“Do we have rats in there? Is this [demolition] going to create a flood of rats in downtown?” asked Vancouver city councillor Pete Fry during today’s special session of Vancouver City Council.
“First of all, I just want to verify that what I heard is correct — that this building has even been recognized as too unsafe to inhabit by rats?” city councillor Adriane Carr also pondered.
Saul Schwebs, an architect and the City of Vancouver’s chief building inspector, then suggested it was rare to not see urban wildlife within such a dilapidated building, which has been vacant since 2013. In fact, Schwebs noted this problematic building — located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Dunsmuir Street and Richards Street in downtown Vancouver — is in “way worse” shape than the former Balmoral Hotel SRO demolished by the City in 2022.
“I didn’t see as much rats as I typically do in these buildings. I think it’s just been vacant so long, and there aren’t any living pigeons either. So I think this building just reached a point where it wasn’t a sustainable ecosystem,” said Schwebs.
Such comments were part of today’s deliberations to conduct a highly expedited demolition of Hotel Dunsmuir at 500 Dunsmuir Street — a heritage 1909-built, five-storey vacant SRO building. It is now in imminent danger of a possible catastrophic, cascading collapse due to the structure’s highly advanced stage of decay.
Schwebs attributed the building’s condition to a matter of neglect by its owner, Holborn Properties.
This was City Council’s only agenda item for debate and decision during their final public meeting of 2024.
City Council unanimously approved Schwebs’ recommendations, which include declaring the property a public safety hazard and mandating the demolition of the building within 21 days. This timeline includes necessary steps such as clearing the demolished debris and filling the resulting hole in the ground. Holborn Properties will now be officially notified by the City to carry out the demolition within the specified period. Should the property owner choose not to comply, the municipal government will hire contractors to complete the work and seek reimbursement for all associated costs from Holborn Properties.
Dangerous condition of 500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (ADB Structural Engineering/City of Vancouver)
Due to water pooling on the southeast and southwest corners of the rooftop, the building is now inundated with water, with active drips spotted during all site inspections ever since the gravity of the issues were first discovered. Significant water has been entering the wooden structure from the southwest corner for five years, and the southeast corner for 10 years.
Overwhelming rotting conditions can be found two to three storeys below the southwest corner of the rooftop, while the damage extends from the rooftop all the way to the basement level of the building at the southeast corner. In fact, the southeast corner’s ground level has now collapsed into the basement.
Even higher risk of collapse from snowfall
Schwebs stated that when he first entered the building to conduct an inspection in February 2024, the floors were still relatively intact, with “limited” holes in the floors that were only caused by a skylight collapse. But the latest inspections earlier this fall show a very accelerated rate of the building’s decay between February and October 2024, which leads City staff and the contracted third-party inspection experts to believe the building could collapse at anytime.
Schwebs warned that forthcoming winter weather conditions — heavy rainfall or significant snowfall — could trigger the building’s collapse.
Depending on the weather forecast, the City may take the precautionary step of closing Richards Street (southeast side of the building) even before the demolition begins. During the actual demolition process, Dunsmuir Street (northeast side of the building) — a major arterial road into downtown Vancouver — would also have to be closed, likely for about a week.
500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
“We’re also very concerned about snow load on top of the roof. It’s already stressed because of the present condition up there that holds water. If it suffers through a heavy, wet snowfall, we might see the building come down on its own,” said Schwebs.
“I’m going to be keeping a very close eye on the weather forecast over the holiday break.”
When city councillors inquired whether the building could be demolished sooner than the 21-day deadline (Wednesday, January 8, 2025), due to the imminent risk to public safety, Schwebs acknowledged that it might be possible. He explained that Holborn Properties already has contractors identified to carry out the work, and the contractors would prepare a demolition plan to be submitted to WorkSafe BC for approval. The City will urge WorkSafe BC to expedite the application.
Dangerous condition of 500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (ADB Structural Engineering/City of Vancouver)
Dangerous condition of 500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (ADB Structural Engineering/City of Vancouver)
Why the building can’t be saved
In recent days, following the release of Schwebs’ report outlining his urgent recommendations to City Council, there has been a public outcry on social media calling on City Council to compel the owner to take measures to save the building rather than demolish it.
“It’s too far gone,” said Schwebs when asked about the possibility of saving the structure.
He suggested that coming up with an engineering strategy to save the structure would take far longer than the timeline to achieve its demolition. During such an extended timeline, the building, in such a precarious condition, would remain a major threat to public safety.
