Malcolm Parry
Sun
Steph Nicolls (left) is managing director of Rob Macdonald’s St. Regis hotel, which will be renovated to match his Gotham and Hudson properties
Rob MacDonald has big plans for the rather faded St. Regis hotel, which abuts the $110-million Hudson project he developed with Wall Financial principals Peter and Bruno Wall at Granville and Dunsmuir Street.
He’s installed frequent former public-relations and marketing consultant Steph Nicolls as managing director of the 90-year-old, 72-room hotel. And, starting early next year, he and designer Elaine Thorsell will begin a $3-to$4-million refurbishment — “or basically whatever it takes to make it one of Vancouver’s nicest boutique hotels,” Macdonald says.
That’s considerably less than the $11 million then-owner Peter Eng spent on the Hotel Georgia before Macdonald and the Walls reportedly bid $65 million for it. That unconsummated deal would have entailed the adjacent parking garage becoming the small-footprint site for a contentiously high tower that, though proposed, was not realized under Eng’s ownership.
The St. Regis, though, will have links to some top-drawer neighbours. There’ll be direct lobby access to the Gotham steakhouse that Keg-chain boss David Aisenstat operates on Macdonald’s adjacent Seymour Street property. And across the alley from the Hudson project — which is scheduled to open in March — there’ll be Aisenstat’s top-ticket Shore Club. Now nearing completion, that seafood restaurant will cost $7.2 million — more than twice the like-sized Gotham’s $3.1 million in 1999.
Even a neighbouring 24 Hour Fitness centre will cost the New York-based Forstmann Little concern $4.7 million.
As for saving money, Macdonald says construction costs locked in at $110 million in early 2003, would be $180 million today.
That makes a quid-pro-quo expense of $15 million sound like a bargain. Getting rights for the 423-unit Hudson tower saw the developers spend $20 million on a “universal access” SkyTrain station for which TransLink paid $5 million. Mayor Sam Sullivan will officially open that facility Friday.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006