The Globe and Mail

A Seattle development company has purchased the Crowne Plaza Hotel Georgia and a neighbouring parkade and will scrap plans for a landmark 50-storey tower that had been proposed for the downtown site. "That plan had some specific issues we didn't think we could live with," said Steven Schneider, asset manager with Seattle-based Goodman Real Estate Inc. "So we are redesigning the tower and it will look significantly different." Mr. Schneider said Goodman paid about $65-million to acquire the property, which includes the Hotel Georgia and an adjacent four-level parkade. The transaction closed last week, he said. The sites were previously owned by Vancouver-based Allied Hotel Properties Inc., which bought the properties in 1998 for an estimated $45-million. Allied spent more than $10-million renovating the hotel and intended to redevelop the parkade site. The company had put forward a plan for a 50-storey tower designed by award-winning Vancouver architect Bing Thom.