Vancouver Chinatown Foundation offer to buy May Wah Hotel rejected

Chinatown's historic May Wah Hotel is back on the market after an offer from the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation was rejected.

In July, the foundation offered to purchase the building for $11.5 million and was able to secure a loan from the provincial government to support the purchase.

The Shon Yee Benevolent Association is the current owner of the hotel on East Pender Street, which has businesses on the ground level and approximately 120 SRO units upstairs.

Low income tenants

When it was announced the association put the building up for sale there were concerns low-income tenants — the majority of them women in their senior years — would be displaced.​

But the foundation that offered to purchase the hotel - in its offer - committed to preserving housing for the people who currently live there as well as preserving the building itself.

"We ... believed that it was important to preserve this important heritage building from demolition and maintain both the local businesses on the ground level and the housing for the many low income seniors," said Carol Lee, the foundation's chair in an email to CBC News.

'Significant structural upgrades'

The foundation said, however, revised assessments of the building found it needs "significant structural upgrades" worth between $5 million and $15 million dollars.

"As with many hundred year old buildings without periodic structural upkeep, a lot of renovation is needed," wrote Lee in her email.

As a result the foundation reduced its offer to $8 million and wanted a 60 per cent ownership stake.

'Reasonable offer'

"The Shon Yee Association would retain 40 per cent ownership and maintain their legacy in Chinatown and collectively we would be doing our parts to help the community as much as we can," wrote Lee.

"The sum of $8 million was considered by many industry experts as a very reasonable estimate of the commercial market value for the property."

She added executives with the Shon Yee Association recommended their membership accept the deal, but they did not.

The association has not yet commented on the collapsed deal.

The Vancouver Chinatown Association said the building is for sale once again with a price tag of $12 million.