A Vancouver SRO Is Insolvent. It’s Not the Only One

A single-room occupancy hotel in downtown Vancouver that provides homes to low-income people has been placed under receivership, according to court documents.

The Avalon Hotel’s financial problems resulted in heat being cut off on Oct. 1, 2025, and the building’s previous owner has expressed concern about the safety of the “low-income and elderly” residents “during the winter months,” court documents say.

Court filings also allege this is not the only SRO owned by the same owner, Christopher Wall, to face insolvency. Those filings have not been proven in court.

The Tyee attempted multiple times to contact Wall for comment for this story but did not receive a response.

Tenant support for the Avalon Hotel is provided by Lookout Housing and Health Society, which did not respond to inquiries from The Tyee. The Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative, a non-profit that supports tenants of privately owned SROs, has also not responded.

At a meeting on March 31, Vancouver council approved a $500,000 grant to the SRO Collaborative towards “cooling and warming retrofits in six privately owned SRO buildings,” but the six buildings were not identified.

When an SRO becomes insolvent

When a property owner becomes insolvent and the property is placed under receivership, there is usually little to no impact on the tenants of the building because utilities are paid by the tenants themselves.

That is not the case with single-room occupancy buildings, however, where rents typically include basic utilities like heat, electricity and water, due to the communal nature of the buildings.

This means that if the owner of an SRO becomes insolvent and is unable to pay their bills, already-vulnerable tenants could be affected. This appears to be the case with the six-storey Avalon Hotel at 165 W. Pender St., which was placed under receivership on March 9.

According to a court petition filed Feb. 10, 2026, by Mina Angelicola, the Avalon Hotel was owned and operated by the Angelicola family starting in the 1970s. After being listed for sale, the property was acquired in November 2019 by H.E. Rooms Inc. for $8.7 million. H.E. Rooms assigned the hotel to Fort Pelly Holdings Ltd., which now holds the property under 1235922 BC Ltd.

The acquisition financing

The sale saw the Angelicola family provide acquisition financing to the purchaser, the petition says. The petition states the loan was for the principal amount of $8,375,000, with interest accruing at three per cent per year and interest-only payments required monthly until Feb. 5, 2025.

That day came and passed, the loan matured, and the full amount became due. The borrowers could not repay the loan, but the two sides reached a forbearance agreement in August that would delay enforcement so long as the debtor continued to meet several conditions, the petition said.

However, according to court filings, the debtor defaulted on the forbearance agreement soon afterwards. That included failing to pay property taxes, refusing to provide business records and failing to lease out the vacant commercial space by Jan. 1, 2026.

“The Petitioner[s] have worked with the Debtors with an alternative financing arrangement to address their financial challenges, but the efforts to date have been insufficient to ensure those operating assets, primarily being the monthly rental income, are being safeguarded and managed appropriately,” the Angelicola family said in their receivership application.

As of Jan. 12, 2026, the Angelicola family is owed $8.6 million, with interest continuing to accrue, and the B.C. Supreme Court granted the receivership application on March 9.

The tenants

According to the petition, the provincial government — BC Housing — pays income and disability assistance on or around the third Wednesday of each month for low-income tenants. However, the payments are made directly to the building owner, who would then use a portion towards the monthly interest payments to the Angelicola family. The family says they stopped receiving payments in January.

The Angelicolas say that the Avalon Hotel, home to 88 low-income tenants, generates approximately $50,000 in revenue per month, that there are unpaid vendors owed upwards of $80,000 and that “collection agencies are calling the Avalon Hotel on a daily basis.”

In addition to those amounts owed, the court filings say the owners are also behind on unpaid heating bills payable to Creative Energy, the district energy company owned by local developer Westbank. According to the Angelicolas, the owners have not paid bills for the past five years and owe more than $200,000 to Creative Energy, which ultimately disconnected heat to the Avalon Hotel on Oct. 1, 2025, according to the receivership application documents.

A wave of insolvencies

Although not listed as respondents in the receivership proceeding, the Angelicolas state in their application that the principal of the ownership entities is Christopher Wall. The application alludes to other foreclosure proceedings commenced against properties owned by Wall, all of which were initiated in 2025 and list Wall as a respondent.

Those properties include the West Hotel at 488 Carrall St. and the Hotel Empress at 235 E. Hastings. A petition filed by Basha Sales Co. Ltd., Leibel Sales Co. Ltd. and Newport Sales Co. Ltd. said they were owed $4,423,843; another by Peoples Trust Co. said they were owed $6,351,486 in relation to the West Hotel.

The foreclosures against the West and the Empress were discontinued on Feb. 18, 2026, according to court records, with no reason provided. The Land Owner Transparency Registry suggests that both the West Hotel and the Hotel Empress went through an ownership change recently, however, although the purchaser is unclear.

Basha Sales Co. Ltd., Leibel Sales Co. Ltd. and Newport Sales Co. Ltd. also initiated foreclosure against the United Rooms at 139 E. Cordova St. The Land Owner Transparency Registry suggests that the United Rooms building was also sold recently, but the purchaser again remains unclear.

Also owned by Wall and the subject of foreclosure is the Penrhyn Lodge at 1696 W. 11th Ave. in the South Granville area. A foreclosure was initiated in October by Lux Furniture Ltd., Nova Furniture Ltd. and Yankel Investments Ltd., who said they were owed $4,847,549. The property is currently on the market.

What happens next

A 2022 City of Vancouver document identified Wall as the owner of the Keefer Rooms at 222 Keefer St., the York Rooms at 259 Powell St., the Arlington Rooms at 575 E. Pender St. and the Laurel Rooms at 610 Alexander St.

The Keefer Rooms were destroyed by a fire in 2022, with the property then sold to the province in 2023 for $8.2 million. BC Housing is now working with the Community Land Trust to rebuild the Keefer Rooms. The provincial housing agency recently submitted a development application for a four-storey building with 41 rooms.

Foreclosures do not appear to have been initiated against the York Rooms, the Arlington Rooms or the Laurel Rooms, according to searches of court proceedings.

As for the Avalon, the Angelicolas said Wall had listed the property for sale last year for $12.9 million before reducing the asking price to $10.7 million. They said they obtained an appraisal in December that valued the property at $8,530,000 and that BC Assessment values the property at $8,574,000.

It’s notable that the proceeding against the Avalon is a receivership rather than a foreclosure like the others. Both are legal proceedings to handle insolvencies and both follow a similar path, but there are some key differences that in this case are a benefit to the tenants.

“The appointment of a receiver promotes certainty and judicial economy with respect to the rights of tenants,” the Angelicolas said in their application.

“In three of the five related foreclosure proceedings that have been commenced by mortgagees in respect of similar properties controlled by Mr. Wall, tenants in those SRO properties have filed Petition responses stating that their tenants' rights under the Residential Tenancy Act, SBC 2002, c 78 have been impacted under those foreclosures.”

“The Avalon Hotel operates as an SRO, a highly regulated sector that involves working with the provincial government [which] are subject to City of Vancouver bylaws. A court-appointed receiver can navigate that process and ensure that the business remains operational.... In the event there are any issues related to the SRO, the appointment of a receiver ensures that an appropriate individual with appropriate authority, who is accountable to the Court, is in a position to address anything arising in a timely manner.”