815 Hornby Street has been sold to Reliance Properties and will be redeveloped.
The six-storey office building was constructed in 1980, then known as the Northwest Trust Building. It consists of 61,535 square feet, with office space over ground floor retail. Retail tenants include MAC cosmetics, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ollie Quinn and others.
In a recent interview with urbanYVR, Reliance Properties President and CEO Jon Stovell said plans are still being worked out for the property, but it could include residential, office or mixed-use — possibly a hotel.
Several hotel chains were reported to be looking for space in downtown Vancouver prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, including RIU and the Four Seasons, who recently closed their long-standing hotel at Pacific Centre. The building will reopen under a different hotel brand once renovations are complete.
Photos: 815 Hornby acquired by Reliance Properties
In addition to the acquisition of 815 Hornby, Stovell says they are currently working on plans for the 500-block of Richards Street, a land assembly that could end up being a two-office tower scheme.
Reliance owns a small office building with ground floor retail at Richards and Dunsmuir — an area that is rapidly changing with the incoming arrival of Amazon at The Post. The tech giant is already moved into a new office building adjacent to The Post at Homer and Dunsmuir.
Stovell says he sees lots of opportunities in downtown commercial real estate over the long-term.
“We have office buildings that we currently own that 15 years ago — we’re our flagship eight-storey building. We are currently working on rezoning applications for a number of those as well, because as time goes by, all of these properties need to densify.”
“We did a study a few years ago on the average height of buildings in downtown Vancouver and it was surprisingly low. In the long run, a lot of the smaller buildings are all going to have to densify and get built out further,” he says.
Reliance is planning three new floors of office space over its property at 837 Beatty Street. The project will include a complete heritage restoration of the existing building, built in 1911.
