Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver tower to be demolished for brand new tower development

Daily Hive Urbanized now exclusively reports that the sizeable tower in the heart of downtown Vancouver’s Central Business District, formerly home to the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver, is set to be fully demolished rather than renovated.

Similarly, CF Pacific Centre’s former Nordstrom building will also be demolished for redevelopment. This building also houses major corporate offices for Microsoft and Sony Pictures Imageworks above the former department store space.

After more than four decades, Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver permanently closed its hotel property in January 2020, just weeks before the onset of the pandemic. It was at that closure juncture that Cadillac Fairview (CF), the property’s owner, also announced that the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver tower would be retained and extensively renovated for a new replacement luxury hotel operator.

This was a significant Four Seasons property, containing 372 hotel rooms, 25,000 sq ft of ballroom and meeting room space, and the prominent YEW restaurant. It was also one of the first Four Seasons locations worldwide.

Following Four Seasons’ departure from the property, which is a part of the CF Pacific Centre shopping mall complex, construction crews spent more than two years gutting the interior of the hotel tower in preparation for extensive renovations and a reconfiguration of the building’s floor plan.

In January 2022, two years after the closure of Four Seasons, a development permit application was submitted to the City of Vancouver, which extensively outlined how the tower would be completely renovated and reimagined for a new hotel operator, including a one-of-a-kind restaurant, bar, and lounge destination on the tower rooftop.

However, all of these tower retention and renovation plans will now be scrapped.

Cancelled 2022 tower renovation concept: Artistic rendering of the new hotel within the former Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver tower. (Zeidler Architecture/Cadillac Fairview)

Instead, Cadillac Fairview is now planning a complete demolition of the 1976-built, 305-ft-tall, 30-storey tower that was originally built for Four Seasons. Additionally, major changes are also planned for the southernmost portion of CF Pacific Centre’s footprint — the former Nordstrom building, which also has significant office space above the department store, will also be fully demolished.

A spokesperson for Cadillac Fairview confirmed to Daily Hive Urbanized that both buildings at the property will be demolished for new-build redevelopment.

It is suggested the new mixed-use tower replacing Four Seasons could still have a hotel component.

“Cadillac Fairview is proud of its legacy of owning and operating the best-in-class properties in all of the communities it serves. As part of that legacy, Cadillac Fairview is committed to ensuring that CF Pacific Centre remains the pre-eminent destination of choice in Vancouver for locals and visitors alike,” the spokesperson told Daily Hive Urbanized upon inquiry.

“Cadillac Fairview’s plans for the new tower are aimed at bringing exciting uses to the centre, which would continue to include a hospitality offering. Cadillac Fairview looks forward to sharing more details about these transformative redevelopment projects in the future.”

four seasons hotel vancouver tower cf pacific centre

The former Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver tower at CF Pacific Centre. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The Four Seasons tower will be demolished from the 30th floor to level five of the base podium — a demolition of the tower above the rooftop of the indoor mall. This includes the complete removal of the tower’s concrete facade, structural columns, and floor slabs, as well as asbestos abatement. There will be no implosion.

Cadillac Fairview’s spokesperson told Daily Hive Urbanized that at this time, as planning is still in the early stages, there are no further details on what kind of mixed uses the Four Seasons and Nordstrom redevelopments will have.

The new tower on the Four Seasons site will be a “new modern and efficient tower that will complement our world-class shopping centre and surrounding office complexes.”

No timeline was provided for the demolition of both buildings and the future redevelopments.

The former Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver tower at CF Pacific Centre. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Some recent precedent has been set with how the 1973-built, 394-ft-tall, 42-storey Empire Landmark Hotel tower at 1400 Robson Street was systematically demolished. Using the Brokk system, a remote-controlled process was used to demolish the Empire Landmark Hotel tower from top to bottom. It uses concrete crushing equipment and mass scaffolding that starts at the top and works its way down, floor by floor.

The scaffolding encloses each floor to keep dust and debris inside the building and protect construction crews from weather.

Top-down demolition of the Empire Landmark Hotel began in March 2018, and it took 21 months to reach the ground level. This was the tallest building demolition in Vancouver’s history and one of the tallest demolitions ever using such methods in Canada. In Spring 2025, the Landmark on Robson project replacing the hotel finally reached completion.