Railway-themed eatery to create 75 jobs
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Steamworks Brewing Co. owner Eli Gershkovitch plans to open a new multi-million-dollar, railway-themed Vancouver restaurant a stone’s throw from his popular Steamworks pub — in the historic former CP Rail western terminus building called The Station.
He said the restaurant project on West Cordova Street, tentatively called The Steamworks Transcontinental, will create about 75 new jobs when it opens in November.
“This is a major heritage project and our goal is to bring it back to its former glory and to do something that’s in keeping with the grandeur and elegance of the main concourse of The Station,” Gershkovitch said in an interview.
The heritage building opened in 1912 as the CPR’s main Vancouver terminus, and now serves as a major commuter hub for SkyTrain, SeaBus and the West Coast Express. The space for the new Steamworks restaurant was formerly used as offices for various tenants.
Gershkovitch expects the restaurant will have 6,000 to 7,000 square feet of space on three levels, with seating for 299 people, including patio seating on Cordova Street. Construction is expected to begin after all approvals are in place by June, with a projected opening date of mid-November.
Gershkovitch said builders will recycle or salvage as much material as possible when converting the space from office to restaurant use. The restaurant will focus on steak, prime rib and seafood, and will target business people, locals and tourists, including cruise ship passengers getting off at nearby Canada Place.
“It will be mid-priced, falling a bit higher than Steamworks Brewing Company, but not as highfalutin as Gotham or Morton’s,” Gershkovitch said.
He said the investment is timely because business is migrating to the downtown waterfront area and tourism activity is returning to pre-9/11 levels, despite the rising Canadian dollar. The prospect of a new Vancouver Whitecaps waterfront soccer stadium in the area also bodes well for future Steamworks business.
“It’s not a done deal, so we’re not banking on it,” Gershkovitch said. “But should the stadium go through, we consider ourselves to be very well-positioned to take advantage of the traffic.”
The Station general manager Shirley Vaux said the new restaurant will be an excellent addition for the building, as the concourse level generates a lot of traffic, making retail uses more practical than office use.
The restaurant will be Gershkovitch’s third major business venture in the Vancouver hospitality industry. The 15,000-square-foot Steamworks pub in Gastown — which attracts more than 350,000 patrons a year — opened in 1995, and Gershkovitch opened a second Steamworks facility at The Village at Park Royal project in West Vancouver in 2004.
The 43-year-old entrepreneur and transportation enthusiast has maintained a business office in The Station since 1999, and he said the prospect of building a railway-themed restaurant in the heritage building will allow him to indulge his passion for rail travel.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
