OneCity Announces it's Plan to Revitalize Chinatown Plaza

VANCOUVER (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ Territories) – During today’s Mid-Autumn Festival, OneCity and City Council Candidate Iona Bonamis 陶思穎 announced Revitalize Chinatown Plaza: the party’s commitment to breathe new life into the City-owned plaza at the heart of Vancouver's Chinatown National Historic Site. OneCity’s plan combines meaningful cultural programming and baseline dignity and safety for neighbours with new opportunities for the storefronts that have sat empty for the past decade.

“Chinatown Plaza should be one of the busiest, most loved places in the neighbourhood,” said OneCity Candidate Iona Bonamis 陶思穎. “The City owns it, it sits in the heart of a National Historic Site, and right now most of its shops are dark. Chinatown's residents, elders, artists, and small businesses deserve a plaza that's full of life again.”

When the Chinatown Plaza opened, it was a City-owned hub with a retail concourse, street-front shops, offices, a large banquet restaurant, and a seven-storey parkade. Recent years have seen the space lie mostly vacant, and as of May 2025, 15 of the Plaza’s 22 ground-floor retail units were unleased. Community members and business leaders know this is a problem, and the City has failed to come to the table with real actions to support the neighbourhood. 

“ABC has asked private landlords to fill their empty storefronts, but hasn't held City Hall to the same standard,” said Bonamis 陶思穎. “If we want every storefront in Chinatown to thrive, the City should lead by example, starting with the building it already owns. OneCity is the only team with a plan to do it, with deadlines and public numbers attached.”

OneCity’s Revitalize Chinatown Plaza Plan will:

• Give the City's existing Chinatown Advisory Committee a funded and measurable mandate to lead the Plaza's renewal, reactivating the space with a year round plan;

• Bring the Plaza back to life with meaningful cultural programming shaped by Chinatown residents, cultural organizations, and small businesses;

• Guarantee baseline dignity and safety for neighbours who live in, work in, and visit the neighbourhood, by re-scoping the Uplifting Chinatown Action Plan to include cleaning, sanitation, accessible washrooms, and other accessibility requirements in the Plaza’s interior;

• Create a direct link between the Plaza's empty storefronts and Council’s storefront activation pilot, alongside the City's broader commercial vacancy work; 

• Publish a public annual report with real numbers on occupancy, programming, and outcomes, so Chinatown residents and small businesses can hold City Hall accountable; and

• Connect the Chinatown Plaza investment to the City’s broader neighbourhood plans and economic revitalization strategy, so that supporting and activating the Plaza reinforces, rather than duplicating work already underway.

OneCity will empower the existing Chinatown Advisory Committee with clear deadlines, dedicated funding, and measurable targets, so the people closest to the neighbourhood lead the work. Chinatown residents have spent years sharing ideas for the Plaza, including through a recent reimagining process led by local businesses that drew input from more than 150 voices. OneCity's plan will turn that input into a real mandate with dollars behind it. 

"Anyone who's worked in planning knows a space doesn't come back to life on good intentions alone," said Bonamis 陶思穎. "It needs someone responsible, a budget, a deadline, and a way for the public to check the results. That's what this plan delivers. And it has to work for the people who already call Chinatown home: seniors, families, workers, and the small businesses that have held on through a very tough decade."

OneCity refuses to sit by and watch a publicly-owned building in the heart of Chinatown be left to fail. Every failed storefront means lost revenue for the City, fewer people visiting Chinatown, and a lost chance to celebrate Chinatown’s living culture. We know the people best suited to give the Plaza a new lease on life are the folks already in the community doing the work. Filling these storefronts and doing what we know works is one of the most direct things that City Hall can do for Chinatown’s economic and cultural future. 

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