The purchase price is less than the asking price but more than double its assessed value of $343,000. The sellers are R.K. and Geetaban Patel. Attorneys for the City last year won a court battle that declared the Monterey Hotel a blight to urban renewal plans and brought the Patels to the negotiating table.

One likely joint venture partner is Killian Pacific, which owns a vacant building that shares common walls with the Monterey as well as the nearby West Coast Bank building. Lance Killian confirmed for GlobeSt.com his company's interest in the site. "We'd like to jointly develop the property (with the city) if that is possible," he says.

The Vancouver Downtown Redevelopment Authority will decide how the site should be offered to private developers. The City's Steve Burdick tells GlobeSt.com he will meet with the redevelopment authority to talk strategy on March 14. "My guess is that we unless we decide to go for workforce housing we will probably let the site sit (undeveloped) until some of the supply being constructed downtown is absorbed," says Burdick.