An enormous addition to the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) campus was unanimously green-lighted by the Vancouver City Council during a public hearing on Thursday evening.
The entire 1.43-acre city block at the southeast corner of the intersection of Oak Street and West 12th Avenue will be redeveloped by the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation into two towers reaching 28 storeys and 26 storeys — up to 356 ft — containing about 885,000 sq. ft. of total building floor area for non-acute healthcare and clinical spaces.
The site at 900-990 West 12th Ave. — owned by the foundation — is immediately south of VGH’s Jim Pattison Pavilion tower and the Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre.
This will replace the 1958-built, three-storey rental apartment building with 26 units on the west parcel of the site, and the 1972-built, 14-storey Windermere Care Centre with 207 long-term care beds on the east parcel. These properties were acquired by the foundation in 2022 at a cost of $100 million.
“What truly distinguishes this project is how it is being delivered. It does not rely on government capital dollars,” said Angela Chapman, the president and CEO of the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, during the public hearing.
Site of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Site of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Existing condition:
Site of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Future condition:
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Vancouver Coastal Health to lease the towers for VGH campus uses
The foundation intends to fully privately cover the cost of building the project through fundraising and other donations that do not involve direct government contributions. This will expedite the realization of such facilities and free up Vancouver Coastal Health’s (VCH) financial capacity for other major projects related to expanding and improving acute-care hospital facilities across the street to the north.
After the project reaches completion, the foundation will lease the space to VCH, which will relocate and consolidate some of VGH’s existing aging and undersized spaces nearby, and offer modern and expanded spaces better meet long-term healthcare demand. Historically, the foundation has provided donor funding to support capital projects led by the health authority, but this time around, the charity is taking the lead.
“Through this unique model, the foundation retains the property, Vancouver Coastal Health leases the facilities, and every net dollar from those leases is reinvested directly back into patient care. This approach has become a signature strength of our foundation, enabling us to accelerate capital development, drive innovation and expand access to care in ways that complement and enhance the public system,” said Christina Anthony, volunteer chair of the foundation’s real estate development task force, during the session.
Mayor Ken Sim led City Council’s enthusiasm for the project during the public hearing, stating, “This project represents a modernization of facilities. It represents meaningful jobs. It represents better health outcomes. The model is incredibly innovative, there’s no use of government funds here, so it makes it sustainable, and it helps solve some problems that we are all struggling [with].”
Video animation of the approved massive Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at the southeast corner of the intersection of Oak Street and West 12th Avenue. #bcpoli #vanpoli #vanrehttps://t.co/BOVqUXZ9t7 pic.twitter.com/6cYYKTKdoV
— Kenneth Chan (@iamkennethchan) January 16, 2026
Existing condition:
Site of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Future condition:
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
New long-term care capacity will address acute-care hospital crowding
The first phase of the project will begin with the larger west tower with roughly 545,000 sq. ft., nearly the same size as the Jim Pattison Pavilion. The first five levels will provide a surgical oncology unit, transplant clinics, hematology programs, seniors’ care, women’s health, complex medicine, and the Cardiac Innovation Centre.
The uppermost levels of the west tower will be used for clinical support and physician offices.
As well, within the mid-section of this west tower, 10 floors will be dedicated to 280 long-term care beds, which achieves a significant temporary net gain in capacity for such beds, as there is an extreme need for more beds to free up acute-care hospital space used by long-term care patients across the street.
Over the longer term, the smaller east tower replacing the Windermere Care Centre facility will be achieved as the second phase. But this will only happen after the facility’s existing 207 beds are replaced elsewhere — before it is demolished and construction begins on the east tower. Generally, the east tower with about 340,000 sq. ft. of space will be more akin to office space, containing clinical uses and support functions.
Altogether, the two-phase redevelopment — designed by Vancouver-based architectural firm Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership — will offer roughly 558,000 sq. ft. of clinical space, 244,000 sq. ft. of long-term care space, 5,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant space, and 3,000 sq. ft. of childcare space. The various clinical uses will be similar to what is currently found at the 2006-built Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre.
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Further emphasizing the importance of the long-term care component, Robert O’Neill, operations director for long-term care for the health authority, told City Council the region is facing a critical and growing shortage of long-term care beds.
“Our region is facing a significant shortage of long-term care beds, and the demand has grown and will continue to grow over the next few years,” said O’Neill. He explained that this shortfall has system-wide consequences, with acute-care hospital beds frequently occupied by patients who no longer require hospital-level care but cannot be safely discharged due to a lack of appropriate long-term care placements.
