Vancouver city council has decided to hold a public hearing on Marcon’s plan to develop a hotel instead of a condominium project in the city’s West End.

Councillors approved a recommendation from city staff this week. The property is situated at 2030 Barclay Street near Lost Lagoon and the main entrance to Stanley Park.

The decision to hold the public hearing comes after Henriquez Partners Architects, the project’s designer, filed a revised development application with the city on behalf of the local developer, calling for the hotel instead of condos. Henriquez Partners subsequently reduced the size of the proposed hotel to 25 storeys from 29 and 270 rooms from 292. The suites would include 65 short-term rooms on the upper floors and 205 long-term “serviced apartment rooms” underneath.

If all goes according to plan, the ground floor will include a restaurant. Other amenities would include a swimming pool.

Marcon is seeking to redevelop the Rosellen Suites at Stanley Park hotel. Originally, Marcon intended to develop a 10-storey luxury condo project containing 19 units on the site. The city approved the original development application in 2022.

City council has identified hotel development as a priority, and Destination Vancouver has reported that the region would need 20,000 new hotel rooms by 2050 to meet demand. Of those news rooms, 10,000 are necessary in Vancouver alone.

Since the city’s West End plan predates its interim hotel policy, the proposed project can only be approved by council through site-specific rezoning, according to the application.

City staff have recommended that council support the project. But according to Postmedia, the project has received more opposition than support from the public.

Rendering: City of Vancouver/Marcon/Henriquez Partners Architects