A new 22-storey mass timber pod hotel could rise opposite Vancouver’s Law Courts, with local developer 1517856 B.C. Ltd. and Unison Architecture Ltd. filing a rezoning application for the 408-unit project at 948 Howe Street. That is according to the rezoning submission lodged with the City of Vancouver, which describes the proposal as a “high density lodging concept” combining “nano pods” and “nano rooms” on a 7.6-metre by 36.6-metre downtown site.
The development team is targeting budget-conscious urban travellers — specifically the 18- to 34-year-old demographic — who favour central location, digital connectivity and social experiences over conventional room size, although the submission stops short of disclosing potential room rates. Concrete, steel and mass timber make up the structural mix across the narrow Howe Street lot, with Unison Architecture targeting a late 2028 or early 2029 opening window.
Each nano pod provides a private sleeping capsule of roughly 3 square metres, fitted with a standard door, integrated lighting and ventilation, a secure lock, a reclining bed, and under-bed luggage storage. Pod guests share washroom and shower facilities on each floor, whilst the fully enclosed nano rooms stretch to roughly 10 square metres of climate-controlled space, with sound isolation, secure storage and digital amenities.
A sky reception area offering elevated city views sits alongside a sky bar open to the public, and guests will enter from Howe Street to complete app-based self-check-in and check-out. The design omits guest parking entirely, instead leaning on the Granville Entertainment District’s existing transit connections.
Royce Chwin, president and chief executive officer of Destination Vancouver, has written a letter of support for the application and urged faster approvals for additional pod hotels in the downtown core. “It aligns with broader goals to add new hotel capacity,” Chwin wrote, with the submission describing the development team’s intent as transforming an underutilised orphaned site through the nano-pod and nano-room format.
The application follows a May 2024 Vancouver City Council motion, moved by councillors Sarah Kirby-Yung and Lisa Dominato, encouraging the development of pod hotels as a response to the city’s hotel shortage. Council subsequently adopted a hotel policy in 2025 targeting approximately 10,000 new hotel rooms in Vancouver by 2050, with the broader goal of supporting the city’s tourism economy alongside its film, technology and life sciences sectors.
Whistler and Richmond already operate pod hotel concepts in British Columbia, drawing on a typology that has grown rapidly across Asia, Europe and parts of the United States. Destination Vancouver estimated in 2022 that the city needs an additional 10,000 hotel rooms between 2023 and 2050, and the development team argues the nano-pod and nano-room format addresses that gap on otherwise underutilised sites.
The public period on the 948 Howe Street rezoning application closes Tuesday, 19 May. A late 2028 or early 2029 opening hinges on Council approval of the 22-storey hybrid concrete, steel and mass timber pod tower.