Insufficient long-term care capacity creates backlogs throughout the healthcare system, contributing to emergency department congestion, delayed admissions, and reduced flexibility to respond to surges in demand across Metro Vancouver. He said this redevelopment directly addresses these pressures by delivering new, modern long-term care capacity integrated within the hospital campus and the surrounding community.
“By ensuring long-term care patients are cared for in appropriate settings, this project helps free up acute-care beds for patients who truly need them,” he said, adding that this will improve patient flow across the system and support more timely access to care for all patients.
Existing condition:
Site of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Future condition:
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
O’Neill also highlighted that many existing long-term care facilities in the region were built decades ago, often in the 1970s and 1980s, and no longer meet modern design standards. Current direction from the provincial government now prioritizes private single-bed rooms as the best practice to support infection prevention, resident safety, and dignity.
“Modern facilities support better staffing models, improved infection control, and a higher quality of life for residents,” he said, noting that the foundation-led redevelopment aligns directly with these objectives.
From an operational standpoint, O’Neill said the addition of modern long-term care capacity strengthens and stabilizes the healthcare system as a whole. It enables better planning for future demographic shifts, supports more effective and expanded care opportunities, and allows hospital pressures to be managed in a more coordinated manner.
There is a rapidly growing cohort of seniors, which also means increasing numbers of disabling illnesses, stroke, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
“Ultimately, this redevelopment is about ensuring seniors receive care in environments that are safe, dignified, and appropriate,” he continued, “while supporting a healthcare system that works better for patients, families, and care providers.”
He also noted that such modern and advanced facilities will enable VCH to recruit top staff — clinicians, nurses, practitioners, and researchers — which has become increasingly challenging due to high housing and living costs.
Existing condition:
Site of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Future condition:
Concept of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
Site of the Vancouver General Hospital campus expansion at 900-990 West 12th Ave., Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
In a previous interview with Daily Hive Urbanized in February 2025, when the rezoning application for the project was submitted to the City of Vancouver, Chapman said construction on the first phase of the west tower — starting with demolition and excavation — could begin in mid-2027 and reach completion and open in 2031. But this depends on achieving their fundraising targets, with the first phase carrying an estimated construction cost of about $400 million. No potential timeline has been identified for the second phase of the east tower.
Vancouver Coastal Health creating long-term redevelopment plan for VGH’s main campus site
The foundation-spearheaded redevelopment is in addition to and completely separate from VCH’s current master planning process for outlining a complete long-term redevelopment strategy of VGH’s acute-care hospital facilities — the eventual demolition of nearly all of the buildings that currently exist at the hospital campus framed by West 12th Avenue to the south, Laurel Street to the west, West 10th Avenue to the north, and Heather Street to the east, including the relatively modern Jim Pattison Pavilion. This will enable the construction of brand new modern hospital facilities — spanning multiple major phases over several decades — with expanded capacity to meet the needs of the growing population and changing healthcare needs.
The health authority’s campus master plan will also strive to optimize site-wide accessibility to SkyTrain’s new Oak-VGH Station, opening in 2027 just to the north of the hospital’s emergency department entrance, as part of the Millennium Line’s Broadway extension.
Such an expansion and intensification of the region’s concentration of provincial-level and highly specialized healthcare and medical research facilities is also outlined for the area in the municipal government’s Broadway Plan.
During the public hearing, Hale Jones-Cox, a senior planner with the City of Vancouver’s special projects office, shared that later in 2026, several City staff reports will be presented to City Council for consideration — outlining the health authority’s proposal to expand the emergency department and inpatient care facilities as an interim strategy for improving the hospital, and additional various policy changes for the site.
Then, in 2027, a rezoning application will be considered for the entire VGH acute-care hospital campus site.
Existing condition of Vancouver General Hospital’s acute-care campus:
Existing condition of Vancouver General Hospital (VGH). (Vancouver Coastal Health)
Future condition of Vancouver General Hospital’s acute-care campus:
Highly preliminary concept of the first phase of the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) redevelopment. (Vancouver Coastal Health)
Highly preliminary concept of the second phase of the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) redevelopment. (Vancouver Coastal Health)
Highly preliminary concept of the third phase of the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) redevelopment. (Vancouver Coastal Health)