The three-storey Greenbrier Hotel, located at the corner of Robson and Broughton in Vancouver’s West End, has sold after returning to market earlier this year. The historic 1956 property, which had previously operated for decades as a boutique hotel before transitioning into short-term furnished rentals, received multiple offers shortly after being re-listed on February 18th.
The property
- Type: Hotel / apartment building
- Neighbourhood: West End
- Units: 32
- Lot size: 66’ × 131’ (8,646 SF)
- Storeys: 3
- Year built: 1956
- Parking: 17 secured stalls
- Zoning: C-6 Commercial
- Taxes: $313,289.00
- Time on market: 84 days
- Listed price: $17,900,000
- Selling price: Finalised May 19th
- Listing agent: Goodman Commercial Inc.
Set a few blocks away from Stanley Park and Coal Harbour, the property is positioned within walking distance of several of downtown Vancouver’s best restaurants and shopping districts. The location, combined with the site’s redevelopment potential, contributed to strong interest from buyers almost immediately after the listing launched.
“The response was tremendous,” says Mark Goodman, principal at Goodman Commercial Inc. and publisher of The Goodman Report, adding there were over 50 responses from both Canadian and international interested buyers. Five offers were made and, after the initial offer fell through, the property was ultimately sold to the second bidder.
The sale
According to Goodman, the property first hit the market in July of 2019, but plans to sell were interrupted by the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020. Since the pandemic, the property was taken off the market, the nightly hotel operations ceased, and the property has only hosted a few tenants with short-term month-to-month rentals over the last two months.
The seller spent those years in discussion with the neighbouring Tropicana Suite Hotel at 1361 Robson Street, a 15-storey hotel property that would have expanded the site’s redevelopment possibilities. But, after the neighbouring owner passed away, those conversations ended and the Greenbrier Hotel was eventually brought back to the market earlier this year.
The big picture
Goodman says the buyer plans to continue operating the building as rentals in the near term while evaluating longer-term redevelopment opportunities for the site. Given the property’s prominent location, he believes a future high-rise project is likely. “They’re going to nurse along the property and rent it out until the inevitable happens,” he says. This inevitable, Goodman expects, will be a “ beautiful, shiny tower, likely offering a mix of hotel, ground-floor commercial, and residential.”
The sale reflects a pressure to develop more housing in Vancouver, particularly in dense neighbourhoods like the West End. Properties like the Greenbrier, which are capable of one day accommodating many people, are valuable as the city looks for ways to address the ongoing housing crisis.
“It is going to offer housing, whether that’s short-term rental, furnished rental, long-term residential tenancies, or as a hotel,” says Goodman. “It’s going to help ease the pressure for the West End, which is one of the densest communities in the world.”
