The building at 20 East Hastings was formerly home to the Only Fish and Oyster Cafe, a neighbourhood restaurant that closed in 2009.Ben Nelms/The Globe and Mail
The interim board of the Portland Hotel Society, a non-profit group whose managers stepped down earlier this year as its finances were under review, has sold a landmark building in the group's portfolio for $2.3-million.
The sale is part on an ongoing overhaul of PHS, which gained renown for championing the Insite supervised injection site and other innovative social programs, along with running hundreds of units of housing, before the province seized control in March over financial concerns.
The sale is part of an ongoing review, PHS interim executive director Ted Bruce said on Wednesday.
"One of the main mandates we have is to ensure the financial stability and sustainability of PHS," Mr. Bruce said. "The organization was not operating in a way that was sustainable so it was necessary for us to dispose of that asset."
PHS sold the building, a three-storey structure at 20 East Hastings in the Downtown Eastside that was formerly home to a restaurant called The Only, to provincial agency B.C. Housing. The Crown corporation on Thursday confirmed the sale price and said it bought the property to preserve the site for future development as affordable housing.
That prospect is likely to be welcomed by residents' groups, which have for several years raised concerns about the impact of increasing property values and redevelopment on housing options in the Downtown Eastside. The Downtown Eastside Local Area Plan, adopted by city council earlier this year, underlined those concerns, noting that the number of private rooms renting at or below the shelter component of Income Assistance – $375 for a single person on welfare – has fallen rapidly from 67 per cent in 2007 to 26 per cent in 2013.
Housing affordability has also emerged as a key issue in the civic election.
B.C. Housing did not say when redevelopment could take place. "It is located next to Tellier Towers, a provincially owned social housing residence," a B.C. Housing representative said Thursday in an e-mail. "We are currently looking at short-term uses for the property, which is vacant at this time."
B.C. Housing already owns numerous hotels in the neighbourhood and has spent millions upgrading and renovating some of those buildings over the past few years.
The Crown corporation's newly acquired property at 20 East Hastings was formerly home to the Only Fish and Oyster Cafe, a neighbourhood restaurant that was known for its neon seahorse sign and hearty food before going into decline and ultimately closing in 2009.
The city revoked the business licence for the restaurant in June, 2009, following a hearing in which panel members heard evidence that "the current owners are not running the business in an appropriate way, and allowed the premises to be used for illegal drug activity, including drugs being cut up on site," according to minutes of that hearing.
According to property records, PHS acquired the building in 2012. The group had hoped to reopen a restaurant at the site.
"PHS was looking at different options for it," Mr. Bruce said. "It was seen to be an extremely good location and it was considered a site where a number of different things could happen."
Those plans were put on hold earlier this year, when the province took over the organization following audits conducted for B.C. Housing and an internal audit by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
The two reviews flagged such problems as unsupported expenses, including money spent on trips abroad, and misuse of corporate credit cards. The province named an interim board in March.