Barry Hong loves art, culture, fine cuisine, and history. He is also a sports car enthusiast. His recent acquisition, a 1986 Audi 5000 CD Quattro that was owned and driven for the last 20 years by Canada’s famed architect, Bing Thom. Hong says, “ It’s like being able to buy IM Pei’s car, and what are the chances of that? Besides, the engine still has a lot of torque and all the money went to a good cause.” The undisclosed sum was entirely donated to the Arthur Erickson Foundation to help Vancouver’s children in need.

Hong, 47, is also the Vancouver based real estate developer who developed and built the award winning, boutique hotel Sheraton Suites Le Soleil, located in Vancouver’s downtown core business district. Canada’s Globe and Mail hailed the Hotel as “Where the chichi meets the chic” and remarked, “the all-suite Le Soleil drips with over-the-top nods to such exuberant world landmarks as New York’s Park Plaza, Paris’s Hotel Meurice and London’s Ritz. That’s just to start. In 2001,Conde Nast also voted the Hotel as one of the top 50 best hotels in North America, edging out Dallas’s Mansion on Turtle Creek, Metropolitan Hotel, Vancouver, and The Ritz Carlton Marina Del-Ray. In 2004, the same influential travel magazine voted the Hotel one of the best places to stay in the world.

Other Kudos and awards are JD Powers & Associates ranking Le Soleil as the Number One Hotel in the entire Sheraton chain for highest guest service levels from 1999 to 2002 when Hong was running the Hotel. And just of late in 2004, VH1 aired the Fabulous Life of Christina Aguillara, who states in the 30-minute documentary video that Le Soleil is her favourite hotel of choice when she comes to Vancouver. Notable guests to the property have been The Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson, and Joan Chen, Actress & Director, who graced the hotel on its opening night. Other Rock Stars and celebrities have also bedded down in the plush décor of Le Soleil such as Moby, Eminem, and starlet Selma Hyack.

What does this all this translate to? Says Hong, “Well, to borrow a quote from the late Bill Kimptom, the Father of boutique hotels in America, “ It’s all psychology.” Hong further adds, “It’s really a feeling that the guests perceive of the hotel once they step into the lobby. Either you have it or you don’t.” Hong also partnered with Bob Puccini of San Francisco to create the hotel’s design restaurant. Mia Stainsby of the Vancouver Sun named Oritalia, Best New Restaurant of the Year in 1999. While Conde Nast voted Oritalia on it’s Hot List issue as Top 60 Most Exciting and Best Restaurants in the World in 2000. “To develop a great hotel you have to have successful partners and good people around you. With Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Puccini as your partners, you’re in good company” quips Hong.

Actually, Hong’s first hotel property he developed on his own was the 69-room contemporary waterfront Meridian at 910 Beach Apartment Hotel located directly across world famous Granville Island. InStyle magazine named the Meridian as part of its trip of the month club on its January 2001 issue, naming Meridian as one of the hottest places to stay in Vancouver.

Hong is a native son of Vancouver, BC. He learned the value of hard work and entrepreneurship from his working class parents who immigrated to Canada from China in the early 50’s. “My parents came to this great country with only a dream and vision of a better life. Like many immigrant Chinese Canadian families, my parents worked in many labour jobs saving every penny and then investing in a small business when the opportunity arose. The opportunity came when they opened a grocery store on West Broadway and a Chinese Restaurant in Mission, BC where I learned the business, starting out as a dishwasher and potato peeler.”

In his late teens, Hong took up photography and contributed as a volunteer in the Chinese community to build the Chinese Cultural Centre which eventually led him to be picked as one of 208 Young Canadian Achievers by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to meet and have dinner with Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa during the signing and the repatriation ceremony of the Constitution back to Canada in 1982.

From 1985 to 1990, Hong worked in Hong Kong with Dunning and Associates and FGI, two high-level investment firms. As FGI’s Vice-President of Acquisitions, Hong developed and syndicated the 208-room Westin Resort Hotel and 18 Hole Championship Golf Course in Macau. He also assisted in the acquisition of the Westin Tai Ping Yang Hotel in Shanghai. Hong’s biggest deal was when he brokered the US$250 Million acquisition of the Viers Jahreszeiten Hotel in Hamburg to Aoki Corporation, one of the world’s most exclusive hotels.

At Dunning, Hong traveled extensively throughout China seeking investment and development opportunities on behalf of various international companies adding a wealth of business experience to his creative repertoire bridging east and west. Who is Barry Hong and what’s his secret? “I am really just an artist at heart and there is no secret. It starts with a vision, a decision, and commitment to see it all the way through to the end.”