Demolition recommended for derelict downtown Vancouver hotel [Video]

The City of Vancouver’s chief building official has deemed a 176-room hotel in the heart of the city’s downtown too derelict and poorly maintained to remain standing.

Saul Schwebs details his concerns in a 32-page report that goes before city council on Wednesday.

“We went in and took a look on Halloween day,” Schwebs told CTV News. “It’s actually the best haunted house in Vancouver.”

Originally opened as the Hotel Dunsmuir in 1908, the building at the corner of Dunsmuir and Richards streets has also been home to the Salvation Army.

It was most recently an SRO but it has sat empty since 2013.

Interior photos contained in the city’s report show holes in the top floor ceiling where water has apparently been pouring in unabated for years, causing the floors to rot.

Parts of the main floor have actually collapsed into the basement.

Schwebs says the design of the building requires the floors to remain intact because they provide support for the exterior walls – …