The luxury Four Seasons hotel in downtown Vancouver will be closing for good on Jan. 31, 2020.
In a statement, Four Seasons management said the hotel chain and its Vancouver landlord, Cadillac Fairview Corp., will not be renewing the current lease, which is due to expire in 2020.
“Until Four Seasons ceases management, it is business as usual and employees will continue to provide the same legendary service guests have come to expect from Four Seasons,” Four Seasons spokeswoman Kate Colley said in a statement.
The Georgia Street hotel’s staff were informed of the impending closure Wednesday morning.
The 306-room Four Seasons hotel, which was built in 1976 and connected to the CF Pacific Centre mall, has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Cadillac Fairview Corp. since last October.
In an October 2017 civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Cadillac Fairview claimed that Four Seasons had breached its obligations under its lease by failing to furnish and equip the hotel in accordance with the standard of a typical first-class luxury hotel.
In its claim, Cadillac Fairview argued that the Four Seasons was below the standard of other luxury hotels in downtown Vancouver, including the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, Shangri-La Hotel, Fairmont Pacific Rim and Fairmont Waterfront.
“Among other things, certain public areas in the hotel had been neglected and had not been updated for over 40 years and the hotel’s guest rooms had been furnished and equipped with low-quality products and furnishing,” Cadillac Fairview said in the claim.
In its response, Four Seasons Hotel Ltd. denied every allegation in the civil claim and said it had met its lease obligations, citing the Vancouver hotel’s recent five-star rating in the annual Forbes Travel Guide as proof.
“If [Cadillac Fairview] wishes to engage in a major capital improvement or other project in respect of the hotel premises at the end of the current lease for the benefit of themselves or others, Four Season Hotels bears no legal or other responsibility to finance such an endeavour,” Four Seasons said in its response.
“Simply put, this claim is an attempt by [Cadillac Fairview] to reformulate the terms of the lease to seek to obtain a multimillion-dollar capital improvement to which they are not entitled.”
