This is the new hotel, entertainment, retail, and office development plan for the Richmond Night Market site

If all goes as planned, the Richmond Night Market as we know it could look quite different in the not so distant future.

Planning efforts for a massive development of the 22-acre vacant site at 8351 River Road and 2431 No. 3 Road — located just west of SkyTrain Bridgeport Station and River Rock Casino Resort — have been well over a decade in the making. Moreover, the site is also bisected by the Canada Line’s elevated guideway towards Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

A revised concept for the International Plaza at Duck Island will be presented to Richmond City Council for a public hearing later this month.

Jingon International Development is proposing to build a 100% non-residential development with a range of commercial uses that complement the casino and align with the municipal government’s community plan’s vision of creating an entertainment hub in the vicinity of Bridgeport Station.

There would be over 3.4 million sq ft of total building floor area, including staggering hotel space of 1.32 million sq ft — potentially creating one of Metro Vancouver’s largest clusters of hotels, especially outside downtown Vancouver — as well as 910,000 sq ft of office/education institution space, 540,000 sq ft of entertainment space (such as bars, nightclubs, and theatres), and 622,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant space on the ground level.

Due to the location’s close proximity to YVR airport and its North Runway flight path, International Plaza would not include any residential uses, and its building heights would be limited to mid-rise heights in the range of 10 to 12 storeys.

Altogether, 11 buildings are planned for the site, with the vast majority of the ground-level uses dedicated to retail and restaurant uses, which would activate the development’s vast pedestrian-oriented realm. This includes a vast pedestrian-only galleria — a multi-storey-high covered outdoor street to create year-round weather protection for a main cluster of retail, restaurants, and activated gathering spaces.

A lively riverfront would be created, with a 25-metre-wide riverside pedestrian promenade (3.3 acres), activated by retail and restaurants bordering a waterfront park (6.3 acres). In addition to the park space, there would be nearly five acres of various open spaces across the development site.

Most of the buildings would also contain several levels of entertainment uses within the base podium levels above the ground level’s retail and restaurant uses.

Also, the upper levels of the various buildings would largely be dedicated to hotel uses, including nearly all of the buildings that front the Fraser River. A few buildings at the southern edge and galleria area would see office space as the primary use.

In addition to the commercial uses, 41,000 sq ft of community amenity spaces across two locations would be provided, both of which would be owned by the municipal government upon completion as a public benefit by the developer. These community amenity spaces would be used as performing arts and art gallery spaces, a community policing office, and a small fire hall. A cash community amenity contribution (CACs) of $15 million would also be provided.

Two underground parking levels would span the site. Arcadis (formerly known as IBI Group) is the project’s architectural design firm.

During a preliminary review of the proposal during a public meeting with City Council early this week, City staff shared that proponents were required to hire an independent consultant to determine the long-term office demand for the site. According to City staff, an analysis by Colliers determined that “there was ability for this amount of office space to be absorbed” and that in the scenario where there are office vacancies, the office building spaces can be designed to be convertible to additional hotel or retail and restaurant uses.

When it comes to the substantial hotel space, City staff state there is sufficient demand for such uses. According to a recent study commissioned by Destination Vancouver, 20,000 additional hotel rooms are needed across Metro Vancouver over the coming decades, including 10,000 rooms within Vancouver and 10,000 rooms elsewhere in the region outside Vancouver. Currently, the region is facing a shortage of hotel rooms that could put a damper on tourism and the local economy.

International Plaza’s hotel space component also includes a range of meeting and event spaces, hotel restaurants, and other guest-supporting amenities and features.

This transit-oriented development site next to Bridgeport Station provides quick and convenient access to the airport, downtown Vancouver, and Richmond City Centre via the Canada Line. The nearby McArthurGlen Vancouver Airport Outlet Centre has also set some precedent for outdoor retail success.

The entire development is divided into three phases over a 10 to 15-year construction timeline. The first phase spans a large central area of the site and riverfront, including 333,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant space largely oriented around the galleria, 394,000 sq ft of office space, 298,000 sq ft of entertainment space, and 567,000 sq ft of hotel space.

During the deliberations, a representative of the proponent told City Council the first phase has an “exciting arrangement underway” with a hotel partner, which will be announced soon. “There’s a lot of market interest in making this project real, and that’s our goal,” said the representative.

But the elephant in the room was the need to imagine what would happen to the popular seasonal Richmond Night Market festival.

The night market first relocated to its existing home at Duck Island in 2012, and its current three-year lease on the site for the seasonal attraction expires in 2026. With as many as 250 vendor booths and close to 100 food stalls, this night market sees up to approximately 10,000 visitors per night and employs approximately 1,000 people on a seasonal basis.

The developer’s representative said they have been working closely with the attraction’s operators to create a plan that shifts the precise footprint of the night market in each development phase.

Upon the third and final phase of construction, located on the southernmost parcel of the site, the night market would be largely shifted indoors into about 77,000 sq ft of entertainment space within the first two levels of an office building located next to the riverfront. Some public outdoor space next to the buildings could also be used for the market.

“Our vision at the end is for the main market to remain as a critical piece of animation on the site,” said the representative.

Other key features of the development entail a newly enhanced dike that wraps around the property’s riverfront, and improved off-site pedestrian links to Bridgeport Station, including a well-defined pedestrian route to the transit hub.

To realize the overall development concept, the developer would need to acquire the southernmost parcel currently held as Crown lands from the provincial government. This same parcel, located next to Sea Island Bridge/Bridgeport Road, contains the reimagined concept of the night market. Much of the Duck Island site was previously a concrete plant.

The 2024 revised development concept represents a downsized version of a larger concept created more than a decade ago. The original concept spanned four million sq ft of total building floor area, including a 450,000 sq ft convention centre on the riverfront — a space now envisioned as a larger riverfront park. However, overall, the newly revised concept retains the general uses and key features of the original concept.

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