Vancouver’s City Centre Motel artist studios to be bulldozed for redevelopment

A street party at the City Centre Artist Lodge during a previous year's Vancouver Mural Festival is seen in this photo from the festival's website. (vanmuralfest.ca)

Artists who have been utilizing the vivid City Centre Motor Hotel are mourning the loss of the studio space it provided them, following an official green light from the Vancouver City council to rezone the building.

In a meeting Thursday, councillors voted to rezone the 2111 Main Street site to usher in a new mixed-use, multi-storey building with two towers of rental units.

Following the motel’s closure in 2021, Nicola Wealth Real Estate acquired the iconic building and put it in the hands of artist organization The Narrow Group to provide a temporary space for local creatives until redevelopment plans were in place.

Across the 18,000 square foot space, 75 motel rooms were transformed into artist workspaces that together held over 100 writers, musicians, glassblowers, ceramists and artists from across the city. The parking space was turned into a home for the annual Vancouver Mural Festival.

Artists attending the public hearing Thursday, while dismayed at the news the studios would be no longer, offered gratitude to Nicola Wealth for allowing them a place to create.

Kirsten Larson, a past board member of both the Community Arts Council and the Vancouver Biennale, said the temporary project offered a brief lifeline to artists in the city while highlighting the “lack of spaces” Vancouver has for artists.

“Born and raised in Vancouver, I’ve watched first hand our arts and culture scene crumble. We’ve lost hundreds of thousands of square feet in a short period of time, and we’re finally getting to a place where we’re reclaiming some of that,” she said.

The new building, part of the wider Broadway Plan penned for the area, will have 446 secured purpose-built rental homes, at least 20 per cent of which will be below-market rental units, alongside retail and restaurant space on its ground level.

Following the success of the temporary art space, planners have assured the project will also now provide a 5,8000 square foot turnkey space that can be utilized by an arts and culture organization.

Many of the speakers on Thursday, of which there were over a dozen, expressed excitement over the creative addition to the project.

Gallery owners and artists described how they hoped that the success of the City Centre Motor Hotel’s temporary art space would encourage Vancouver developers to consider it an option in the future, as an alternative to leaving buildings vacant for years until development plans can get underway.

“We’ve had multiple years of great events on this space and the developers have shown the neighbourhood that they support the arts,” said Neil Wyles of the Mount Pleasant Business Association

“I hope other developers will be inspired by this and work to create interesting opportunities in the neighbourhoods that they’re moving into, rather than just utilizing the current tax avoidance scheme and creating a gravel dog park,” he said.

“I would like to encourage developers in this city going forward, that when you see empty spaces sitting around that we are given first chance,” added Kirsten Larson, a past board member of both the Community Arts Council and the Vancouver Biennale.

“We will create something beautiful.”