City staff recommend demolition for derelict vacant building in downtown Vancouver

The City of Vancouver’s chief building official has deemed a 176-room hotel in the heart of the city’s downtown too derelict and poorly maintained to remain standing.

Saul Schwebs details his concerns in a 32-page report that goes before city council on Wednesday.

“We went in and took a look on Halloween day,” Schwebs told CTV News. “It’s actually the best haunted house in Vancouver.”

Originally opened as the Hotel Dunsmuir in 1908, the building at the corner of Dunsmuir and Richards streets has also been home to the Salvation Army.

It was most recently an SRO but it has sat empty since 2013.

Interior photos contained in the city’s report show holes in the top floor ceiling where water has apparently been pouring in unabated for years, causing the floors to rot.

Parts of the main floor have actually collapsed into the basement.

Schwebs says the design of the building requires the floors to remain intact because they provide support for the exterior walls – which he says are at risk of crumbling down, posing a risk to the public.

The report also details hazardous building materials and a high amount of “wildlife biowaste” which Schwebs says is mostly from pigeons who have made the building their home.

"We thought perhaps it would be possible to save it, but there's just no good place to start the work,” he said. “It's not safe to even begin doing the repairs necessary. So, it's left us no choice but to ask council to demolish it."

Ultimately, it will be up to city council to determine the building’s fate.

"I think it's horrifying,” said ABC councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung. “I was really taken aback when I read this report."

Holborn Properties owns the building and says it is committed to acting in the best interest of public safety.

"We have long held intentions to redevelop this location, which have included extensive discussions with the city, incorporating 500 Dunsmuir St. into a broader vision for revitalization to the benefit of the community. We remain committed to this process,” the company said in a statement.

Holborn is no stranger to controversy related to its Vancouver real estate holdings.

It’s held on to a 15-acre site in Little Mountain since 2008 when it demolished 224 social housing units – with a promise to build new homes.

So far, it has delivered only a few dozen.

In the middle of a housing crisis, the 176 units in the Dunsmuir building have sat empty for more than a decade with no apparent upkeep.

"I'm going to be asking a lot of questions. At face value, it looks like this building was allowed, willfully to decay,” said Kirby-Yung.

According to Schwebs, his office does not have as much authority to regulate unoccupied buildings as he would like.

He told CTV News he is working with council to amend and update the bylaws around vacant buildings so that his office will have more authority to compel owners to maintain them before they reach an irreversible state of disrepair.