A new rezoning application calls for a 15-storey, mixed-use development just off Main Street in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant Industrial Area (MPIA) — uniquely combining a sizeable hotel on top of creative/light industrial space and artist studios, along with a highly complicated retention and restoration of existing heritage buildings on the site.
Designed by Henriquez Partners Architects, this is a redevelopment of 124-148 East 6th Avenue — located on a mid-block site near the southwest corner of the intersection of Main Street and East 6th Avenue, and strategically only a five-minute walk north from SkyTrain’s future Mount Pleasant Station.
The project is being developed by 1000A Holdings — a family company associated with Sylvia House, which specializes in heritage-focused property management and development. The company points to its previous work at Yaletown Square and other Vancouver properties as examples of blending historic preservation with contemporary additions.
Site of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver, with the walking distance from SkyTrain’s future Mount Pleasant Station also shown. (Google Maps)
Existing condition:
Site of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Future condition:
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
A key feature of this proposal is the retention and integration of two heritage buildings that are well over a century old.
The Donnaconna Apartments, a three-storey wood-frame building constructed in the early 1910s in the Classical Edwardian style, is valued for its connection to the early development of Mount Pleasant and its refined, symmetrical brick facade. Under the proposal, the building’s north facade and side wall returns would be carefully documented and deconstructed, and then reconstructed using the same salvaged bricks and other materials by integrating them into the new tower’s East 6th Avenue facade. The internal structure would not be retained.
The James Black House, built in 1891, is deemed to be an early example of Mount Pleasant’s Victorian-era residential architecture. The house would be lifted from its foundations and relocated a few metres to the western edge of the property, while maintaining its frontage along East 6th Avenue. The entire structure and facade would be restored, and new legal heritage protections would be seen.
As well, the Black House would continue to be used as artist studios, with the space secured as affordable for artists. Public art would also be another design feature for the facade, particularly large murals on select walls.
Existing condition:
Site of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Future condition:
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
The first three floors of the 171 ft. tall tower would be largely dedicated to creative/light industrial uses, totalling about 23,600 sq. ft. This meets the municipal government’s policies for mixed-use hotel projects within the MPIA, where industrial uses are protected. These high-ceiling floors are intended to support a range of production-based businesses, such as a brewery, commercial kitchen, artisan workshops, small-scale manufacturing, research and development, tech firms, and perhaps even more artist studios.
Directly above the industrial floors, there would be about 115,000 sq. ft. of hotel uses.
The entire fourth level would be dedicated to the hotel’s lobby/check-in reception, restaurant, lounge, and meeting spaces. Hotel guests would enter the building through the hotel’s main entrance in the Donnaconna Apartments’ facade on the eastern edge of the property, and then reach the hotel levels using elevators.
Levels five through 14 would contain a total of 140 hotel guest rooms, with 14 rooms on each floor. Level 15 would feature a fitness centre and an outdoor terrace offering panoramic views.
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
Three underground levels would provide 68 vehicle parking stalls. In total, the building would have about 141,000 sq. ft. of floor area — including 2,900 sq. ft. within the preserved Black House — establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is nine times larger than the size of the 15,700 sq. ft. lot.
This is the third hotel project within the vicinity of Mount Pleasant Station, including another mixed-use hotel and industrial project just to the south at 75 East 8th Ave., where a 22-storey tower is proposed.
And just to the north at the two sites of 1940 Main St. and 143 East 3rd Ave., there is a separate proposal to build two hotel towers with a major Filipino Cultural Centre.
If all three hotel projects are realized, there would be roughly 900 new hotel guest rooms within the vicinity of the new subway station located at the intersection of East Broadway and Main Street. The project at 124-148 East 6th Ave. would be the smallest of the hotels.
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
Concept of 124-148 East 6th Ave., Vancouver. (Henriquez Partners Architects/1000A Holdings)
The area is expected to see immense high-density change due to the subway and the City’s Broadway Plan and more recent hotel development policies, which were created to help catalyze more hotel projects to address Vancouver’s looming major hotel room shortage.
The 124-148 East 6th Ave. development site is also just across the street from the future major City Centre Motel redevelopment. Immediately to the north, a new 12-storey office and industrial building that restores the on-site heritage SFU Annex schoolhouse was approved in 2022, but this project appears to have stalled due to the current weak demand for such uses in the area.
The site is also just west of the social housing building with Steamworks Brewing Mount Pleasant Kitchen & Taphouse.