Two owners of Vancouver night clubs who find it difficult to survive in the midst of a “flood” of problems are looking for compensation in the form of relief from the provincial government’s rents, saying that their losses and ongoing damage are caused by policies that have transferred camps to the Granville entertainment district during the pandemic of Cavid-19.
Within 36 hours between Friday, April 18 and Saturday, April 19, Alan Goodall said that his bar was subject to four separate floods from the former Howard Johnson hotel at 1176 Granville Street.
The final deluge took place at 11:30 p.m. in the busiest night in the week’s club, forcing Goodall to mop up the ground in its VIP section during opening hours.
“These two tables are our best tables on a Saturday evening, prime hours, and they were unusable,” said Goodall, adding that most people do not understand that nightclubs have a very small window to earn all money for the month.
“If you remove two of these hours or three of these hours because of the floods, that affects you.”
The Goodall disco, AURA, is the tenant at the building floor level bought by British Columbia for $ 55 million in June 2020 to accommodate residents who had previously lived in camps in Strathcona and Oppenheimer Parks.
“I have been dealing with residents who have been flooding my business for five years now,” said Goodall, who believes that he has been treated with more than 200 floods since Howard Johnson housing has become accommodation.
The most recent flood occurred Friday afternoon around the rear bar, a few hours before it should have opened its doors for the night.
“We both have suffered damages from several figures,” the owner of Cabana Nightclub, Dave Kershaw, told Global News.
Faced with aura, Kershaw said that his bar is also flooded by the St. Helen hotel belonging to British Columbia at 1161 Granville Street.
Kershaw said his club had been struck with about a dozen water incidents since March, one of which was a fire that sparked sprinklers and flooded its VIP room and stairwell.
Some damage is latent, he said, while the water infiltrates the ground and is only discovered when the soil begins to lift weeks later.
Kershaw said he had to close his VIP section for six weeks to repair soaked soil.
In another chaotic incident, a bucket of human excrement came out of a window of Saint-Hélène and landed on the AC unit of Cabana, he said, forcing more repairs.
“Constant leak, open drug consumption, things thrown from Windows to the street on customers – who have never happened (until) 2020,” said Kershaw.
The statistics provided by Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) show that the old Howard Johnson hotel jumped 157%, from 91 in 2020 to 234 in 2024.
While calls to the St. Helen hotel fell slightly in 2022 and 2024, they still went from 40 to 2020 to 329 last year, a touch of 722.5%.
VFRS said it did not follow the floods, however, if the sprinklers were activated, they would be called to a call or a fire activated by the alarm.
He added that he worked with the British Columbia housing to reduce the number of fires and alarms in these two buildings.
Citing ongoing challenges, bars owners are looking for immediate relief from British Columbia rents for the rest of 2025.
“We think it would be right, then go ahead, a kind of reduction in our rent rates to reflect the environment that was created to move the people of the camps to Granville Street,” said Kershaw. “We ask them to do the right thing, what we ask is not unreasonable is not crazy.”
“In terms of compensation, I am not even really sure of what it is, but it is a lot,” added Goodall. “I managed a lot.”
When asked if he agreed, these companies should be compensated for loss and damage caused by provincial government policies, the British Columbia Minister of Housing did not respond directly.
“I know that this is a challenge for these companies, but we also make sure that the dollars are spent to repair them when there is a flood,” Ravi Kahlon told Global News in an interview.
“British Columbia works with our partners to enter and repair this flood. I know that these companies also have their own insurance to ensure that if they are affected by fire and floods, they are covered. ”
This response obtained a cool reception of club operators.
“With 200 floods, I cannot make 200 complaints,” replied Goodall. “There is no way anyone who assures me.”
When put forward if there is an awareness that this situation is different from a simple normal flood and is caused by political decisions rather than a defective water pump, Kahlon said that he did not agree.
“Well, not necessarily, you can have floods in any building, in fact, we see floods and fires in buildings unfortunately throughout the province, and it is not linked to a specific population,” said the Minister of Housing. “This is a specific challenge, we recognize that there has been a flood and British Columbia to take measures to repair this flood with the partnership of the company owner.”
Goodall acknowledged that British Columbia has intensified to solve some of the problems, including the repair of its dance floor ceiling, which he said that the catering teams had previously warned could collapse at any time.
The entire ceiling had to be snatched and completely replaced, he said, leaving 50 employees without notice without notice, because the club was closed and under a heavy construction for 16 days last month.
“It was probably a work of $ 200,000, and it was the result of a resident triggering his heads twice within three weeks,” said Goodall.
Since June 2020, British Columbia has spent a total of $ 2.59 million for repairs and buildings. $ 1.87 million in Luugat or former Howard Johnson and about $ 729,000 at the St. Helen’s hotel.
The work, said the housing of British Columbia, includes the damage caused by water and flood repairs, the restoration of fires, the repairs of the elevators and the securing of the safety characteristics of life such as alarms, security cameras or nozzle.
“We have worked closely with Atra, Community Impact Real Estate Society (CIRS) and the owners of the aura nightclub to resolve any damage to Luugat construction operations,” said British Columbia in a statement sent by email.
“Continue to spend a ton of money in catering, to put a dressing makes no sense,” said Kershaw. “They must solve the root of the problem, which are the people of these units who now need a higher level of care than what they get, that is to say that they take no care, they were put in a room.”
“These floods do not stop,” said Goodall. “I had three of my cave ceilings. When will the next ceiling engrave? “
Entrepreneurs are currently tearing up the ceiling above the Aura VIP bar, after Goodall said that the area had undergone strong floods on May 27 following the start of the watering heads in the above room.
An extended mold was discovered once the ceiling is damaged, he said.
Despite the ongoing setbacks, Goodall and Kershaw said that relocating is not an option because the movement of a nightclub and a primary alcohol license is a several figure company, without any income during the approval approval process, if you are approved.
Kershaw has been Cabana since 2010, while Goodall has been in his space for 16 years.
The two fought against adversity – notably surviving the pandemic of COVID -19 – and undertake to see rue Granville relaunched as an entertainment destination.
“It’s in my blood to do everything I can to fight for my business,” said Goodall. “It’s my baby and I’ve been here for a long time.”