Views from the Hotel Georgia Residential Tower

I don’t usually write any work related posts as it would either be discussing a particular individual or be very uninteresting, or both.

However, I am currently working with a buyer who is interested in a suite in the new Residences at Hotel Georgia.

Hotel Georgia is a landmark hotel situated in the centre of Downtown, built in 1927 notable famous guests include Elvis Presley, Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Philip, Nat King Cole, The Beatles and apparently Errol Flynn died while a guest in the hotel although apparently he didn’t actually die in the hotel. Mum, Dad and I include some of the less famous guests from the early 90’s !

The hotel was sold in 2007 to a developer group who have renovated and transformed the building from a 315 room aging shabby Crowne Plaza into an elegant, upscale 155 room Rosewood. The old parking garage at the rear of the hotel has been demolished and in it’s place a 47 storey tower built with commercial on the lower 14 floors and then residential condo suites above.  Below the ground level are 8 floors of underground parking.

Just within the last couple of months Hotel Georgia re-opened after it’s multi-million dollar renovation.

This view from across Georgia St shows the old hotel in the foreground with the new residential/commercial tower under construction behind. You can see the large triangular balconies that extend from the uppermost units.

So, my buyer is interested in buying into the Residences at Hotel Georgia and while the tower is nowhere near completion it is possible to arrange with the developers to have access to different floors to get a sense of what the outlook from different units on different floors is like.

We donned our hardhats and took the noisy, rickety construction elevator up the outside of the building to the 17th floor where we gained these views South over the Hotel Georgia rooftop, across the art gallery and Robson Square beyond.

While my buyer doesn’t actually have the $9m budget for a top floor penthouse unit we were afforded the opportunity to take the elevator right up to the top to see the astounding views the lucky purchaser will eventually have.

The views are through the windows which were filthy, so some reflections and marks on the images.  I wasn’t brave or stupid enough to venture out onto the balconies at this level since they didn’t yet have their railings !

This view is North-West over the North Shore, the Lions peaking out to the left, Grouse Mountain straight ahead and Seymour on the right.

View North-East with Lower Lonsdale in the centre of the North Shore and Canada Place straight ahead of us on this side of the bay.

The view East over East Vancouver, Burnaby Mountain ahead.

The new Woodwards tower, this development completed in 2010 is iconic of the redevelopment of the Downtown Eastside – Woodwards was a long established chain of department stores and their first branch opened in 1892, before expanding in 1902 to this location at the corner of Georgia St and Abbott St, at the time the hub of Downtown Vancouver.  At the peak of the company boom the headquarters for Woodwards was based here and occupied nearly a whole city block while Woodwards department stores could be found throughout Western Canada.  However, during the last century the ‘downtown’ of Vancouver gradually shifted West towards it’s current location around Burrard & Georgia. 

The decline of the neighbourhood around the Woodwards building was rapid through the 1970’s an 1980’s.  Woodwards gradually sold their other Western Canada stores to The Hudson Bay Company hanging onto their original Vancouver location until their eventual bankruptcy in 1993. The buildings remained empty until squatters moved in in 2002.  Eventually the site was re-developed keeping some of the original heritage buildings and two new residential towers housing about 500 market value condos and around 200 affordable homes.  This development was seen as one of the significant first regeneration projects in the neighbourhood.

The Vancouver Public Library

Rogers Arena, formerly GM Place.

View East across East Vancouver, Burnaby and Metrotown on the skyline.

Here is one of the large triangular balconies facing South we could see from the ground looking up.

The view from the 47th floor looking South, high up over the top of the art gallery and Robson Square.

South-West view over the West End, English Bay and Vancouver Island just visible on the horizon.

West towards Stanley Park.

Finally after having a good look around at the excellent views from the top floor it’s time to take the metal cage elevator back down.  It was great to have the walk around and see the views from the top, as privately owned there won’t be many other opportunities in the future to visit the 47th floor of the Residences at Hotel Georgia !