A unique office conversion into a boutique hotel in Vancouver is set to begin construction later this year as the city posts Canada's lowest office vacancy rate and shows greater interest in hotel development.
Located at 1111 West Hastings St. in Vancouver's central business district, the 13-storey building was acquired for $70-million last year by developer Reliance Properties and Quebec-based Germain Hotels. Their joint vision is to develop a fully Canadian-owned-and-operated property with 150-200 rooms. While Germain has 20 hotels across Canada, the one on West Hastings Street would be its first in British Columbia, which reported the highest hotel occupancy rate across the country in 2025.
Office conversions are happening across other major Canadian cities such as Calgary and Toronto. However, these often include transforming commercial space into residential units. Office-to-hotel conversions are more rare, which is what makes the Reliance-Germain partnership stand out.
The Opportunity
When Reliance Properties saw 1111 West Hastings St. on the market, development director Joanna Kwan knew it would suit the hotel property that Reliance wanted to build with Germain Hotels. "We've known Germain for many years. Informally, we've always been looking for opportunities to work together," says Ms. Kwan, noting the building's floor plate – the square footage of its floors – is especially appealing since it makes up a perfect square. "It was perfect for hotel conversion."
Before finding the building, which was constructed in 1966 and previously owned by Golden Properties Ltd., the hotel they were envisioning was between 150 and 200 suites – a perfect fit for 1111 West Hastings St. After Reliance Properties told Germain Hotels about the building, Germain executives flew to Vancouver to see it and agreed to partner on the project.
In a press release, Germain Hotels' now co-president, Hugo Germain, called the company's expansion to Vancouver a "major milestone" as it grows coast to coast. The forthcoming hotel's differentiator is that both Reliance and Germain are family-owned Canadian companies, whereas many new hotels developed in Vancouver are with U.S. conglomerates such as Marriott, Hyatt or Hilton, Ms. Kwan says.
Engineering a Conversion
In addition to the height and floor plate of a building, another key trait that determines whether it is suitable for conversion is the location of its elevator shafts. If the shafts are in the wrong place, it may result in awkward floorplans, an inefficient number of suites or too much alterations for the project to make sense. With 1111 West Hastings St., the elevator shafts are right in the middle of the square building, allowing it to be efficiently surrounded by suites, according to a floorplan shared by Ms. Kwan, who has an engineering and architecture background.
While the height, floor plate and elevator core usually remain intact in office conversions, all other features may be modified, with many conversions often requiring a full gutting to keep up with modern-day construction. For 1111 West Hastings St., Ms. Kwan says they are replacing all of the electrical and mechanical systems. While the existing office building does not have many internal walls, the developers will remove the drywalls and washrooms. They'll also make minor seismic upgrades and retain much of the architectural fenestration, the overall design of the building façade, although they're considering the possibility of replacing the exterior glass to improve energy efficiency.
A Market in Need of Hotels
However, the financial side of conversion projects can sometimes be more challenging than the physical build. Calgary has seen more than 20 conversion projects because of the city's incentive program that provides $75 per square foot of office space converted – an initiative that was set up because of the city's office surplus of three-million square feet. Vancouver has no such program. Ms. Kwan says she asked the city about potential financial assistance, but the city wasn't interested. What the city has shown interest in is hotels. Last April, city council approved Vancouver's Hotel Development Policy with the hope of spurring more hotel projects.
What helped the West Hasting Street hotel project is that it did not require a rezoning, says Ms. Kwan. The city was also open to processing the development application faster, saving Reliance Properties a significant amount of time to help move the project forward. The property is also intended to serve as a long-term asset for Reliance, which has several other hotel developments underway, making the project's costs easier to justify.
Ms. Kwan says the existing office tenants will be moving out by the end of September. In the meantime, Reliance plans to create mock-up hotel suites in the existing vacant space before construction formally begins in October. Construction is expected to be complete in late 2028, with the hotel opening in early 2029.
