Pacific Reach buys Hotel Georgia

The historic Hotel Georgia has been sold for $145 million.

The new owner of the elegant building at 801 West Georgia is Pacific Reach, a Vancouver company that recently sold the seniors care chain Retirement Concepts to a buyer from China for more than $1 billion.

The Hotel Georgia purchase also includes the penthouse from the 48-storey residential tower next door, along with sixth-floor offices. The price of the total package was just over $160 million.

“We think it’s the best hotel in Canada,” said Pacific Reach’s cofounder and CEO Dr. Azim Jamal.

“Quite frankly, we’re very excited about this one, it’s a special deal for us. It’s a unique, one of a kind property. I think it holds a special place in Vancouver history, and in the (contemporary) Vancouver scene.”

It does. Opened in 1927, the Georgia cost $1.5 million to build, and for years was the ritziest hotel in town. It was the hotel where Elvis and Frank Sinatra stayed, the place where Errol Flynn and Rocky Marciano drank, a cultural landmark for generations of Vancouverites.

Its star faded in recent decades, but in 2007 the 12-storey hotel was given a top to bottom restoration into a 155-suite boutique luxury hotel. The Private Residences at the Hotel Georgia condo tower was built at the same time, which made it one of Vancouver’s biggest and most high-profile projects.

“We were just under half a billion for the whole project,” said Bruce Langeris of Delta Land Development, which sold the hotel to Pacific Reach.

“We went into 2008-2009, a very difficult period, and the whole real estate market was on its heels. (But) we soldiered through, and the people that bought with us have all made money. The market’s bounced back.

“It took a long time to make the money that we did. It was a positive project from a profitability perspective, but it was like walking through a lot of thorn bushes to get to it.”

The hotel had been under contract for sale to a Hong Kong group but it fell through. So Jamal swooped in to buy it.

“My office looks out at that hotel, I’m in and out of there all the time for lunch, dinner, using the patio at Reflections for cocktails,” said Jamal. “I’m the prototypical customer of the Hotel Georgia, I love everything about it.”

Pacific Reach also owns the Westin Grand Hotel and the Comfort Inn (the former Nelson Place) downtown.