The waters in front of the Vancouver Maritime Museum may soon look a bit different.

On Tuesday night, Vancouver City Council green-lit a rezoning proposal to bring a floating spa to the Kitsilano neighborhood. HAVN Sauna would offer hot-cold therapy for Vancouverites, all on a 150-foot-long World War 2 naval vessel.

HAVN already operates out of Victoria and accommodates between 200 and 300 people for about $100 each.

“[The spa will have] hot pools, cold pools, areas to relax,” said HAVEN cofounder and CEO Nick Van Buren.

“We’ve got a little bit of an aromatherapy experience. We don’t do any treatments; we just do the self-guided hydrotherapy experience that will be about two to three hours for people.”

David Jordan with the Maritime Museum says he hopes the barge will act as a destination for locals and tourists to drive more foot traffic to the area, allowing the museum to “bring more programs to the community, more exhibits, and be able to go deeper with everything that we do.”

Jordan says once this barge is open for business, it will have a substantial impact on the museum’s finances.

“We expect that this is going to be a real boost, not only for the Maritime museum, but for the other institutions that we have in Vanier Park,” he said.

While council unanimously approved the rezoning, the proposal wasn’t without controversy. One resident even launched a petition that collected more than 2,500 signatures opposing the project.

Some residents argue the converted naval barge would be out of place in the marina and could affect the character and views of Vanier Park.

“A vessel of this size is simply not a good fit for the marina,” one local said.

But Jordan disagrees.

“I think sometimes the opposition voices get quite loud, but what we heard and the responses that we saw in writing and in person were overwhelmingly positive.”

If everything stays afloat, the barge spa should be operational sometime in 2027.