Firstly, that affordable housing conversion visually seems like a building that was already aged and well past its prime to serve as a hotel. Although the pictures of the interior don’t seem too bad, personally, as a traveller, I’m looking for a hotel with up to date amenities and furnishing. Plus the fact I just found out there was a hotel in that location shows there were likely other issues, maybe from a business side of things? such as management, marketing, pricing, etc.
.
Secondly, 17th ave is arguably Calgary’s 2nd most prominent mainstream. The streets you have listed in Vancouver are not even in the top 3 most prominent mainstreets let alone have any sizeable tourist attractions relative to streets like Granville, Robsons, Davie, etc. Kits beach itself is a 10-15 min walk away from Broadway.
From my personal experiences of travelling, having a hotel option within close proximity to one of the biggest main streets is hardly ever a miss. If it is, then one needs to look into the business side of things like hotel management, branding, competition, pricing, etc.
Obviously a hotel isn’t a “must” to have along 17th ave but if we’re continuously looking to grow the vibrancy of the street and reaping the benefits from a business potential, then some developer will likely consider proposing one.