Bob Mackin
Vancouver’s FIFA World Cup 26 hotel room shortage worsened after Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd. (CF) decided to demolish instead of renovate the former Four Seasons Hotel.
The Pacific Centre owner confirmed Jan. 3 that it wants to replace the 25-storey tower and redevelop the former Nordstrom store. City of Vancouver’s website shows CF applied Dec. 3 to deconstruct the 1976-built tower, which closed in early 2020 when the Four Seasons lease expired. .
A section of the city’s FIFA bid book, obtained by theBreaker.news under a freedom of information adjudication, shows the 372-room Four Seasons was one of four downtown hotels designated for team use.
Four Seasons Hotel’s former tower in Vancouver (Mackin)
The Sutton Place, Shangri-La and Fairmont Pacific Rim are the others.
The Four Seasons was the closest, at 1 kilometre, to B.C. Place Stadium.
Vancouver was removed in March 2018 from the original U.S./Canada/Mexico 2026 bid to FIFA after the B.C. NDP government rebuffed FIFA demands.
Two months later, Vancouver’s Four Seasons announced it would close in 2020.
CF sued Four Seasons in October 2017, accusing the hotelier of breaching the lease by failing to furnish and equip the hotel “in accordance with the standard of a typical first-class luxury hotel.”
After the Four Seasons vacated, CF applied to renovate the tower’s interior and exterior in 2022, the same year that FIFA named Vancouver one of 16 co-hosts for the June 11-July 19, 2026 tournament.
Vancouver was already facing a hotel room shortage, with inventory falling from 15,242 rooms in 2002 to 13,290 in 2022. A report by MNP for Destination Vancouver said the rest of Metro Vancouver had an additional 10,002 rooms in 2022. MNP’s projection from 2023 to 2050 said demand for rooms would start to exceed supply in 2026.
Adding to the accommodation scarcity is the May 2024 provincial short-term rental restriction.
Hosts must be licensed by their municipality and are limited to renting a room in their principal residence, plus one additional unit, secondary suite or laneway suite on their property. Platforms, including Airbnb, VRBO and Expedia, must share data with the province.
NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.
