Marcon has decided to develop a hotel instead of a condominium project in Vancouver’s West End.

The property is situated at 2030 Barclay Street near Lost Lagoon and the main entrance to Stanley Park.

Henriquez Partners Architects, the project’s designer, has filed a revised development application with the city on behalf of the local developer. The new proposal calls for a 29-storey hotel with 65 short-term rooms on the upper floors (levels 23-28) and 227 long-term “serviced apartment rooms” on levels 2-22.

If all goes according to plan, the ground floor will host a lobby, lounge, restaurant, and retail space accessible to the general public. Other amenities would include a rooftop pool.

“The location of the development within the ‘City Core’ and adjacent to Stanley Park make it a unique opportunity,” states the development application.

Marcon is proposing to redevelop the existing 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.

In posting the development application on its Shape Your City web platform, the City of Vancouver noted that the proposed project is not consistent with council policy. But the application asserts that the project would increase the variety and supply of needed hotel rooms, and benefit the local economy by creating jobs and providing job space.

“The existing hotel at 2030 Barclay will be revitalized with a new development that supports the city’s goal of creating more hotel rooms without the loss of housing,” Marcon’s application states. “This increase in hotel supply will also provide a variety of room types with a mix of short-term and longer stay accommodation (serviced apartments).”

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.

Marcon also wants the city to loosen the area’s building height restrictions, allowing for the 29-storey structure.

Rendering: City of Vancouver/Marcon/Henriquez Partners Architects