An office tower project approved about six years ago for a narrow vacant lot in the Central Business District of Downtown Vancouver could now become predominantly a sizeable hotel, with office space retained on its upper floors.
A new development permit application has been submitted to the City of Vancouver to revise the previously approved tower at 619 West Hastings St., which is a mid-block site located immediately east of the historic Royal Bank Building tower — near the northeast corner of the intersection of Granville Street and West Hastings Street.
The project’s exterior design remains largely the same, with a similar density and a slightly increased floor count.
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When Vancouver City Council first approved the project’s rezoning application in May 2020, Uptown Property Group envisioned constructing a 330 ft. tall (100.5 metres), 28-storey tower with about 158,000 sq. ft. of office space. A development permit application for this 100 per cent office project was approved and issued in September 2022, but it never advanced further into construction due to the weak office market conditions emerging out of the pandemic.
The new development permit application outlining the revisions was submitted this past summer, and it was made public just yesterday ahead of the start of the formal public consultation process. It now calls for a 362 ft. tall (110.5 metres) tower with 32 storeys, containing almost 158,000 sq. ft. of total building floor area.
Levels two to 24 would switch from office use to boutique hotel use, with 295 guest rooms occupying levels three through 24. About 126,000 sq. ft. would be dedicated to hotel uses.
Site of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership)
Existing condition:
Existing condition of the heritage Royal Bank Building tower and the adjacent mid-block vacant lot of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Existing condition of the heritage Royal Bank Building tower and the adjacent mid-block vacant lot of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Future condition:
2026 revised concept of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Uptown Property Group)
2026 revised concept of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Uptown Property Group)
The hotel would support the city’s tourism and businesses, as well as conventions, with its close proximity to the Vancouver Convention Centre. It is also just footsteps away from frequent bus routes and Waterfront Station, providing convenient access to SkyTrain’s Expo and Canada lines and SeaBus.
As for levels 25 to 31, these floors would remain as office space, totalling 32,000 sq. ft. Office tenants would have access to a shared outdoor amenity deck on the tower rooftop.
The latest revision continues a distinctive feature of the earlier design: physically connecting the new tower to the 1931-built heritage Royal Bank Building to improve the heritage structure’s earthquake resistance.
Under the structural approach concept, the new tower’s concrete walls and core would help brace the neighbouring building through connections between the two structures. Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership, which designed both the original and revised concepts, notes that work affecting the heritage building would be covered by a separate permit. This includes the structural connections between the buildings and an enclosure over the Royal Bank Building’s existing light well.
The new tower would feature a predominantly glass exterior, with vertical aluminum fins of varying depths creating a patterned appearance while providing shade.
2026 revised concept of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Uptown Property Group)
2026 revised concept of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Uptown Property Group)
2026 revised concept of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Uptown Property Group)
The lot has a streetfront width of just 52 ft. and a depth of 120 ft. The tight site also shapes the parking arrangement. With insufficient room for a conventional vehicle ramp, a car elevator from the laneway would provide access to two underground parking levels containing 16 vehicle spaces. That compares with five underground levels and 49 vehicle parking spaces in the previous office-only concept.
The project is now targeting a LEED Gold certification, down from its previous ambitions of LEED Platinum.
This adds to the growing list of new office projects that have seen partial or complete conversion into hotel uses, which also responds to the significant demand for new hotel projects to address Metro Vancouver’s hotel room shortage.
Earlier this year, the City’s development permit board provided the green light for the preliminary development application of Cadillac Fairview’s revised Waterfront Station office tower project, located just to the north. Cadillac Fairview previously told Daily Hive Urbanized that they expect there will be a shortage of new office space as early as late this decade, and their project responds to that potential demand, given that no major new office projects are moving forward at this time.
2026 revised concept of 619 West Hastings St., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/Uptown Property Group)
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