HERITAGE I The former Pantages is the oldest theatre in Western Canada

John Mackie
Sun

Two of Vancouver‘s most significant heritage buildings are being sold and may be restored to their former glory.

Condo king Bob Rennie has purchased the Wing Sang building at 51 East Pender, the oldest building in Chinatown, while Edmonton developer Worthington Properties is negotiating to purchase the former Pantages Theatre at 150 East Hastings. It’s the oldest theatre in western Canada.

The Wing Sang building dates to 1889, when Vancouver was only three years old. It was built by Chinatown patriarch Yip Sang.

Rennie plans a full heritage restoration of the brick structure, which is actually two buildings spread over three lots. The tentative plan is install his offices and an art gallery in the front building and convert the six-storey building in the rear to loft condos.

“It was an absolutely emotional purchase,” said Rennie, who says he has loved the building for years. “I was just at the front of the line and was willing to buy it with no survey, no seismic, no environmental, I just bought it.”

Rennie plans to team up with one of the developers he has worked with to complete the project.

“It will probably bankrupt me,” said Rennie, who paid $1 million for the building. “I was able to acquire the land, with a mortgage, but I’m not the guy who’s going in with a blank cheque.

“We are going to do it as an art form,” he laughed. “Which doesn’t make development sense.“

Worthington, meanwhile, is negotiating to buy the Pantages and four adjacent properties on East Hastings for an undisclosed amount. The 2004 property assessment for the five properties is $1,258,000, but the purchase price is likely closer to $2 million.

Worthington‘s Marc Williams said the company is exploring possibilities for the site, such as building high-rise housing. If it closes the deal, the Pantages will be restored.

“Certainly no matter what we’re going to do there, we’re going to be working to restore the Pantages,” said Williams.

It won’t be cheap. Williams said it may cost up to $3 million to restore the 1907-8 theatre, which had several names throughout its lifetime, including the Pantages, Royal, State, Queen, Avon, City Nights and Sung-Sing. The 620-seat venue has been closed since 1994.

The key to the Pantages deal is whether Worthington can come up with a plan for the four adjacent properties at 130, 132, 134 and 138 East Hastings. The buildings are small one and two-storey commercial properties which probably date from the early 1900s.

The most significant is 130 East Hastings, which was the home of the Blue Eagle Cafe from 1944 to 2000. The Blue Eagle had one of the city’s most famous neon signs, and elaborate interior tile, which may be from an earlier restaurant. Several were located there in the 1920s and ’30s, including the White Lunch, the Golden Gate Cafe and the New Atlantic Cafe.

Williams couldn’t say whether any facades might be retained in a new development.

“We still have to evaluate exactly what we can do and what would be the best use for the site,” said Williams. His company has worked with heritage properties in Edmonton, and also has done affordable housing projects and regular condos.

Worthington is doing another high-profile conversion in Gastown at the former Koret of California building at 55 East Cordova at Columbia.

The five-storey, 145,000-sq.-ft. structure was built in 1907 for McLennan McFeely and Co., a hardware company. A sixth storey will be added to bring the building to 167,000 sq. ft. during the conversion to commercial live/work studios. The former Canadian Pacific Railway behind the building will become green space.

Williams said 118 units will be available in the $30 million project, ranging in size from 670 to 2,000 sq. ft. They will cost from $200,000 to over $1 million. The lofts go on sale today.

A third historic building at 1 West Pender, at Carrall, has been purchased by investment analyst and Simon Fraser University chancellor Milton Wong for $1.5 million.

It was built in 1901 as the Chinese Freemasons Building, but Wong’s interest in it comes from the fact his father’s business, Modernize Tailors, began there in the early 1900s and remained there 50 years until it moved to 511 Carrall.

Milton Wong was unavailable for comment. But his elder brother Bill — an 82-year-old who still runs Modernize Tailors with his 80-year-old sibling Jack — said the family is pleased with the purchase.

“The family has an attachment to it,” said Bill Wong. “It makes more sense for him to buy the building than anybody else. I’m glad he bought the building. Hopefully he can do something with it.”

Rennie also feels an emotional bond to his new building. He grew up in East Vancouver and was always fascinated with the Wing Sang building, a distinctive structure with a unique second-storey door to nowhere facing the street. It used to be a loading door.

“This is absolutely personal,” he said. “It’s one I’ve always sort of driven by and followed. I was told it was sold, and then in the middle of selling 493 suites [in one day] at Yaletown Park, the realtor phoned and said ‘You have until five o’clock.’ So I met him at Starbucks on Robson at five o’clock and stepped up.”

Rennie believes Chinatown is on the cusp of renewal — “I think that Chinatown is five minutes away from coming back” — and he wants to be part of it.

“You know, there’s something very satisfying about being part of the restoration of Chinatown. I think what’s going to save it is to have people walking the streets that live and work in the area, and start walking across the street for coffee and actually using the area, rather than just driving there and going home.

“It has to be restored. It’s not whether we should or we shouldn’t, I just think that if we participate in this city, we should be part of the restoration of Chinatown.”

That is music to the ears of Carol Lee, the daughter of real estate tycoon Bob Lee and granddaughter of Chinatown legend Lee Bick. A year ago Lee moved her office to her grandfather’s old headquarters in a 1907 building at 127 East Pender, determined to help Chinatown come back.

“I’m very much committed to the neighbourhood,” said Lee. “This is a long-term process of revitalization. I don’t think anything is going to happen overnight, but it’s great that people are coming down here. I think it’s great Bob bought the building.”

Bill Wong is encouraged by all the real estate action. He also seems happy with the gentrification of nearby Strathcona neighbourhood, which he still calls by its original name, the East End.

“I notice a lot of professional people are buying houses down at the East End there,” he said. “They want to be close to downtown, close to where the action is, to BC Place and Stanley Park.”

But he cautions Chinatown won’t come back overnight.

“It will be very slow, it won’t be fast,” he said. “It’s a gradual process.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

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