A multimillion-dollar restoration will soon begin for 13 rundown hotels in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The B.C. government announced Habitat Housing Initiative has been selected to renovate the single-room-occupancy buildings.

The hotels are more than 100 years old and need structural, plumbing and electrical updates.

The buildings were bought by the B.C. government over the past five years and are home to some of the province’s poorest residents.

Other accommodations will be supplied for people who need to move out during the reconstruction, and the government says they will all have the right to return to their own units when the work is finished.

The provincial government is contributing more than $87 million for the projects, plus more funding for a 15-year maintenance period, while the federal government will contribute $29 million for the work.

Plans to demolish the Varsity Ridge Bowling lanes and the Ridge Theatre to build a new four-story condominium development were approved by the City of Vancouver’s development permit board on Monday night.

Community members had rallied to save the bowling lanes near the corner of 16th Avenue and Arbutus Street in recent weeks, saying they were a valuable community facility. About 700 people use the lanes as league bowlers they say.

But Brian Jackson, the general manager of planning and development, said the board does not have the authority to order Cressey Developments to include a bowling alley in its development.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/23/bc-varsity-lanes-vancouver.html