In 1903, the Woodward’s building was established in the downtown eastside, on the corner of Hastings and Abbot.   In its first few years, Woodward’s became known as a major attraction in downtown Vancouver and was noted for its variety of shops and services where customers could shop, book vacations, cash cheques and buy gourmet food.  The popularity of Woodward’s later drew in other business to West Hastings and the area flourished.  In 1980, Woodward’s begun to struggle financially and lost business.  In 1993, the company went bankrupt and the building remained vacant until 2003, when the space was purchased by the City of Vancouver for nearly $5 million. In September 2004, Westbank Projects/Peterson Investment Group was chosen to redevelop Woodward’s.  The new building will contain 500 market and at least 100 non market housing units, shops, services, public green space, a daycare and a post secondary facility.  The City of Vancouver hopes that the new Woodward’s will help in the revitalization of the downtown eastside.  Because of this, our project will be on assessing the effects of Woodward’s on the downtown east side in terms of urban revitalization.

Old Woodwards heritage building:                                                                                  

(Image © 2006, Images West Marketing)

New Development Plans:

(Image © 2006, Les Twarog & Sonja Pedersen)