Foundation proposes major expansion of Vancouver General Hospital campus

The VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation has submitted a proposal for major expansion of the Vancouver General Hospital campus. (VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation)

The VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation is proposing a major expansion of Vancouver General Hospital’s campus in the city’s Fairview neighbourhood.

A rezoning application submitted late last year and published on Vancouver’s Shape Your City website this week calls for the construction of two mixed-use towers more than 100 metres tall in the 900 block of West 12th Avenue, adjacent to the hospital’s existing campus.

The property is currently home to the Windermere Care Centre – a 14-storey, 207-bed long-term care facility – as well as a three-storey, 26-unit rental apartment building.

When the foundation purchased the site for $100 million in 2022, its president and CEO Angela Chapman told CTV News the acquisition was a “generational opportunity” for meeting health-care needs in the Lower Mainland.

According to the application booklet, the plan is to build 26-to-28-storey towers in the site, with a total area of nearly 900,000 square feet, including more than 550,000 square feet of clinical space, roughly 245,000 square feet of long-term care space, a 14,000-square-foot “amenity area,” 5,000 square feet of retail and a 3,000-square-foot daycare.

Plans also call for “a public realm with an outdoor public space” and three-and-a-half levels of parking.

The application indicates that the buildings would be constructed in phases, citing “two key factors.”

“First, the Windermere Care Centre is currently operating at full capacity, making it essential to either identify an alternative space or complete Phase 1 to relocate existing residents,” the booklet reads.

“Second, the project’s timeline is contingent on fundraising efforts.”

Phase 1 would include the project’s 280 long-term-care beds, and would be built on the west side of the site – where the rental building is currently located – to allow Windermere Care Centre to continue operating.

“A tenant relocation plan is currently underway, as the new development will not include any residential units on site,” the application reads.

The clinical space included in Phase 1 would mean more room for transplant clinics, hematology programs, the cardiac innovation centre, diagnostic services, surgical oncology, seniors’ care, women’s health clinics and complex medicine clinics, according to the application.

“The proposal addresses the urgent need for additional space to accommodate growing health-care demands in British Columbia,” the booklet reads.