strong market in this area for
business lodging and business use in our convention
centre as well,” Calvert said.
While hotel development can be challenging because of
the vagaries of demand, Calvert said the hotel’s
proximity to Highway 1 has already yielded a high volume
of enquiries regarding bookings.
In Richmond near the
Vancouver Airport Sandman Hotels is about to open
their new Signature Hotel.
A
new 12-storey hotel and parkade would be located
directly across the street from
River Rock Casino on River Road. Immediately south
of that would be a bus loop and the Canada Line's
Bridgeport Station.
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What's New !
Hotels in Greater Vancouver
Century Plaza
Comfort
Inn Vancouver
Delta Vancouver Suites
Fairmont Hotel Vancouver Airport
Georgian Court Hotel
Granville Island Hotel
Hampton Inn Vancouver
Hyatt Regency Vancouver
Marriott Vancouver Pinnacle
Opus Hotel
Vancouver
Ramada Inn Vancouver Centre
Quality Hotel Downtown Vancouver
Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre
St. Regis
Hotel
Terminal City Club
Best Western Hotel
Howard Johnson Hotel Downtown
The
Westin Hotel Vancouver
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