Once more, Holborn Properties has drawn the ire of local residents and Vancouver City Council, who said in a special meeting on December 18 that the developer has put them in a tough position, essentially forcing them to order the demolition of a valued heritage building.
That heritage building is known as the Dunsmuir Hotel or Dunsmuir House and sits at 500 Dunsmuir Street in the heart of downtown Vancouver, at the intersection with Richards Street, on the other side of which is the Holy Rosary Cathedral. It was designed by Parr & Fee, constructed by contractor David Gibb in 1908, and served as one of the largest hotel's in Vancouver in the early 1900s.
According to The Tyee, the property was sold to the Government of Canada in 1942, who used it as accommodations for merchant seamen and then sold it to the Salvation Army in 1949. It was then acquired by Geoff and Tanya Hughes around 2001, then acquired by Holborn Properties — the Vancouver arm of Malaysia-based real estate giant TA Global — in 2006.
In 2007, Holborn submitted a rezoning inquiry for a redevelopment that would see the heritage building retained, but the project didn't move forward and Holborn later leased the property to BC Housing, which operated it as a single room occupancy (SRO) building. The condition of the property steadily deteriorated, however, and the shelter was closed in 2013. The property has remained vacant ever since.
The state of the building likely may have gone undetected had City of Vancouver Chief Building Official (CBO) and Director of Building Policy Saul Schwebs not taken the initiative of inspecting the building.
"I was just tired of thinking about this 167-room building sitting empty and wanted to go see what it looked like and see if we could make something of it," he said, responding to a question from Mayor Ken Sim during the meeting on why he exercised his power as CBO to enter the property in February 2024. "That's why I went."
"My life changed in April 2017 when a properties inspector walked me through the Balmoral Hotel for the first time, while it was still occupied," he said. "I'm from a small town in the midwest, a privileged upbringing, and my world changed. To be honest, I was frustrated in that moment because that was a building City inspectors have been going in and out of for 20 years, and it was still in this condition and we still had to close it because it [became] structurally unsound. That really leads me and inspires me in my service to this community — to try to make sure we have safe housing for everybody, especially the most vulnerable."
Inside The Dilapidated Dunsmuir Hotel
After seeing numerous problems during his visit in February, Schwebs and aDB Engineering returned to the building in early-November and found the true extent of the building's deterioration, which had even changed substantially since his initial visit.
"The roof at each of the two skylight locations is visibly lower than the drainage scuppers preventing the area from fully draining and thus allowing ponding (the accumulation of water) locally in these areas," the firm said in its assessment report. "This water ponding can create significant structural issues for the supporting timber assembly due to the added weight of the accumulating water."
Schwebs added that he was particularly concerned that snow would add to this weight even more and possibly trigger a collapse of the roof and floors below. He said he estimates water has been leaking down from the roof for up to 10 years in some areas, and that environment consultants he spoke to were not even comfortable performing tests due to the potential dangers.
"At the time of our inspection, water was actively dripping through the ceiling in many locations indicating that an extensive area of the roofing membrane is likely compromised allowing water into the building," aDB Engineering noted in their report, discussing the fifth floor of the building. "The most extensive areas of water ingress and material saturation were found around the two skylights. In these areas, the ceilings had locally collapsed, and the exposed roof timbers had been structurally compromised because of rot. Also found in these areas, the stud walls were rotten and had buckled under the weight of the roof and in some locations punched through into the rotten floor below."
They added that similar conditions were seen on the fourth, third, and second floors, with most of the areas of rot and saturation located in the back of the building and the most degraded concentrated around the areas beneath the roof skylights.
aDB Engineering
"The [main] floor at the southeast corner is severely compromised with a substantial portion having fully collapsed into the basement," they said, discussing the main level of the building. "The ceiling directly over this area is saturated and was also actively dripping water at the time of our inspection. The collapsed areas have significant damage to the structural members with some larger timber beams and columns completely severed due to the extent of rot."
Like a fish, a building rots from the top down, and the building's rot has even reached the basement.
"The damp environment of the basement has allowed extensive growth of mold on the walls and ceiling of the basement," aDB Engineering's report notes. "It is interesting to note that this collapsed floor area does not support any weight from the upper floors. The collapse of this area would have been triggered only by its self-weight, hence an indication of very extensive structural decay caused by rot."
Even the building's exterior had signs of deterioration that were visible to the naked eye.
"Localized areas of brick showed signs of in-plane vertical shear stress, failed mortar and brick spalling," they noted. "As previously noted, the brick façade along Richards St. and Dunsmuir St. is supported by steel beams on steel columns. The base of these steel columns are clad with a single wythe of brick. At the base of some of these columns, the bricks are cracked, spalling and in some locations, bricks are missing. In some locations, the steel base plates of the steel columns are exposed and rusting. At one column location, the brick cladding has laterally buckled out of plane from the face of the building exposing the steel column behind."
"Egregious Behaviour"
The dilapidated state of the building makes even partial retention of the heritage components of the building challenging, Schwebs said, such as the façade and cornices. There's no guarantee those heritage components won't just disintegrate upon touch and the building could collapse on its own at any given time — a possibility made more likely by inclement weather. Making the situation more challenging is that although the Dunsmuir Hotel is a registered heritage building, only some registered heritage buildings are subject to heritage protection and the Dunsmuir Hotel is not one of them.
