The owners of the Waldorf Hotel say they are being courted by production companies that want to use space in the East Hastings hotel once the current operators move out on Sunday.
Gavin Crickmore, a lawyer for Marko Puharich and Waldorf Hotel Ltd., said the owners have already offered jobs to a number of staff who were laid off from Waldorf Productions, the financially troubled group that has been using the hotel since 2010.
Puharich will take a week or more to reassess the hotel’s business operations after the current operators leave, Crickmore said. There are plans to reduce the size of the restaurant area now occupied by the Nuba Cafe, to concentrate music on the main floor and reopen some of the rooms upstairs, he said.
“Mr. Puharich ran this hotel very effectively for 40 years and the difference between the Waldorf Hotel of last week and the Waldorf Hotel of next week is that Waldorf Hotel of next week is financially solvent,” Crickmore said.
“The space formerly occupied by the Nuba Café is being downsized and the new restaurant operation will be smaller in scope.
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The other main floor facility, the Tiki Lounge will be operated without loud music so the rooms upstairs can be rented. The music operations will continue in the basement bar areas,” he said in a subsequent email.
On Thursday night Waldorf Productions said it had given up hope of staying any longer after they failed to renegotiate their voluntary vacancy from the premises as of Sunday. On Tuesday the City of Vancouver placed a 120-day protection order on the property in order to assess the heritage value of the hotel building with its Polynesian-themed decor.
The city took the action after the operators created a storm of controversy, announcing they believed the hotel was in danger of demolition by Solterra Group, a condo development company that bought the property and will take possession in October. The operators said Solterra had refused to meet with them, and as a result they were quitting the hotel as of Jan. 20.
“There is no resolution possible here and it’s a sad day for us. But we’re filled with gratitude for the support from our incredible staff and the community,” Ernesto Gomez, one of Waldorf Productions’ owners said in a statement late Thursday.
Gomez said his group will proceed with a final night of programming Saturday before moving all of their assets out of the hotel on Sunday.
The new owners, Solterra Group, have never indicated they intended to tear down the postwar hotel and the president, Gerry Nichele, has since issued a statement saying that “at this time” the company intends to keep the building
Crickmore said most of the hotel’s operations will remain but Puharich will change things up.
“A number of production companies have already approached the hotel about using those rooms either on an ongoing basis or one-off events,” he said. “It will be slightly different types of functions. The arts groups will still be welcome to come but what (the operators) ran was the Tiki Lounge, which will be run differently because it didn’t work with the loud music.
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