With private developers preparing to do face-lifts on several city buildings, downtown Vancouver is getting ready for its close-up.
After meeting with private developers and a Portland consultant, the city now has plans in place to prettify its downtown, said Lee Rafferty, executive director of Vancouver's Downtown Association.
The renovations are unrelated to the city's waterfront redevelopment project that recently broke ground, Rafferty said; the timing is simply right.
"We need to start looking at downtown like it's a store – looking at the major streets and city blocks, and asking, ‘How do we activate those so the visitor will be drawn to them?'"
One of the major projects includes an entire refurbishment of the Schofield Building at 600 Main St., reportedly the oldest commercial building in Vancouver.
The Schofield family, which has owned the building since 1854, will restore the building's exterior and renovate both floors of the interior, said Ed Schofield of Schofield Properties.
"Our hope for when it's finished is that the building will be restored to the way that it looked back in the heyday, in (the) early 1900s, but with a clean and updated look to it," he said.
Schofield – the fourth Ed Schofield in his family tree – said his father had started efforts to renovate the building before he passed away. The family welcomed the opportunity to pick up the torch and continue the work, he said.
Retailers will occupy the 10,000-square-foot downstairs of the Schofield Building, but the family won't do a full build-out of the 8,000-square-foot upstairs area in order to leave it flexible for future tenants, Schofield said.
The building that housed Pepper's at 800 Main St. will be transformed into an upscale urban sports bar, Rafferty said, featuring big-screen televisions and garage doors on the 8th Street side for an open-air feel.
The Ludesher Building at 9th and Washington streets, built in 1910, will also get a makeover. Five to seven retailers, including an art gallery and possibly a bakery and organic market, will share the ground floor, said Aaron Jones of Ludesher Development LLC. Six to eight upscale apartments will occupy the upstairs.
Some other Main Street properties have recently been sold and according to Rafferty have in store something "very exciting for downtown."
The buildings at the northwest corner of Evergreen and Main streets, the southeast corner of Main and 11th streets and the area around the Uptown Shopping Center also have update plans in the works. "We're going to see what we can do to dress up downtown and give it something other than just a blank easel," said Terry Phillips, owner of Phillips Group Inc. "What we want to do is have an impact, something beyond just the plain vanilla that's there now."
