Downtown Vancouver’s Granville Street is poised for a major transformation, and at the heart of it is a landmark project at 800 Granville that aims to inject life back to the city’s most storied entertainment strip.
This newly-approved development project proposed by Bonnis Properties will transform the block into a mixed-use destination featuring new housing, restaurants, retail and entertainment spaces. Alongside the additions, the project ensures full preservation of the Commodore Building and provides major operational upgrades to support the venue long-term.
How it started
For co-principal Kerry Bonnis of Bonnis Properties, the 800 Granville project began not with a design sketch but with a loading problem in one of Vancouver’s most storied music venues. More than 25 years ago, he and his brother, Dino, bought several properties around Granville Street including the Commodore. The brothers took a hands-on approach as landlords, staying in constant contact with tenants about how their businesses actually worked day to day. The consistent contact meant they heard often from the team at the Commodore Ballroom—an institution the brothers frequented since their teenage concert-going days—about the practical realities of running a sold-out venue in an aging building.
The Commodore occupied its entire site with no proper loading area, limited staircases and an antiquated freight elevator that often could not handle modern touring productions. Large shows meant crews had to haul gear up and down stairs, squeeze equipment that would not fit into the lift and wrestle with outdated back-of-house circulation.
“The team at the Commodore asked us if there was anything we could do to expand the Commodore or at least give them back-of-house facilities to improve efficiency,” Bonnis says. “So that was really the impetus for the entire project.”
The project
To tackle these issues, the project will add proper rear-loading facilities, efficient delivery and breakdown areas as well as proper waste management systems to replace the venue’s current setup. These upgrades aim to allow crews to handle larger productions with more gear while also accommodating coach buses for in-and-out access. It will also increase accessibility to both the Commodore and the Commodore Bowling Lanes located in the basement.
The project will also feature 523 rental homes, 100 hotel rooms and five levels of retail, restaurant and entertainment spaces. 73 below-market rental homes will also be replacing units in the long-vacant State Hotel. All the while, the project will preserve the historic facades of buildings such as the Service Building and the Cameron Block.
“There’s been a lot of stagnation in Vancouver in the last few decades,” Bonnis notes. “We have a lot to offer but one thing that’s been lacking in our city is a hustling and bustling dynamic city core.”
Under the leadership of Josh White and a new council, the city launched a broader Granville Street study last year, with 800 Granville acting as a catalyst. With this current project approved, Bonnis Properties is now awaiting approval on another mixed-use development at 1105 Granville. The proposed project will deliver 112 new hotel rooms and 176 rental homes as well as a restaurant terrace in an effort to bring more residents and visitors to Granville Street. Bonnis estimates that this will bring in at least 1000 occupants which would create more activity along Granville.
“Nothing beats having an exciting, populated downtown core where people are running to an arts and culture event or finishing work and having drinks with friends,” Bonnis says. “So I think we have a huge opportunity to create an exciting downtown, and with the direction of the current council and the new leadership and planning, I think everyone’s moving towards getting things happening.”
