Peter Mitham
Other
It’s not uncommon for developers to celebrate a site’s history when it comes up for redevelopment and somehow weave what the site was into a story of what it will become.
And so it was at downtown’s Cecil Hotel recently as Rize Alliance Properties Ltd. hosted what was billed as “The Last Dance at the Cecil” to kick off its new project, the Rolston. The condo tower will have 185 residential units on the Cecil site and incorporate the adjacent Yale Hotel with its 43 social-housing units (50 non-market units in the 82-room Cecil will be lost, though these were largely occupied on a short-term basis).
While the dancers (wearing more than usual for the occasion) were a nod to a past that will wrap up this summer, it was notable that most people, from the waiting staff brought over from the Opus Hotel to cater the event to developer Will Lin, weren’t entirely comfortable taking in the sights. It might be one of
the few instances in Vancouver real estate history where a desirable development opportunity generated modest glances rather than ogling.
While the bills weren’t busting the girls’ G-strings, Lin remarked that the event amounted to a big night at the Cecil, which has seen a drop in business in recent years as adult entertainment went online.
Yet the departure of exotic dancers from the hotel will be emblematic of the steady transformation
of the south side of downtown from an industrial precinct to chic ’hood. A decade ago it was still possible to be solicited by the young men working Boystown, even as the towers crowded in. Today, Aquilini Investment Group’s development on Richards at Helmcken has shut down Madame Cleo’s while the Rolston will extend the trend in the socalled “Midtown” neighbourhood between Yaletown and
the West End.