To even begin the process to consider saving the building, they would need to send engineers and environmental consultants inside the structure to perform in-depth technical inspections and take samples. But as it now stands, it not safe for anyone to be inside the building, with concerns relating not only to the integrity of the structure but also hazardous biological waste such as asbestos, lead, and mercury.
“What happens in a building that’s in this stage of collapse, essentially, is that we see members that weren’t intended to be structural become structural. Drywall will help hold up a floor. Roof membrane will help hold up a roof. It’s crazy, so when you start poking at it, it’s really unpredictable what can happen, and it could be catastrophic results,” he said.
“You can see those bricks that are displaced. We suspect that’s the result of rust jacking, which means that the steel lintel that runs across the building, including those bricks in place, is corroded. And when steel corrodes, it expands, and so that’s forces the bricks out of alignment.”
Dangerous condition of 500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (ADB Structural Engineering/City of Vancouver)
Dangerous condition of 500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (ADB Structural Engineering/City of Vancouver)
Schwebs noted that it may be possible to save the three facades along Dunsmuir Street, but the concern is that it would add significantly to the timeline. Instead, they are looking to potentially save the cornices — the decorative white trims along the rooftop edge of the building, which is one of the most architecturally striking features of the heritage building — but only if it does not add to the schedule.
However, he cautions that even the cornices may be too fragile to salvage, noting the possibility that they “might crumble in their hands as they try to pull it off the building.”
“Litany of excuses”
In addition to approving the recommendations for an expedited demolition, City Council also approved amendments that direct City staff to consider the possibility of legal action against against Holborn Properties for their neglect and the loss of a heritage building, seeking compensation as part of the developer’s future rezoning application to redevelop the property, and taking proactive measures to prevent such conditions in other old buildings.
There were also discussions over whether the municipal government could fine the developer as much as $50 million, based on the Single-Room Accommodations bylaw that requires a payment of $300,000 per SRO room removed/demolished. This building has 167 units of single-room occupancy (SRO) accommodation.
However, City staff noted that there is no ability for the City to seek compensation for a building that has fallen into disrepair, given that municipal policies “do not prefer that we require somebody to repair a building that they have no intention of reoccupying. It’s simply a waste of money and a peculiar thing for the City to be spending its relatively scarce inspection resources on requiring buildings to be fixed that are no longer occupied or intended to be occupied.”
Furthermore, while the building is a heritage building, it is not a legally protected heritage building, and it is the onus of any property owner to look after and maintain their property.
Dangerous condition of 500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (ADB Structural Engineering/City of Vancouver)
Dangerous condition of 500 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver. (ADB Structural Engineering/City of Vancouver)
Initially built as a tourist hotel, the building was later used as barracks for sailors during the Second World War. After the war, it was converted into a hostel to help meet the housing needs of returning soldiers before being taken over by the Salvation Army for use as a men’s shelter and, more recently, as social housing.
In 2013, BC Housing vacated the building, and moved its SRO residents to Marguerite Ford Apartments in Southeast False Creek, which reached completion that same year.
“Although the state of the building today is very deteriorated and in very poor condition, this is once a beautiful historic building in our city that operated as a hotel for decades. And looking at some of the old pictures in the archives, you can see that there was a lot of pride in this particular building, and it was a beautiful, a beautiful building. So it is unfortunate we’re in this situation,” said city councillor Peter Meiszner.
This building was part of Holborn Properties’ land assembly of the vast majority of the city block, with their largest property on the block being the Hudson’s Bay parkade. For at least two decades, the developer has envisioned a significant mixed-use redevelopment of the block, while preserving and restoring some of the heritage components, including Hotel Dunsmuir. Some concepts envisioned turning this heritage building into a hotel use integrated into the wider redevelopment.
According to City staff, they have received confidential informal pre-application inquiries from Holborn Properties as recently as 2020 and 2023. However, currently, they have not received any formal pre-application inquiry or rezoning application.
During the deliberations, it was noted that no representatives from Holborn Properties were present at the meeting.
“I would have loved to hear from them today. The fact that they haven’t bothered to show up, I think, says a lot,” said city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung.
According to Kirby-Yung, City Council received a letter from Holborn Properties yesterday that offered a “litany of excuses” relating to the high costs and challenges of maintenance, and how they were “egregiously imposed on by homeless people and how they had impacted the building.” She asserted the letter did not express any responsibility or regret for a building that was part of Vancouver’s history.
“I’m wholly unsympathetic to this letter, to this situation. In fact, I think it made it worse, the fact that they didn’t show up is insulting.”