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From the Sept 01/02 Vancouver Courier:
Historic hotel to get upgrade
By David Carrigg-Staff writer
The Downtown Eastside's once majestic Pennsylvania Hotel will get a major upgrade now the provincial government has removed it from a list of sidelined social housing projects.
Mark Townsend, director of the Portland Hotel Society, which bought the Pennsylvania at 412 Carrall St. last fall for $1.7 million, expects work converting the heritage-listed building into 44 self-contained units to begin within two months. The building's upstairs rooms have been vacant since 2000, when tenants were moved to the New Portland Hotel, one of four hotels the Portland Hotel Society operates along the seediest part of Hastings Street, between Cambie Street and Jackson Avenue. The others are the Sunrise, Washington and Regal.
Townsend said the society went through intense negotiations with the owner of the Pennsylvania Hotel-which, at that time, comprised 70 single-occupant rooms and a notorious downstairs bar-and was able to meet the owner's asking price thanks to a $1.5 million federal government grant and $200,000 from the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation.
"We thought, it's a run-down building so it should be restored. The city was into it but we couldn't get any other interest until we secured the federal government money," Townsend said.
Once the society purchased the property, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation agreed to pay $740,000 to upgrade the rooms and B.C. Housing said it would contribute $380,000 a year to subsidize rents in the building.
The city agreed to chip in $500,000 through a contribution to the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation and the Portland Hotel Society promised to come up with $1.6 million to ensure at least $3 million is available for redevelopment.
The pub on the ground floor closed in February and the licence is to be sold and transferred out of the Downtown Eastside.
Last October, housing minister George Abbott put the Pennsylvania project and 36 other social housing applications on hold while the province decided which projects to back. One of the projects ultimately chopped was the social housing redevelopment of the old Woodward's department store in the Downtown Eastside.
Townsend said B.C. Housing recently advised the Portland Hotel Society, which operates on a mostly taxpayer-funded budget of $6 million a year, that the Pennsylvania would still receive provincial government support.
"They de-cancelled the project and now we are going to develop it," he said. "The financing has been cobbled together and now we are in the development permit stage. There are some issues there but we are hoping the Gastown Heritage Management Plan will help us because right now if you are doing a renovation in that area it's almost impossible."
The Gastown Heritage Management Plan will allow heritage-listed property owners in the area to bypass some development restrictions, including height limitations, and gain valuable density bonuses in exchange for restoration. Owners will also receive a break on property taxes.
Garry Charles, manager of the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation, said the corporation will oversee construction work on the project, ensuring each room has a toilet and kitchenette.
Charles would also like to get additional funding through the city to restore the hotel's original peaked facade.
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