By August, operators of Vancouver’s first Hampton Inn & Suites expect to be attracting visitors to the chain’s newest state-of-the-art hotel in east Vancouver.
Construction is nearing completion on the four-story project on a portion of the former Evergreen Airport site off Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and 136th Avenue. Work started in September on the 99-room facility, which will feature a fully equipped fitness room, an indoor swimming pool, a 1,400-square-foot conference room, and an open lobby in which to take advantage of the company’s breakfast amenities, said Taylor Nintzel, general manager of the new hotel. He expects to hire between 30 and 40 people to staff the hotel at 315 S.E. Olympia Drive.
While hotel construction is moving ahead, other aspects of developing the former airport are taking more time. The 59-acre site is master-planned for a development called The Landing, once planned as an upscale lifestyle center of large and small retailers, offices, a hotel and housing.
Those plans fell by the wayside as the economy faltered.
An LLC called B52 Point of Evergreen purchased the airport from its original developers, Opus Northwest, for $10.4 million in 2011. B52, affiliated with the developers of Chuck’s Produce and Street Market, has added access roads to the site, along with sidewalks and curbs. The company is also affiliated with Hawthorn Retirement Group, a family business that owns a string of more than 40 senior living facilities in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
