It could take up to 20 years to return Granville Street to its former glory as the city’s main entertainment and hospitality district, but developer Stanley Dee figures his recently approved hotel project will be part of that success.

Roughly three years after proposing a two-hotel tower at the corner of Davie and Granville streets, Deecorp Properties' 464 room, 33-storey tower has been approved by city council. “It's passed a public hearing meaning, basically, it's approved,” Dee told RENX. “We still have to do some legal work to have the full rezoning in hand.”

He said the project will undergo some final design work and negotiations with hotel operators, and it could potentially open for business by 2029 at the earliest.

Dee, Deecorp’s founder, said the project was held up while members of the ownership group mulled the idea of spending nearly half a billion dollars building a hotel in a neighbourhood that has been dealing with street disorder associated partly with troubled social housing projects.

He said the province’s decision to close the 110-unit Luugat SRO across the street from the development site convinced the owners it is safe to move forward with the hotel project.

"The city had talked about moving it, and planned to move it… but we said… we need to see hard evidence that it really is happening," Dee said, acknowledging that social housing is important to have in the city but that it shouldn't be so concentrated, especially in a key entertainment district. 

Tower will have two hotel banners 

Designed by Musson Cattell Mackey Architects, the hotel, to be located at 717 Davie St. will have two banners, but there's been no decision on which hotel brands will occupy the space, Dee said. 

To breathe new life into the district, the City of Vancouver in 2023 started a planning process on a new vision for a length of Granville in the downtown core. The Granville Street Planning program “aims to re-establish Granville as an exciting, welcoming, safe and inclusive downtown destination," according to its mandate.  

Local tourism agency Destination Vancouver has said the region requires nearly 21,000 new hotel rooms by 2040 to keep pace with demand and to mitigate lost tourism spending.

Dee said ther own measurements don’t add up to that much, but they agree many more hotel rooms must be added and that demand will be there for the new project. 

He said the new hotel will include roughly 280 long-stay suites located in the tower above 180 full-service hotel rooms. 

Dee said the rehabilitation of Granville as a clean, safe and thriving entertainment district will probably take 20 years. "We're going to be a part of it."

Bosa Properties, Listel break ground on Robson hotel

Meanwhile, Bosa Properties and Listel Hospitality Group broke ground recently at 1300 Robson St. on a 183-room hotel to be operated under The Unbound Collection by Hyatt. The project also includes 133 rental homes. 

Listel Hospitality Group had previously closed the 129-room Listel Hotel Vancouver in 2024 at the site for redevelopment.

Designed by Henriquez Partners Architects and Studio Paolo Ferrari, the project will also have a restaurant fronting Robson St. Completion is anticipated in 2029.

Bijan Lalji, senior associate with Avison Young in Vancouver, said there are several other new hotel projects downtown, including two in Gastown.

"That's really positive just based on the demand that we see in this city and in this province, not just from an end-consumer perspective, but also from an investor perspective," he said.

Vancouver was the country’s strongest-performing hotel market in 2025, according to data provided to RENX by Avison Young. It showed occupancy was 78.4 per cent (up slightly from last year); while the average daily room rate remained strong at $284. Revenue per available room also stayed steady at $223.

Lalji said overall demand for hotel rooms in the region should be enough to support the planned hotel projects.

"The World Cup is going to add additional pressure to the market, because we are supply constrained," Lalji said, adding that Vancouver is a global city which will continue to attract other top events, concerts and tourism.