A well-known Chinatown restaurant has closed and the City of Vancouver said it terminated its lease.
Floata Seafood Restaurant, located at 180 Keefer St., has been a staple in the community for more than three decades and was a popular spot for hosting weddings and banquets.
“It’s really sad to see the doors shuttered behind me, I mean, Floata has been a community hub for decades,” UBC director of alumni engagement Fred Lee told Global News Weds.
Lee, a community leader, has hosted countless events and fundraisers at Floata since it opened in 1995 as the anchor tenant in the city-owned Chinatown Plaza.
He said he learned the news when he tried to book Floata for the upcoming Lunar New Year.
“It was really sad to hear because you just presume that this space is always going to be open – so it is a loss for now,” said Lee, who is hopeful a new operator will move in to keep the venue afloat.
“That space provides an incredibly important role in our city, and particularly in Chinatown,” Sarah Kirby-Yung, Deputy Mayor of Vancouver and city councillor told Global News.
“It’s been host to innumerable cultural occasions, weddings, banquets; it’s a community gathering space.”
However, she said that while the city will always make its best efforts to work with existing partners, they may not, over time, have the ability to continue to meet certain obligations.
“I’ll just say, generally speaking, over time, there is a need to upgrade and renovate spaces, but it’s also about the viability and desire of a restaurant partner to carry on after 30 years,” Kirby-Yung added.
“That’s a long time.”
She would not disclose specifics about the lease or what the city was asking the restaurant to improve.
In a statement Sunday, the City of Vancouver told Global News Floata’s lease expired on Sept. 30 and had been extended on an overhold basis.
“Floata Seafood Restaurant has long been a part of Vancouver’s Chinatown and recognition of this is why the City of Vancouver has made sustained efforts over the years to support its continued presence at Chinatown Plaza,” the city said on Oct. 26.
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Two days later, the city said it had terminated Floata’s lease and was considering legal action to recover “outstanding arrears”.
According to the city, the restaurant required substantial capital investment, including kitchen upgrades, leasehold improvements and furnishings, and it had sought clarity on each party’s responsibilities should a new lease be pursued.
“Despite ongoing engagement, the City did not receive a clear plan from Floata regarding its future operations,” stated the city in an Oct. 28 email. “In addition, the restaurant has accrued significant rent arrears, including unpaid amounts related to COVID-era rental support.”
Global News was unable to reach Floata management for comment on Wednesday.
“This is quite a profound loss of effectively, a culinary community centre for the Chinatown community,” said SFU City Program director Andy Yan.
As a large venue, Floata had struggled since COVID and more recently, had been cited for health violations.
According to Vancouver Coastal Health, the restaurant was closed from June 17 to July 11 due to unsanitary conditions, improper dishwashing and glasswashing, and a pest infestation.
“This is really Floata succumbing to those effects and the inflexibility of the city to deal with, really, what happened with Floata during the pandemic,” said Yan in an interview.
Floata’s demise highlights ongoing concerns over the city’s underutilized and mostly empty mall in the heart of Chinatown, where Yan said some units have been vacant for 15 years or more.
“It’s going to need a level of innovation, a level of partnership, a level of creativity for any tenancy in the entire building,” Yan told Global News Weds.
Kirby-Yung said this is an opportunity to revitalize the space and continue to support large-scale community events.
“I think, noteworthy to say that it’s the largest Asian venue, sort of restaurant-style facility that’s operating, I think, in Western Canada,” she added.
“There’s a huge need for it. The only other … space in the city that can accommodate crowds that large … would be going to hotel ballrooms.”
Kirby-Yung said the city hopes for a good outcome and another operator in that space that can continue to serve those needs for the community.
Jordan Eng, president of the Vancouver Chinatown BIA, said the news of the closure came as a shock.
“It may have been coming; there have been some rumblings in the background, but when it actually does happen, you know, this is a place where the community had gathered, banquets for 30-some-odd years,” he told Global News.
Eng said he hopes the city will find another operator, pointing out it is the largest Chinese restaurant in the city and the only one capable of holding 1,000 people.
Kirby-Yung doesn’t disagree.
“The city’s put a lot of effort into revitalizing Chinatown altogether,” she said.
“We’ve done a lot as a council in terms of supporting legacy businesses, investing in public safety, supporting cultural events. And you can see that energy coming back to Chinatown. A lot of the businesses are thriving.”
She said she is excited to see what is going to come next.
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