VANCOUVER — Vancouver city council has approved a multi-tower redevelopment that would see Western Canada’s tallest building rise on the former Hudson’s Bay parkade site in the downtown core..Councillors voted 7-3 on Monday to rezone the block at 501-595 West Georgia St., clearing the way for developer Holborn Group’s proposal. The decision followed a public hearing that began Friday.The project’s centrepiece is a 68-storey hotel tower reaching up to 1,034 feet (315 metres). It would contain 920 hotel rooms, a 70,000-square-foot conference centre with three ballrooms, and a public observation deck more than 1,000 feet above street level inside a glass dome. Access to the observation deck would be free for Vancouver residents under the rezoning conditions..Two residential towers would stand alongside it: one 68 storeys and 783 feet tall, the other 79 storeys and 889 feet. Together they would deliver 1,546 homes — 1,270 strata condominiums and 276 purpose-built rental units — plus more than 40,000 square feet of ground-level retail and restaurant space.A separate 25-storey tower at 388 Abbott St., on the edge of Gastown, is required as a condition of the residential phase. Holborn would build and turn over to the city 237 social housing units, a 37-space childcare facility and roughly 5,000 square feet of commercial or cultural space. Occupancy of the social housing must occur before the first market residential tower on the Georgia Street site can receive occupancy. The hotel and observation deck component can proceed independently.The hotel tower, if built to the approved height, would become the first technical “supertall” building (300 metres or taller) west of Toronto and the tallest structure in Western Canada. The two residential towers would rank among the tallest in Metro Vancouver..Holborn Group principal Joo Kim Tiah said the company intentionally placed the public observation deck and hotel uses in the tallest tower rather than private residences. “We made the decision from the start that the tallest tower would have to be publicly accessible,” he said.ABC councillor Peter Meiszner supported the application, calling the location ideal. “I can’t think of a better spot for Vancouver to have its tallest building. This is at the centre of downtown. This is connected by two rapid transit lines.”Councillors Pete Fry, Sean Orr, and Lucy Maloney opposed the application.An amendment from Orr seeking to delay the decision until the city completes a review of its Higher Buildings Policy was defeated..If built to the approved heights, the three towers would dramatically alter Vancouver’s skyline, introducing Western Canada’s first supertall building and permanently reshaping the downtown silhouette.
