A heritage mansion in Vancouver’s West End has been sold for $6.72 million and will be converted into rental housing. Considered one of the neighbourhood’s ‘last great mansions,’ for decades it had served as a restaurant, but new owner Nevin Sangha plans to convert the 17,327 square foot house into multiple apartment units.
Called Gabriola House, the sprawling home was built in 1901 by B.T. Rogers, the founder of the B.C. Sugar Refinery. After Rogers died in 1918, the house was converted to the Angus Apartments—then in 1978 it became a high-end restaurant called Hy’s Mansion before becoming the Macaroni Grill in 1994.
In 2014, the property went up for sale for $10 million, and new owner Sangha spent seven months trying to purchase the building out from The Keg restaurant chain, which had leased the space. At the time of purchase, the inside had been partly gutted in preparation for the new Keg restaurant.
“It needs a little bit of TLC on the inside,” Sangha told The Vancouver Sun. “The good news is the nicest parts of the inside of the house have not been touched — the iconic staircase, the fireplace, some of the flooring. What we want to do is celebrate a lot of that detail. So in our new rental complex, we’re going to retrofit the residential units inside.”
According to published reports, Sangha—who also owns a high rise in Vancouver and specializes in older buildings—recently got approval to build infill rental buildings at three separate sites, including Gabriola House, in the city’s West End.
