Cadillac Fairview has served notice that it plans to demolish downtown Vancouver’s former Four Seasons Hotel and replace it with a new mixed-use tower.

The Four Seasons was built in the 1970s and contained 372 rooms and 25,000 square feet of ballroom space, according to Daily Hive Urbanized.

Toronto-based Cadillac Fairview revealed its plans in responses to queries from media outlets following a Daily Hiver Urbanized report about the company’s intentions. The former luxury hotel has sat empty since Four Seasons’ lease was not renewed in 2020 amid a dispute between Cadillac Fairview and the hotelier about the condition of the property, according to multiple reports.

Cadillac Fairview previously announced plans to renovate the existing hotel for for continued hospitality use. But Cadillac Fairview told Daily Hive Urbanized that the company had changed its plans.

A City of Vancouver spokesperson told CBC that Cadillac Fairview has filed a demolition application that is currently under review.

The company has told multiple media outlets that it’s too early to say how the former hotel will be redeveloped. But Cadillac Fairview indicated that the new structure will contain a hospitality component.

“Cadillac Fairview’s plans for the new tower are aimed at bringing exciting uses to the centre, which would continue to include a hospitality offering,” a company spokesperson told Daily Hive Urbanized. 

Tourism industry groups have called for the original use to be retained as the Vancouver region grapples with a dire shortage of hotel rooms in advance of future major global events.

The hotel sits on a podium, the CF Pacific Centre mall, a major retail centre that would remain in place. But Cadillac Fairview said the transformation of the former Nordstrom department store will be included in the hotel’s redevelopment.

The former department store, also part of Pacific Centre, sits on the southwest corner of Granville and West Georgia streets, across Georgia from the former hotel. Following Nordstrom’s exist, the former department store was converted to an office building that is mostly leased by Microsoft.

In decades gone by, the building housed Sears and Eaton’s department stores. The Eaton’s chain was the original user.

Both the Sears and Eaton’s chains are now defunct.

Cadillac Fairview has indicated that it is also too early to determine the future of the former department-store property.

Photo: Four Seasons