A vacant downtown Vancouver site will become a hotel after its previous owner scrapped plans to develop a strata office tower, according to a published report.

Bonnis Properties sold the property, located at the corner of Robson and Seymour streets, to an unidentified international hotelier, says the report. The publication cited Kerry Bonnis, whose family owns Vancouver-based Bonnis Properties, as the source of the information.

According to the report, the proposed hotel’s developer has submitted a development application to build a 30-storey hotel.

Bonnis told an interviewer that the strata office market has “basically, completely disappeared since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

The divestment of the Robson and Seymour asset comes after Bonnis Properties scrapped plans to build a 17-storey office tower nearby as part of the Commodore Ballroom redevelopment in downtown Vancouver.

Kerry Bonnis has attributed the firm’s decision to a lack of demand for large-use office space.

Pictured: Former proposed strata-office redevelopment of a vacant downtown Vancouver site

Rendering: Perkins & Will