Saving the entire building is not possible, Schwebs said, as the building is "too far gone." It's unclear if the façade could be retained, but he said he was recommending against it due to the amount of time it would require. He said the cornices — the horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building — could potentially be retained during the demolition process, held, and reused later on. Due to the urgency, Schwebs said he was recommending the building be demolished within 21 days, rather than the default requirement of 30 days.
Multiple councillors said that Holborn Properties had put them in a tough position, but particularly angry was Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, who opened her question time by asking whether the City has any "legal recourse" for what she views to be "willful neglect of the building," such as conditions on a future rezoning.
A member of the City's legal services team, Grant Murray, who was present at the meeting, said that one potential tool is the City's Single Room Accommodations Bylaw, which was amended in 2023 to raise the charge of converting or demolishing SRO buildings to $300,000 per door. Under the bylaw, the definition of "demolition" was amended then to include allowing the property "to become so unsafe or so dilapidated or unclean that it results in the building, or one or more designated rooms in the building, being subject to an order under section 324A of the Vancouver Charter that it be demolished or removed." With 167 rooms, the fee that could potentially be charged for 500 Dunsmuir would be $50,100,000.
A postcard from 1910 depicting the Dunsmuir Hotel. / blizzy63, Flickr
Kirby-Yung later proposed an amendment to Schweb's recommendations that directs staff to "report back on any legal avenues the City of Vancouver may have to seek recourse for the apparent neglect of the subject building and loss of heritage by the property owner" and "any avenues Council has to seek compensation as part of future rezoning applications the property owner may pursue." She also called what has transpired as "egregious behaviour" by Holborn multiple times and said that Holborn submitted a letter to Council with what she described as "a litany of excuses."
After Schwebs said that he has been in contact with Holborn and that Holborn has been contact with a demolition team, Kirby-Yung then suggested that demolishing the building rather than retaining it was the outcome Holborn wanted all along.
"So that's the one thing they've been motivated to do with speed? Not maintain the building, but they're suddenly responsive and enthusiastic about demolishing it?"
Responding to Kirby-Yung's question, Schweb said that "It would appear so."
"I think Council is being placed in a terrible position, but here we are," she said. "I think it appears — and I'll say 'appears' — that the property owner has acted, in my opinion, egregiously and has allowed this building to decay. It has heritage value [...] regardless of its actual heritage status. [...] I would've loved to hear from them today. The fact that they haven't bothered to show up I think says a lot. [...] The fact that they didn't show up I think is insulting."
Holborn Properties
In addition to 500 Dunsmuir, Holborn Properties also owns most of the parcels that make up the block bound by Dunsmuir Street, Richards Street, W Georgia Street, and Seymour Street.
Those include the vacant lot at 619 Richards Street, the commercial property at 620 Seymour Street and 626 Seymour Street, the vacant lot at 644 Seymour Street, the multi-level parkade with ground-level retail space at 646 Seymour Street known as Parkwell Plaza, the commercial building at 698 Seymour Street (legally known as 692 Seymour Street), and the small retail property at 501 W Georgia Street. While BC Assessment values 500 Dunsmuir at just $8,102,000, the entire land assembly has a total assessed value, dated to July 1, 2023, of $174,863,000 — $112,502,100 of which comes from Parkwell Plaza.
The eight properties are held under 500 Dunsmuir Property Ltd., 620 Seymour Property Ltd., Parkwell Parkade Corporation, and Holborn Real Estate Ltd., according to the Land Owner Transparency Registry.
Holborn Properties CEO Joo Kim Tiah. / Holborn Properties
"It has always been our intention to redevelop 500 Dunsmuir to benefit the community and its residents, incorporating the building into a broader vision for revitalization," said Holborn's Director of Asset Management Lee Medd in a statement provided to STOREYS following the special council meeting. "We recognize the historical context of the site and regret that it has remained idle for so long. We acknowledge the responsibility we have had and do have."
"Despite years of engagement with the city, including submission of concepts, progress on our redevelopment plans has not materialized," Medd added. "However, 500 Dunsmuir is our building, and we are committed to continuing to work with the City and the community on a project that addresses housing needs, contributes to revitalization and safety, and respects the area's significance."
What has particularly angered many, as mentioned by Councillor Pete Fry during the meeting, is that Holborn is also the developer behind the Little Mountain project, which has been a source of frustration for over a decade. After acquiring the 15-acre site in 2008 from the Province in what has been described as a "sweetheart deal," Holborn demolished the social housing buildings on the site around 2012, but has been slow to replace them as required.
"Holborn certainly knows how to sit on land and let it appreciate," said Colleen Hardwick, who served on Council from 2018 to 2022 and ran for Mayor in 2022, on Twitter earlier this week, speaking about 500 Dunsmuir. "Allowing this heritage building to continuously deteriorate is true to their playbook. The City should not roll over yet again. Restore or pay the penalty. Don't fall for it and let them profit further."
At the end of the 90-minute special meeting on Wednesday, Council ultimately voted unanimously to declare 500 Dunsmuir Street a danger to public safety, to order Holborn to demolish the building within 21 days, and to direct staff to report back with options for legal recourse against Holborn.
