Opposition to a high-rise hotel in the West End
2028 Barclay Street
2028-2038 Barclay St rezoning application. This is replacing a four-storey hotel in the West End, close to Stanley Park, with a 25-storey hotel.
My usual view of housing is: people want to live and work here; other people want to build housing for them; we should let them.
Similarly with this hotel project. People want to visit Vancouver and stay in the West End; other people want to build a hotel (short-term housing) for them; we should let them.
There’s intense opposition to this project, and my impression from ABC councillors’ questions is that they’re hesitating. Public hearing agenda: 94 comments in support, 296 opposed. The public hearing will continue on March 5, starting at 3 pm.
The human importance of hotels
A Bluesky thread by Brendan Dawe:
So it’s broadly recognized that Vancouver needs more hotel rooms, that high room rates driven by high occupancy are a drag on the local economy, that the city needs to facilitate the construction of more hotels. All of this is true.
I want to speak to the human importance of hotels.My wife and I live in a two bedroom condo in the West End. Previously this meant that visiting family and friends could sleep on an air mattress in the home office. Lots of people have less room than that in your typical Vancouver apartment.
Three weeks ago this spare room turned into the wee baby Sam’s room.
Thankfully we have had wonderful help from the new grandparents who have come to help us settle in.
But the thing is that none of these live near here. They gotta stay in hotels.So I think it’s a pretty good thing that someone is proposing building a 270 unit hotel a few blocks from where we live www.shapeyourcity.ca/2030-2038-barclay-st
Even if a new hotel is beyond the price point of friends and family it will help restrain room rates at older hotels in the neighbourhood.In a big city where people live in apartments it’s not a frivolity that people can come visit and have a place to stay.
Another example that Brendan points out: hospitals. Vancouver’s large enough to support specialized healthcare, which means that people from all across BC need to travel here. When they’re not actually hospitalized, they need a place to stay, and if they need family support, their respective family members also need a place to stay.
Lack of hotel space results in high demand for Airbnb
Why Vancouver’s hotel shortage is driving our housing crisis. Margareta Dovgal, Daily Hive.
Vancouver is short roughly 10,000 hotel guest rooms. That shortage didn’t materialize overnight. It steadily built for decades. While Vancouver continues to be a gem to visit (and there’s no evidence that that’s going to change), the shortage will not resolve itself. It has also steadily, and entirely predictably, fuelled a massive proliferation of short-term rentals.
In the absence of enough legitimate options for visitors, the market didn’t politely wait for Vancouver City Council to act. It routed around the problem and entire buildings were bought out and listed on Airbnb. That’s in large part why the provincial government cracked down on short-term rentals across B.C.
But as my neighbours and I can attest, there are still many units that should be housing people but are instead being rented out to visitors on the sly. Better enforcement won’t get us out of this problem when it’s really about the fundamental economics.
Failing to build enough legitimate hotels has created the phenomenon we see today of ghost hotels operated by absentee landlords.
We need those very apartments doing what apartments are supposed to do: housing young professionals, small families, and elderly couples who want to age in their neighbourhood.
Kareem Allam and the “Vancouver Liberals” are opposed
Whenever a new mayoral candidate enters the race, I have a chart that I update:
Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals - like the old BC Liberals, they’re not affiliated with the federal Liberals - claim that they’re the most pro-housing party in the race. But as Reilly Wood points out, they’re opposed to the Barclay hotel.
Brennan Bastyovansky and Kareem Allam show up in the thread to try to defend their position.
Reilly:
I get it, it's tough out there and if you want to get elected you could do worse than courting the NIMBY vote. But if you do that you will wear it, you can't have your cake and eat it too.
I’m surprised that Kareem’s taken this position. He should know that the public hearing process tends to amplify the voices of opponents. To me this is a good example of a miniature political campaign. A hundred people speaking at a public hearing is a lot, but a hundred votes in an election isn’t much.
More
Marcon Cancels 10-Storey West End Condo Project, Pivots To 29-Storey Hotel. Howard Chai, Storeys, November 2024.
City Of Vancouver Introduces New Hotel Development Policy. Howard Chai, Storeys, April 2025.
Two Park Board commissioners oppose proposed West End hotel tower over Stanley Park proximity. Kenneth Chan, Daily Hive, February 2026. The other opponent is Tom Digby.
Controversial Vancouver tower project at Broadway and Birch pivots from market rentals to medical lodging. Joanne Lee-Young, Vancouver Sun, December 2025.
It looks like you’ll have to update the chart.
The local tax pressure results from rent increases due to building resales in the area in response to the ease with which the planning department could break up the West End plan. The landlord can pass those on through the Residential Tenancy Act provisions for the ARE. Most of the immediate block is occupied by senior tenants. This part of the West End is heavily populated with long term renters. In fact many opponents of this particular building are neither anti-density not anti-hotel. They have spoken in favour of a boutique hotel, like the one on the site. This is a commercial operation that is being sited through a planning loophole. It will have a detrimental impact on the West End Community plan affordability and the West End. The owner originally applied to develop a ten story apartment building, which had little or no opposition.